Were you ever anti-gun?

[CoalTrain49]

Never AG in the sense that guns should be banned.

I grew up hunting with my dad. My dad hated hand guns and I never saw a single one around the house when I was young. He carried a carbine in his truck as he carried cash from a restaurant business often. What else would you expect a WW2 infantry soldier to carry?

There was a time in my life that I thought access to hand guns should be restricted but not banned. I then realized that carrying a concealed weapon was a necessity where I lived. I've had a permit for 24 years now and I practice with my carry every week. I think a lot of that had to do with my dads views of hand guns but he grew up in a different time and place. I'm now a proponent of constitutional carry. The stats just don't support permitted carry. It's just a burden for law abiding citizens. Hows that for a 180?

 

[2ifbyC]

Short answer - NO.

My father was ambivalent about guns; the only gun he owned was a single shot .22 that he purchased from Montgomery Wards. My mother detested guns and would not allow me to own even a BB gun.

Guns however fascinated me at an early age. I loved the shooting arcade at Pittsburgh’s Kennywood Park and looked forward to shooting there when visiting. I had to borrow my uncle’s single shot 12 gauge to go hunting. I remember many a pheasant flying away as I struggled to reload upon missing with my first shot. I have since made up for that deficit and now have a substantial collection.

I am a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment. As opposed to the liberal view “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”, I prefer “If God didn't make men equal, Samuel Colt did."

 

[BigBL87]

I wouldn't say I was ever "anti-gun." I shot trap with friends a few times when I was younger, but lived in a gun-free home unless you count a pellet gun. I really stayed out of the gun control debate and didn't really care either way. I always thought my parents were anti-gun, though. When I got married and moved out, I got into firearms thanks to my in-laws who are avid hunters. I was hesitant to talk to my parents when I bought my first gun, but when I did I was surprised to find out they really didn't have an issue with it. My father said he always saw it as the right that it is, he just never felt the need or desire to own a gun, and my mom felt similarly. He also was hesitant to own a gun because he was a minister and we lived in a parsonage.

I had hoped to get my dad to go shooting with me, but he passed away a little under 2 years ago shortly after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Since he passed away, though, my mother has gotten more interested in firearms and purchased one herself to protect herself at home.

 

[hi-impact]

Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about your dad passing. I hope he wasn't in too much pain. Your mom is very wise.

 

[Sushigaijin]

I sit pretty far to the left and right - I would describe my politics as libertarian socialism. I believe that our government has the ability, and therefor the obligation, to improve our quality of life, since it is a government of the people. Call it what you will, but I support universal healthcare, welfare, immigration, and pretty much anything that will protect and enhance the quality of life for the people. These things should be options available to us, and can be paid for simply by cutting the BS and fat out of said government.

On the other spectrum, I think we must rely on the government to keep our environment and lives safe from those who have things to gain: specifically, industry and other corporate entities with no impetus to "do the right thing." We see the free market failing time and time again on things like pollution, over use of resources, and similar categories where a small group of people benefit from causing harm to a greater group of people. As we have no recourse, protection from this is an obligation of our government.

I own two corporations myself, and am a staunch capitalist. I operate them in a responsible, sustainable way; I pay above minimum wage, purchase ethically, sell ethically and improve the lives of both the supply chain and the end consumer. This is in direct opposition to my competition who buy supply side products from slave labor, environmentally destructive practices and unsustainable impact on the Earth. I police myself. Not everyone values what I do. Many, if not most corporations are just out for a quick dollar.

So those two things are at odds: large government vs small government, if you will. In the genesis of these opinions, I generally err towards the constitution for guidance, and thus I agree with the RKBA.

From the left, I DO believe that we can do some simple "common sense" things to curb "gun" violence - I think gun use and safety should be compulsory in school, in conjunction with the already compulsory constitution test. This will demystify guns to those who know nothing about them, which will contribute greatly to deglorify guns in culture. I think legalizing drugs and drug production will destroy black market violence, which is a large part of what the media calls "black on black violence." I think a New Deal style works program will give people with no hope, a little hope, and teach the value of life to people who do not value life. These are all social issues, you will note, but the antis see gun control as a physical issue; easy to legislate against high capacity magazines and scary black rifles - hard to legislate programs to reduce poverty, hopelessness, and violent behavior.


So these opinions gradually change over time as I find better ways, which is very normal for any thinking person. I expect them to change somewhat over the next ten, 20 years as well. I learned how to shoot in Boy Scouts, and consider it an obligation to own a gun just like voting in the USA. This has slowly evolved from "guns are cool!!" when I was 12, to "no one really needs a gun, but who am i to judge" in college, to my present opinion - which is pro-gun, but not pro violence. I am not surprised to see many changes in heart in this thread, especially from city people like myself.

 

[BigBL87]

Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about your dad passing. I hope he wasn't in too much pain. Your mom is very wise.

Thanks. He passed about 40 days after being diagnosed. The last few weeks he was in hospice care and had very little pain. Christmas Eve was the only night he was in alot of pain, which was the night before he passed away. In his own words though, he was going home and it was going to be harder for us than for him. Never saw him cry or complain once the whole time, really provided a great example for our family all the way to the end.

 

[John Joseph]

I was six years old when somebody shot my pony with a stray .22. The pony survived and I learned how most of my family in the old country was first disarmed, then brutally murdered by the government.
Common sense for the win.

 

[McAngus]

Most of my life, I would have been for national registration, ban on ARs, no fly list=no gun list, etc. No particular reason why, I suppose always living in a democratic city, you just go with the group without much thought. I never would have gone as far as saying a complete ban, but pretty darn close when you are talking about banning ARs, AKs, etc. I think I would have defended my position by saying things like

"you don't need an AR for hunting or defending your home against a burglar"
"if you have nothing to hide, why not register all your firearms"
"if you cannot fly on an airplane, you definitely shouldn't own a gun"

Not sure what made me change, it wasn't something dramatic. When you start getting into politics, history, food industry, hollywood, etc, it all sort of opens your mind more.

 

[V-fib]

Never. In fact i remember growing up in Detroit having neighborhood "battles" in all genres from the civil war, WWI, WWII, and Korea. My parents who were not gun owners gave me a really cool toy machine gun for xmas one year. (Looked like a AK, dang I wish I still had it)

good times!

v-fib

 

[Reloadron]

Were you ever anti-gun?

No and I was NYC born and raised (Brooklyn). I was never anti-gun and was raised during a period before all the stupid pro/anti nonsense came about with regard to the gun. I don't remember it anyway during the 50s and early 60s?

Ron

 

[Steve51]

Never, ever!

 

[Sniper66]

I've never even considered being anti-gun. Almost everyone in my rural Kansas family, a very large family, is pro-gun and pro 2A. My wife for the past 25 years is Jewish from NYC. When the subject of guns came up she was never anti-gun, but not really pro-gun either and was occasionally sympathetic to arguments against certain guns in certain circumstances. Now, however, she thinks most anti-gunneres are "stupid" (her word). She shoots pistols with me and has surpassed me in terms of pistol skill. I have concealed carry permit and she now thinks it might be good to have a shotgun under the bed. It has led me to believe that sensible people who live around other sensible people, eventually switch to being pro-gun.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

I was never anti-gun. There is a long period (20+ years) in which MSRs never had personal appeal to me (I now have one foot in Gun Culture 1.0 and one in 2.0). The entire time, however, my opinion was "my rights are their rights too" and was completely skeptical of the divide and conquer approach of the anti-gun lobby, esp. the deliberate attempts to confuse the public about the difference between semi-auto and full auto (although much of my shooting is full auto these days )

Mike

 

[Uncle Salty]

nope

 

[RBird]

I have never been "anti-gun." I grew up in a gun free home, but not "anti-gun" either. I guess just generally neutral.

I bought my first shotgun when I was 24 for pheasant season and been hooked ever since. In the last couple years my collection has grown into more than I had ever thought it would and occasionally I get questioned as to "why" by my mother followed with a sideways look but I wouldn't call her "anti-gun."

 

[JTHunter]

To put it bluntly - -
No, NO, and HELL NO !!

My dad taught me to fire an old, used, pump-action gun he got cheaply from some carnival when I was 4-5. At 7, he was teaching me how to fire his National Guard M1 Garand. And, while my collection is modest, it is easily manageable and useful.

 

[TimboKhan]

Nope. I have been around guns my entire life. As proof, here I am in 1975 in my Dads workshop as he reloads!

 

[md7]

No. Never was anti gun

 

[wojownik]

I would not say that I was ever anti-gun, but I would say that I spent quite a bit of time figuring out things after a youth of staunch anti-gun indoctrination.

Growing up in a major city in the NE, everyone around me was anti-gun, anti-2A. As a kid, I remember sneaking home some firearms magazine and having to hid it under my mattress, like some kind of "gentleman's magazine". My mother found it, which lead to "the talk" ... it's OK to be curious, but guns are bad, stay away from people who own guns, etc... And this, in a family of folks who all at some point served in the military, with a good number of policemen in the family tree. The view of most cops I knew back then was firmly that firearms were for the public servants only - no reason for regular citizens to be going around arming themselves.

I also vividly remember my high school civics teacher (also the principal of the school, and veteran Marine). When introducing the Constitution, he made the pronouncement that we'd be looking at the Bill of Rights, but skipping over the Second Amendment because it is wrong and "doesn't belong" in the Bill of Rights.

I also quite vividly remember a boy scout troop visit to the local police precinct, where the cops giving the tour each let us (under insanely close supervision) fire one round in the basement range from a beater .22lr rifle. Then, they brought us across a secured way to the slammers, put us in, and told us this is where they would put us if they ever caught us with a gun.

These anecdotes (and many others) have stuck with me for many decades.

 

[two gun charlie]

Never , but I guess it's a cultural thing here , fire-arms were always an integral part of our society in one way or another right from the start , you do get anti-gun people here but they are not too vocal

 

[Colt46]

I was pro gun control right up until the King Riots

Seeing the police unable/unwilling to stop the rioters was one thing. Seeing Reginald Denney dragged from his truck and murdered(I know he somehow survived) on live tv changed it all for me.

 

[phil dirt]

I got my first pistol when I was 3. But it was a cap gun. I grew up around guns and got my first .22 rifle for X-mas when I was 10. I was a hired gun when I was 12. My grandpa used to buy .22 shorts and pay me a nickel a robin that I shot out of his cherry trees. I used his old Remington rolling block, circa 1890s, rifle. I wish I had that gun. Somebody else in the family got it when grandpa died. I'm 73 now and when I tell people about the good old days and the fun I had with guns they look at me like I must have been nuts. Of course, I live in Seattle which is full of fruits and nuts. I might have been nuts, but I was never a fruit.

 

[grampajack]

Nope. Always loved them.

 

[Sulaco]

Read the OP topic, skipped the rest. Bet I sound like a broken record.

Nope.

 

[hdwhit]

Were you ever anti-gun?

My father (World War II, Korea and Vietnam) and grandfather (World War II and Korea) were both career Army Officers, so being "ant-gun" was something that never came up.

My father had no problem with the right of other people to have handguns, but would not allow one into his house. He said he had had over the years had too many junior officers wound themselves "playing" with their sidearms.

I'm curious about those that used to be anti-gun. What situation, event, circumstance caused you to see the light?

When I met her, my wife was mildly anti-gun. Given the neighborhood she lived in, I insisted she learn how to assemble and use my Charter Arms AR-7. She reluctantly did so and agreed to keep it in her apartment because it was kind of hard for a gun to accidentally discharge when it was stowed in its own buttstock. Not long after that, I was out of town when I got a call at 2:00 a.m. Someone was at her back door trying to break in. She had called the police before she called me, but knew the response time averaged fifteen minutes, so she wanted me to talk her through reassembling the rifle. Once it was assembled, she carged it, called out to the burgular that she was armed and sat there in bed with the muzzle pointed at the door until the police arrived.

That was her "conversion experience". I hope that's what you're looking for.