I'm glad I started this. It's very fun reading the stories.
I guess I should post my story!
My parents never owned guns, but I grew up shooting when visiting family friends. Even though my parents didn't own firearms, I'm thankful that they allowed me to experience them, and mostly, that they didn't have a negative view of them to push on me. I shot .22 rifles and shotguns mostly when we'd visit those family friends, occasionally a handgun. I set up a pellet gun range in the unfinished corridor of our basement around 12-13 years old. While I don't remember how, I got a subscription to this "Classic Firearms" sort of box set around 10-11 years old. I vaguely remember convincing my mom to let me sign up for it, but I don't remember how I found the advertisement in the first place. While other kids played video games, I ogled over the guns featured on each card.
They had the country of origin, type, specifications, and a brief summary on the front, while the back of the card had the story of the development, the gun's military use, if any, and a factoid about the name of the gun, the developer, or something to that effect.
I eventually dug them out of the parents' basement after all these years and immediately reverted to my 13-year-old self, sitting on the basement floor for hours reading over the different cards and models.
When I finally turned 18, I was too busy pursuing the usual adolescent teenaged boy interests to spend any money on guns. Shortly after my 22nd birthday, and after ridding myself of a woman who I had developed a very expensive lifestyle with, I decided to spend all of this spare money I had on a .22LR pistol for myself. It was lost by a friend of mine, but he paid me back and I bought an AK. To this day he's my only real "gun friend".
Since then, I've mainly developed my interest in "societal history", American history, American jurisprudence, RKBA, and modern self-defence law, as well as the historical logic and purpose behind a self-reliant, armed population of civilians. Consequently I took a liking to a few ARs/AKs, and a journey of finding the perfect fleet of carry guns. Interestingly enough, these interests also helped me decide to study criminal justice and to go into law/law enforcement as a profession.
I mainly own "defensive firearms", but my general philosophy is to buy guns which will provide me the greatest use. Considering that I don't get into a lot of gunfights, .22LR rifles and pistols have become desirable. Considering that the guns that "serve me most" are the ones that I carry every day (even though I never "use" them), I've taken to searching for the perfect carry guns.
I haven't been a gun owner for very long, but I've developed a "taste" of my own. Deep down I love double-action revolvers, lever-action rifles, 20th Century military rifles and carbines, and any gun which can practically be applied as a tool.
As for the "hand-me-downs", here's my late-Grandpa's Ruger with the accompanying card. "Grandpa look! You got one like this one right?"