So who used to be anti-gun?

[Focke-Wolf]

I admit I was, but it was purely due to naive ignorance and propaganda from media. 'Police protects people' My father was/is a fond clay-pigeon shooter though, but he strongly disagreed with anything else.

To be fair, I was more of 'I'm scared of guns in public and prefer to see them off the street, but don't really care'


But I began shooting clay pigeons etc. from age of 12, then began shooting rifles soon after and progressed to handguns etc.

I never understood the fierce support for gun rights til I was 16, but was due to anti-gun propaganda.



Now, of course, My mind is sane and RKBA should remain forever

 

[romma]

I wouldn't say I was anti-gun, just had a serious lack of trust after being shot in the shoulder and neck by my older brother when I was 14...

 

[fjolnirsson]

I was extremely anti-gun, to the point that I believed only the military should have guns. Police don't need guns, that's what I thought.

Now, I'm a bit to the right of Ted Nugent on the subject of guns. Nobody so zealous as a convert...

 

[dewage83]

never was i ANTI so to speak but i did think strangely about a person who felt the need to carry or own an extensive collection of firearms totaling more than i have EVER earned.......but then was infected, i started not eating to buy bullets. j/k

 

[jlbraun]

See my sig.

 

[axeman_g]

Not an anti, but definetly not a believer in black rifles for the masses and hi cap mags.

But, in a conversation with a professor of mine while I was attending UGA, the subject of hunting came up. I expressed my love of bird hunting, that I was not a deer hunter and did not feel that gun ownership really needed to go beyond those areas of hunting.

In about 10 minutes he had convinced me that
a) the 2a is not about hunting
b) that any limitations on a citizens rights as defined by the constituition was unconstitutional by utilizing an argument against free speech as an example.
c) the 2a is dictating that the citizen militia is there to protect itself against tyranny, therefore should be armed like the federal armed forces.
d) And that criminals could give a rats ass about what is written on paper by discussing a paper that detailed the chain of petty or fraudulent crimes 80% of criminals involved themselves in before, after and during violent criminal activities, such as impostor, vehicle tag swapping, id theft, credit card theft etc etc etc.

Personally my favorite argument was the militia alikeness case. I always wanted an Ohio class subamarine.

It was there that I decided what the 2nd was about in my mind and to defend the entirety of it. I also stopped smoking weed and following The Dead on summer tours. My liberalism has been matured out of me.

Now I would carry if I could in NJ, did in Ga, am secure in my knowledge that I can and will protect my family and that liberal fascism is going to strangle the greatness of this country if not halted.

 

[.cheese.]

I was. I was raised to believe that the gun community was a bunch of neo-nazi KKK'ers.

I was massively afraid of guns and the people who carried/owned them.

Now I realize that what I was taught in school and by my parents was total BS.

 

[fatguynlittlecoat]

I've always had a love and fascination of guns...goes back to when I was even 5 years old!

 

[MiddleAgedKen]

I was never entirely anti, but I was an unreflective "sporting purposes/your hunting rifle is safe, we just want to get rid of those 'Saturday Night Specials'" type as a teenager. Even then I was interested in guns, though, and wanted to learn to shoot.

 

[Vaarok]

I actually used to be pretty ambivalent because I really thought hunting was a stupid and boring good-ol'-boys activity, and never quite realized that there were non-hunting firearms that were civillian legal and suitable for citizenry-with-teeth applications until my teenage years.

 

[Hook686]

I'm still antigun. None of you ought be allowed to have guns. I'm the only one that can be trusted to have a gun. Don't worry, I'll take care of you.

 

[Halo]

I can honestly say I always had an interest in firearms even though I grew up in a family that didn't hunt or target shoot.

When I was around 10 I had a toy 1911 that looked very real, it was one of my favorite items. I also got an equally real-looking AK-47 toy. Obviously this was back when toy guns were not only prevalent in toy stores, but they didn't have safety orange all over them. Somehow playing with them didn't take over my mind and turn me into a masked gunman. Guess I dodged a bullet!

 

[76shuvlinoff]

Never anti gun, always enjoyed shooting but gave up hunting 30 years ago. I was anti concealed carry.

I'm over that now.

 

[ColinthePilot]

I was never really Anti gun, but at a very young ignorant age I was all for "reasonable regulations." I saw no problem with registration; what do law abiding citizens have to be afraid of?
My dad didn't own guns but he is a libertarian and very pro-constitution, so he's pro-2a. Needless to say, he fixed me very early on.

 

[G36-UK]

I was anti-gun for a while. I had a small explanation on my blog:
Here we go.

I mentioned something that I read about that turned me around. I go into more detail in this post.

 

[SsevenN]

Heh, I was not ANTI, I truly didn't think about it untill I was 18. I believe now most of that was because my mom was SO anti gun, I was not allowed super soakers, BB guns, nothing that even LOOKED like a gun. If my friends were over and one of them started "point" shooting with his finger, my mom would pitch a fit and lecture the kid over the evils of guns! My father simply doesn't care, and certainly not enough to say anything to my mom!
Then I turned 18, bought a .308 rifle, and there was no turning back!
SO for me, I pretty much didn't have an opinion of my own about guns, I knew I liked playing paintball and video games, but since I was young and under the parents wing, I never considered ownership of such items. Now I carry 24/7 and shoot every weeked, and eat Ramen noodles by the bucket so I can afford the things I love!

 

[Winchester 73]

I was anti-handgun's into my 30's.Never had a problem with long guns ,but handguns being relatively small and concealable bothered me.
I thought in terms of how total handgun confiscation could be accomplished.I could of been Sarah Brady's number one propagandist.A Goebbels of handgun control.Like Colin,restrictions seemed to very necessary to help stem this criminal tide.
During my middle years my home town(Miami) became the murder capital of America per capita with the cocaine cowboys and Mariel boatlift thugs killing each every day.More often than not it was with those evil handguns.
But gradually common sense and some really good mentors took over.The realization that criminals didn't obey any laws and that guns were just inanimate objects that could be used for good or evil became evident.It wasn't the gun but the person behind it pulling the trigger.
The light dawned.I became a pro handgun zeolot.Like an ex-smoker I badgered everyone that I knew to be anti-gun to also see the light and convert.
The fight goes on.I have had only one real success.I now realize my story is unusual.Most people cannot be changed in their convictions.
Its an uphill struggle.But the battle continues.

 

[lawson4]

I have never been an anti. It's those darn voices that tell me not to like guns, but I've learned to ignore them

lawson4

 

[VirgilCaine]

When I was fourteen or so, I thought hunting was unsporting and unfair.

Things have changed a lot over the past ten years.

 

[jdc1244]

It’s fine to not own guns or to even not like them but one should remain neutral on regulation and ownership. I know people who don’t like guns but also know that arguments to regulate or ban guns are ridiculous.

Like many here I was fortunate to grow up with guns so this was never an issue. Shotguns and rifles when I was a kid and I got my first handgun in my 20s. When I was 12 I had a little .410 I was allowed to keep in my room. Man, times have changed.

 

[buck00]

To clarify, you have to ask what is an "anti"? An anti doesn't have to be a foaming-at-the-mouth liberal who has Feinstein's photo above the mantel... it can be someone who is simply ignorant or apathetic about firearms and the 2nd amendment. Why do I say that? Those very people are often the ones who shrug and say "well why does anyone need to own an AR-15?? Geez, its common sense no one should own one except the army."

I've seen this kind of "anti" more than anything else- a person who has very little knowledge of gun laws or experience with shooting or hunting, and they have knee-jerk anti-gun opinions. These can be the most damaging types of "antis" because they aren't yelling and ranting, but sort of rolling their eyes at and dismissing our gun rights.

Its sounds like we have some THR members like this. (I grew up like this for one) They didn't grow up "anti" but they grew up devoid of good gun experiences and gun education. Thus education is the key. * The ignorant always fear what they don't understand.

 

[Gordon Fink]

I was not anti-gun, but as a teenager I did not understand the opposition to “reasonable” gun-control laws. My studies of history in general and the gun issue in particular later corrected that misunderstanding.

~G. Fink

 

[coloradokevin]

I was raised around guns, and have been shooting since I was 5 years old. Ironically, my parents didn't like guns for a variety of personal reasons, but I learned to shoot/hunt from one of my grandparents, uncles, and a family friend.

So, I was never anti-gun.

But, my wife was pretty much a passive anti-gunner when I met her... She wasn't rallying against guns, and it wasn't a major voting issue to her. She simply didn't like guns at that time, and didn't see the point in them. Oh how times have changed, even after just one trip to the range almost 7 years ago

 

[TitaniumMan]

I was an anti-gun dipwad after my friend almost shot me in the head. I was perhaps ten years old when that happened, and didn't even consider the gun issue again until my mid-twenties.

My friend grabbed my Mother's .22 DA revolver, pointed it at my head, and began pulling the trigger. I yelled at him, and he pointed the gun at the wall, finished pulling the trigger, and blew a neat hole all the way through the wall to the backyard area. There was only the one bullet loaded. He thought it was empty. It just wasn't empty enough.

 

[Tom Servo]

Never an anti, but when I first came here, I was ambivalent for a few years.

I'd shot and hunted as a child, but I moved here in time for high school. Most shooting involved folks getting drunk and blasting stuff in the woods. I lived in a semi-rural area with no serious crime to speak of at the time, and the 2nd Amendment just didn't strike me as important.

I went to a very liberal liberal-arts college, and the subject never really came up. After getting out, I moved between Baltimore and Atlanta, and the idea that I might need to defend myself at some point became apparent

I had little experience with handguns, but after taking two classes, I realized I really liked them. They were harder to master than rifles, so they were a real challenge.

This was around 1993-1994, when a lot of things were happening on the national scale regarding the 2nd Amendment, and its importance became apparent to me, so I got active in my spare time.

Nowadays, I teach and deal in firearms. Not a complete 180, but close. Bear in mind, it's not the staunch antis we need to convert (they're likely a lost cause), but the vast majority who sit on the fence.