Were your parents Anti or no?

[rainbowbob]

My father was an LEO for 30 years and I believe he carried every day. I only saw his duty gun, an S&W .38, on a couple of occasions.

Once was when he had had quite a few and was showing off for company. He did a quick draw and shooting stance demonstration in our living room! This happened only once. It never occurred to me until recently whether that gun was loaded or not.

The only other time I remember seeing it - although it could have been more than once - was on his dresser. I don't remember ever having been given any instruction, and I could not resist picking it up. I knew it was dangerous, and quickly put it back where I found it.

Family history included the story of my Grandmother's brother who found his father's service revolver (Great Grandfather was a Boston Detective), took it with him into the bathroom while washing the dog, and killed himself with it.

I spent my entire childhood "playing guns". I would run through the woods chasing, hiding, ambushing, and "gunning down" my friends.

My mother would not let me have a BB gun because "...You could put somebody’s eye out with it...”

As I have posted before...I and my best friend got our hands on some BB guns...thought it would be a great idea to have a BB gun fight (with protection of course)...started shooting at each other...took cover...I shot him in the eye.

I didn't touch a firearm of any kind for many years after that.

Instruction from an early age might have made me (and my best friend) safer. I recommend it.

 

[Ben_Tucci]

As a kid me and my brothers had bb guns and bows and arrows and knew that my dad had a "real" gun but it was never really talked about. At some point in my teenage years my dad had a friend that talked to him about getting his concealed weapons permit and even loaned him a gun until he bought one of his own to carry. At that point we all started talking about it and both my mom and dad got permits to carry. When I got old enough it was natural and almost expected that I get my own. All my brothers are pro-gun and all the ones that are old enough either have a permit to carry or plan on getting one when they get back from the military overseas.

 

[FPrice]

Dad was gone and Mom never had the money or inclination. She may have been mildly anti if asked, but it never came up.

Interestingly enough one of my grandfather's possessions from his days working in Brooklyn as a tailor was a well-used sap.

 

[BigCompetator]

between me and my dad we probably have 30 guns. we have a variety of every thing shotguns pistols rifles. my mom never cared much but was not anti

 

[Nolo]

My parents are technically in the category I voted: supporters and owners, but my mother thinks guns are "icky" (she's a huge wimp, but she supports RKBA pretty much all the way) and my dad seems to support RKBA for everyone but me. He got me a shotgun for my 15th Christmas, which was great and all, but I've fired it like, twice, and he never takes me shooting and keeps all the guns up in NH.
I mean, I've had trouble and all, being on prescription medication for depression, but I'm far from a bad kid, and I'm better at gun safety than he is.
Oh, forgot to mention, he won't let me use my own money to buy an AK or Garand (I think I'm gonna get an Enfield, but he hasn't made enough effort for that to happen yet), and he's always worried about me "looking wrong" to the authorities.
Parents will be parents.
But I'll be 18 this November, so I'll be pretty much free.

 

[mrokern]

Mom is anti except for hunting, Dad is neutral.

Since I'm into my 30s, their opinions don't go too far...and yes, I carry when they come to visit. Hey, at least I don't OC when they're around.

-Mark

 

[Zangetsu]

You need to add an option for one of each

 

[lanternlad1]

My mom never had guns, mostly because they were too expensive for us to buy (very poor growing up) but she did teach me one valuable lesson.

When I was 6, I got a book that taught kids how to send away for free stuff. One of the free giveaways was a free sticker from an anti-handgun group. I showed my mom the book and told her that I wanted to get the sticker. The words she told me next were priceless.

"If you send away for and display that sticker, you are telling people that you believe what these people believe. And these people believe in taking away a freedom that we are guaranteed as Americans. If you believe in letting people take away one freedom, soon they will try to take away the rest of them."

I always remembered those words, and though I only recently started learning about guns, I always supported the Constitution and all the rights guaranteed by it.

 

[mortdooley]

My parents were die hard Democrats and my 80 year old dad still is, they would have made obedient peasants in an earlier age. No handguns were allowed in our home and they both believed all hand guns should be banned! As for long guns we had all we needed. My dad thought he was well armed with an unloaded single shot .410 bolt action and that was the only gun we ever had until I started buying them.

 

[xds&gsps]

Dad grew up w/guns when we moved to UT he didn't really shoot much anymore. I got into guns 6 years ago or so & have been working on him ever since. He recently took the class for ccw & now owns a couple of handguns along w/ the long guns he has always had. Mom is kinda neutral I carried for 3 years before she found out, she was kinda in shock, she grew up in a hunting family, but hasn't expressed an interest in guns at all.

 

[MinnMooney]

What soes HUGO mean?

My dad had me using guns and hunting by age 5. He was extremely safety-minded way before it was in vogue. I carried an empty BB gun for a hunt or two and then got to carry it loaded for the occasional tin can that my dad would surprize me with. The following year was the same routine except with a .22 short Browning semi-auto with the take-down feature ( it loaded thru a slot in the stock).
By age seven, I was a full-fledged hunter with all the rights, privleges and responsibilities that go with the title. If dad saw my barrel swinging past another hunter I immediately had to unload the chamber of my pump gun and "hunt" that way for the next 1/2 hour or so.
My dad caught my friend with the hammer cocked on his single-shot shotgun after being told to NEVER cock the gun until a bird jumped. Gary had to unload the gun and walk for a while that way.
You learn very quickly when you have to act as the flush-dog and can't even shoot if you flush one!!
Excellent lessons and they carried over to my son, also.

 

[Caeser2001]

most of my family is progun for hunting, spoting, and protection purposes, but agree with the "sensible laws" about ebr's and so forth. I always thought my dad was an anti until a discussion with his new anti wife when everybody was talking about all the gun violence, he came right out and said "banning guns is not the answer and I'll leave it at that!!!" he never owned a gun but seen more than his fare share of ***** in 'nam.

 

[Regen]

My Parent were Anti

That is until my Dad started Trap and Skeet shooting. Then he became pro and owning. This occurred in his late sixties, after he retired to FL and a neighbor took him shooting.

 

[jc89]

im chinese so both my parents grew up in communist china (could there have been a more gun-biaed country than that? lol) so they are relatively anti-gun with mom more against guns than dad. i tried twice to get an air rifle (bought it in secret in may of last year soon as i turned 18, mom found out and freaked, then did it again over the web in july and this time they sort of softened up to it).

got a 22 for christmas of this year and my mom wasnt that against it. im in college now but my mom will always email me stories about shootings or whatever. eh, i guess they'll never change. just got an m39 and plan on building up a collection.

now my friends, they are slowly becoming my converted minions (all of their parents are anti-gun as well) and can't wait to go shooting when im back home. after listening to my interest in firearms, my history buff roommate is looking to buy a nice k31 if he can convince his mom to let him get one.

oh, and i live in the california bay area if you couldn't tell already.

 

[f4t9r]

Where and when I grew up everyone had guns (mostly hunting)
can not remember much negative about guns in my younger days.

 

[The Annoyed Man]

Dad was a wounded marine at Iwo Jima. He became, more or less, a pacifist after the war. Mom was a survivor of the Nazi occupation of North Africa, and was reduced to eating cats and rats at one point. She was also a confirmed pacifist. Both were university professors and hard core liberals. While I disagree with their pacifism, I grant that they both earned it the hard way, so I won't criticize their character for it.

We had two guns in the family, but both were locked away in storage in the garage for my entire life. One was the .22 rifle my dad had as a child. My brother has it now. The other was his service .45, which I have. My brother and I inherited these when my dad died in 1990.

 

[andrewdl007]

I put pro gun and owned. My dad hunted a little all his life but never really collected guns. My mother however is a neutral bordering on anti. So Id have to say they werent the major reason I took up shooting.

 

[freekboi]

Both my parents were pro gun and we owned. My dad used to hunt when I was younger, but got out of it later on, and my mom used to be a deputy sherriff who carried. As a matter of fact, she keeps bugging me to bring back her 38 special I'm using for HD until I can get one of my own.

 

[ditch_dgr]

My parents were both pro-gun in a big way. They gave me an Ithica 20ga shotgun for my 9th birthday. We were a trapshooting family, we had trophies all over the house and a bunch of them were from the Junior and Lady divisions at our local club. By the time I was 13, I had a Remington 1100, and Ithica 600SKB and a Winchester model 12 all were either birthday or Christmas presents except the 1100 I won that shooting against the big guys.

 

[TheLastBoyScout]

I checked 3 of them...

My mom was/and is neutral while I was growing up.

Dad was neutral/accepting but did not own until I was 15.

Grampa (paternal) taught me and my brother how to shoot, and he was more of the "forgiveness than permission" type, at least when it came to mom's approval. I think he may have gotten dad's permission before hand, at least in vague "when they're old enough, I'm going to teach them how to shoot" terms (because he wasn't a jerk)--but dad wasn't huge on the idea either.

(age 10)
"What are THOSE?"
"BB guns"
"Where'd they get them?"
"I gave'em to'em, and I keep em in my car unless I got my eye on'em. Scout is already talking about joining the Marines when he grows up, and he's gonna have to learn sooner or later"

Then 9/11 happened when I was 15, and dad realized that even though terrorists hate all of us, they have a special reason to hate women in a position of power (aka "mom the politician") so he got a glock and an AR and started getting religion about regular range time.

This was also about the time I started getting paid for working, so I started my own collection of "serious" firearms.

Over the past 6 years, we have significantly "improved" mom's NRA grade. She lets us see "interesting" bills as they come up, and usually the reaction from Dad is "Vote for this bill and you're sleeping in the garage"... She's not perfect, yet, but we've gotten her to go against some bad stuff she otherwise would have supported.

Who needs to buy more than one handgun a month?
Well for starters, Dad did doing Christmas shopping last year...

 

[RDak]

Mine were pretty neutral. Dad had his fill of guns in WWII but never prevented me from having one.

Mom never voiced an opinion one way or another IIRC.

They're still alive and think I'm a little wacko with the 2nd Amendment but it still doesn't mean much to them one way or another.

I get the feeling that people of their generation accepted guns more than many "current" people do.

They grew up LONG before the anti movement started.

Edit: I just had a .22lr rifle. Left home at 17 and couldn't buy my first handgun in Michigan, from a dealer, until I was 21. Never owned a shotgun at home. Bought one after reaching 21 years old also.

 

[Ninja42]

My parents are old time hippies, and though I am 24 years old they still urge me to stop shooting every time I come home. I dont think parents come any more anti than mine, and yet I managed to become an open minded individual, with understandings of my rights and my duty to protect myself and those I love.

I dont know much about my grandfather, as he died when I was only 3 years old, but for some reason he had a p38 with nazi markings stowed away in the attic, but when my parent found it they decided that it was eeeeeeeevil, and handed it in to the police for destruction. Yeah, a person can actually be that anti :banghead:

 

[Bo]

My Dad was a cop back in the 50's. I remember sneaking in my Mom and Dad's bedroom when they were gone and pulling out all the guns my Dad stored in there. For some reason, can't remember why, I always had enough sense to unload them before I started playing. I'd reload them and put them right back where I found them. My Dad never knew, R.I.P. Dad, I love you!

 

[John-Melb]

I think RDak is right, people of our parents generation accepted guns.

Mum and Dad are both gone now.

Dad grew up during the "depression" and had what I saw as a strange attitude to firearms, any firearm that could be used to put food on the family table was just fine, any gun that couldn't be used to put food on the table was simply a waste of time and money. I remember still the "stick" he gave me when I bought a Luger. "What do you want that bloody thing for, get rid of it and buy a good shotgun"

Mum would often tell me how much she "hated guns", but she never complained when I came home from a trip away with an eski full of bunnies!

I miss them both.

 

[ruger_dude]

My parents are pro-gun all the way, my dad was a cop and he "qualified" me monthly with a .45 .357 and a bunch of others. When I was eight I came home and my Dad had a 410 wrapped up , he just bought me a shotgun because he wanted to go hunting and my mother just asked "You don't think he can take a 20 gauge"