Who here was an anti, or leaned against guns, at some point in their life?

[Lancel]

Always been pro-gun.

As a kid, I didn't even know there was a concept of anti-gun.

That would have been like anti-hammer or anti-screwdriver.

All are tools. Everyone I knew thought the same.

Larry

 

[chaim]

I grew up in a strongly anti-gun family. My mom never really said much about it (though she didn't really want me to have toy guns, but she was the first to give in about that). My father is strongly anti. He grew up in a poor western PA farming family where hunting was a way of life. Somehow he ended up anti gun (and takes his former experience to claim expertise and so he knows guns are bad because "I've seen what they can do"). He hated the idea of my owning toy guns (had to give in, have you ever seen kids who aren't allowed toy guns- everything becomes a gun, for me it was my tennis racket and baseball bats usually). When I joined the Army and wanted a .22 to get some practice shooting before basic training and to keep in practice after, I was told that there was no way he would allow guns in his house. When I turned 21 I looked into becoming a cop, however I had to live at home at the time (after a few months of a police paycheck and I wouldn't have had to but I would have been there in the beginning) and my dad told me that even if I was a cop there would be no guns in the house (and I think the local police require that you are always armed when you are in the county and I know they bring home their duty gun)- so I never became a cop.

Anyway, with that kind of household some of that is bound to rub off. Sure, I was always fascinated by guns. I knew that I wanted to eventually get into at least some rifle target shooting and possibly some .22 pistol target shooting. However, I was what I'd describe as a "moderate anti". I thought that people who kept them for self defense were somehow ignorant (you know the idea that a gun in the home is "x times more likely to be used against a family member or against you or in an accident than to be used in self defense") and that the only safe way to store them was locked up with the ammo locked up separately. I thought that guns should be legal but possibly not some types (I'm not sure when I realized the "assult weapons ban" was idiotic, though it was before I owned guns). I've always thought handguns should remain legal. Even when I first got to TFL I thought that maybe some kind of registration or at least safety training and licensing to own guns was ok ("if we register cars and license drivers why not something made to kill..."). Certainly when I got to TFL I was against CCW laws. By the time I got to TFL I was already a gun owner of about half a dozen rifles and handguns.

A lot changed once I started owning guns and looking into gun control with a more educated mindset. Then TFL really started to change things. By the time TFL ended and I ended up here (along with most of TFL's active membership) the transformation was complete. Now most people I know (including a friend who is a self described "radical right winger") consider me an extremist on gun issues. I'll wear that label with pride. However, it is too bad that thinking guns are ok and wholly American, safe when handled correctly, and should be allowed with no (or, being more politically realistic, at least virtually no) restrictions, is considered extremist.

 

[Majic]

Even the toys I wanted were gun related.

 

[sm]

PRO since conception...I didn't ask for details.

 

[Orthonym]

None of the above:

Which is why I didn't vote. It's ah, rather complicated. As a somewhat normal male human, I got the usual charge from shooting cap guns and throwing rocks when I was a child. Well, later, (I'm ashamed to admit) I'm afraid I paid entirely too much attention to the doodahs who seemed to say, and believe, that just the close presence of a firearm would cause me to flip out and turn into a homicidal maniac.

Then I met a couple of interesting women. One, a very good-looking redhead from Mississippi, shot me in the head with reason and encouraged me to join the NRA.

The other woman had been the victim of a very nasty strong-arm robbery in a MARTA station in Atlanta. After being tossed down the stairs,which broke both of her arms right up near the shoulders, she was somewhat dependent on other people to help her. (She didn't like THAT one least little bit)

Well, I needed a place to stay, and she needed assistance, so a third person suggested that we get together. We did that for a bit, and then the lady in question started thinking about effective defence. She had me drive her out to the closest gun shop which gave good prices and bought herself a S&W Chief's Special. I'll never forget what she said when the clerk asked her what kind of ammo she wanted: She replied,

What kind makes the biggest holes? Snork! Talk about an intuitive understanding of wound ballistics!

Ok, so her arms hadn't healed up yet and she couldn't use 'em very well, so I was the designated shooter. A little bit later I caught myself saying, "Good God, woman, are you INVITING criminals to come in here by not locking doors and shutting windows?" Just having a firearm present made me very conscious of its, well, deadliness, causing me to pay attention to security so as NOT to have to shoot somebody. That's when I learned for sure that the Brady Bunch is full of dog poo.

So, that's how some girls taught this guy what firearms are for. Andrea Dworkin, you know where you can go.

 

[semf]

Also none of the above.

Always had hunting and plinking guns around, but a handgun designed to be carried inconspiculously for the sole purpose of defense (killing or maiming a human being) seemed like something a criminal or a paranoid person would need.

In other words I was, like too many other people today, I was a staunch supporter of 2A, Where it applied to me and what I deemed an appropriate type of gun.

Then CCW came to Fla. I studied on the subject, saw it's value, and joined the NRA. Now I support all owners even if I have no need or interest in their type of guns.

 

[Zach S]

From what I remember, I've never been anti. I wasnt always exaclty pro-gun either though.

 

[Black Snowman]

I was born in a family with guns and raised to treat them with respect. In High School I was just about brainwashed into being rabidly anti-gun UNTIL I started looking into the facts myself and found that things just didn't add up.

[soapbox]
Looking at statistics, existing laws, and the results of similar laws passed in this and other countries I just couldn't see any tangible benefit from a whole slew of negatives. Every ban in the country has resulted in negative results. The most specacular of which being Prohibition only slightly ahead of "The War on Drugs".

What I find ironic is that many of the people I find to be anti-gun are for the legalization of many controlled substances and they use all the same arguments we do about personal responsability and abuse but choose not to see how it applies to both.

Even more often I find many anti-gunners completely ignorant of the current laws, processes, and restrictions already in effect on firearms. The only other endevour I know of as closely regulated is the casino industry. What are we up to? Over 43,000 gun laws or some such rediculous figure?

If all the money from the beuraucry of gun control was put into the hands of local law enforcement for training, personel and equipment how much more effective would that be at reducing ALL crime including crimes involving firearms? :banghead: [/soapbox]

 

[geegee]

I grew up in the Northeast, and my parents were always anti's (and still are). My father and mother both survived WW II, my mother as a civilian working with the British Army in London and Germany, and my father survived as a prisoner in a Nazi slave labor camp (having been taken as a youth from Yugoslavia).

Anytime I expressed an interest in guns, my father's answer was always the same: "I've seen enough guns in my life." Of course at this point in my life, I think I'd be able to offer some fairly cogent reasons for people about to be enslaved, to own guns.

Later through college, I was surrounded by anti's who held sway with me. It wasn't until I moved to Texas and had an opportunity to buy a gun and practice with it, that I did a one-eighty. geegee

 

[Mark Tyson]

I've always been liberal-leaning. I used to be mildly against gun ownership. It just wasn't an issue that affected me very much. Now I understand that RKBA is a part of our heritage as a free people.

 

[cool45auto]

Always Pro Gun, guns are cool.

 

[MyRoad]

It wasn't an all or nothing proposition when I was growing up. For some reason, rifles were OK - they were tools. My dad had a Stevens .22 pump for taking care of rats in the chicken coop, and a shotgun for two legged invaders. But for some reason, handguns had a bad connotation - they were only for cops and criminals. I had a Crossman 760 BB rifle as a kid.

In my 20's, I didn't understand the need for "assualt weapons" by the general public, and bought into a bit of what the media threw at me - so by my current terms, I was part-anti. When I started to get interested in shooting again in the last few years, I was exposed to the political and constitutional aspects of gun ownership. Now I'm somewhere between "come and get them!" and "...from my cold dead fingers!". It's been a heck of a journey... but there's no going back now.

 

[hops]

Guess I've been pro-gun since at least the age of 5, when one day, I proudly proclaimed, "When I'm big I'm going to America to get a gun and shoot Russians." Living surrounded by the Berlin wall, watching American westerns and US military hardware on parade, at age 5 had a small influnce on my very pro-gun views. I was in America 4 years later - shooting my first rifle.

ps: Russians are ok. It's communists I was really after.

 

[spacemanspiff]

my first exposure to firearms was when i was about 12 iirc. i found my brothers jennings .22 pistol under his bed and looked at the schematic in the manual. i took it apart and inspected it, then put it back together.

after that i never gave guns much thought, other than they were dangerous and that if i ever fired one i'd probably be knocked on my rump like i saw happen on tv.

my first gun i bought cause it looked cool, AA Arms AP-9. its a POS really. even after shooting it i never saw myself owning other guns or being enthused about shooting. i found TFL in my search for replacement parts for my ap-9 and soon discovered i was misled by the media in regards to guns.
my turning point was when i discovered that the ratio of firearm-related deaths has not increased to match gun ownership over the last 30 years. in fact, firearm deaths really have decreased, they are NOT at all-time highs, it is NOT an epidemic, and merely having a gun around kids does not mean they are going to be massacred.

 

[Mauserlady]

Never had guns in the house growing up and they were never talked about good or bad, so I really never thoght about it... Ma married a guy that was a hunter when I was in Jr. High and to be honest, I don't know if he had any of his guns at the house. Probably not.

First real experience with them was a friend in Jr. High who's dad took us out and let us shoot a shotgun. After I picked my butt up outta the dirt I didn't care if I ever saw a gun again, and at the same time didn't care if others had them...

Next experience was approx. 6 years ago when I rented a room to a Parole Officer. Knew he had them and didn't really much care either. I also knew that he was locking them in a high cupboard in his room when not on his person so my (at the time) young daughters getting to them never even crossed my mind...

Next and latest experience was when I met David 3.5 years ago.. I've told that story enough and I'm sure y'all know where I now stand on the issue...

Not sure about my Dad (we've never talked about it) but I can say with all honesty that my Ma is an anti but I believe part of it is fear. She jumped back in shock when she saw my MKII laying on the work bench, even though it was disassembled for cleaning. My bad, I laughed... Sis I'm also not too sure about but i know BIL is/was a shooter as he and David went out shooting in the morning before we got married...

So there ya have it... Not an anti by any stretch but didn't really care either way for others.

 

[Matt G]

Well, predictably, we have a high # of responses that indicate being born with smokeless powder mixed in our baby formula. Heck, I was one.

Keep 'em coming. This is interesting.

 

[Fudgie Ghost]

I never leaned against guns because you could bend the barrel that way.

 

[sensei]

Born in a typically southern family Several hunting guns around. A couple of handguns around. Bow and Arrows, etc. Taught how to use them at an early age.

Went to Viet Nam. I felt that all of the Bad Guys should have their guns taken away from them. Never changed my mind about that.

Came home and felt naked without a firearm. Had plenty around my house and kept a rifle in my truck. Got a CHL as soon as possible.

I guess I would be considered PRO GUN.

sensei

 

[Holly76201]

Matt,
to make a long story short {if you want the long story, see my 1st post in the White Wing thread} I became afraid of guns after a family accident when I was a child. Becoming a mother changed that and I learned to shoot and was enthusiastic if not proficient by the time we met, some 8 years or so later.
Holly

 

[Werewolf]

Kaylee told us:

Who knew ten years later when Daddy said "well, I guess Some Guns are okay, but no one should have Assault Weapons" I'd be able to excuse myself for a sec, and return with an AR-15 and a smile... "you mean like this one?"

If it isn't too forward would you regale us with your Dad's reaction, please?

As an aside a lot of you seem to be embarassed at having been a *liberal* when you were younger. There's no need to feel that way.

As someone once said:

If you're not a liberal when you're young you don't have a heart and if you're not a conservative by the time you hit middle age you don't have a brain.

The attitudes expressed here just goes to show that your average gun owner has both a heart and a brain.

 

[Quartus]

If you're not a liberal when you're young you don't have a heart and if you're not a conservative by the time you hit middle age you don't have a brain.

My problem was I ALWAYS had both a heart and a brain, so naturally I couldn't be a liberal - I had to be a Constitutional conservative. (To distinguish myself from the Bush kind of "conservative")

 

[greyhound]

When I REALLY think about it, my neutral stance changed due to 3 issues:

1. A gun battle in a warehouse down the street, when the burglars live a few houses down from me. Nothing like reading your block # in the paper when it lists the criminal's address.

2. Knowing that there are people out there who want us to forcibly convert to Islam/institute Sharia law. (9/11)

3. Knowing that people are so sick that a svengali and his sidekick will shoot people pumping gas/getting off the bus they drive/buying stuff at Home Depot. If you're not from around here you CANNOT imagine what it was like.

The first two incidents were a wake up call, the last was like an airhorn blown in your ear at 3:00 AM.

Never again will I rely on anyone else to protect me and mine.

 

[Holly76201]

Matt,
to make a long story short {if you want the long story, see my 1st post in the White Wing thread} I became afraid of guns after a family accident when I was a child. Becoming a mother changed that and I learned to shoot and was enthusiastic if not proficient by the time we met, some 8 years or so later.
Holly

 

[durango]

I wrote a report in high school about the need for gun control based on a book I found in the school library. I grew up in a fairly liberal, democratic household and I thought at the time that every sensible person believed in gun control. When I gave my oral report in class, you wouldn't have believed it... the teacher actually challenged my conclusions quite firmly. (I wouldn't think the NEA would allow such a thing!!). Didn't give me a bad grade, but he really made me think. Years later I had a good friend who owned a ruger MKII and I was introduced to plinking. Had such a good time I bought my first gun, a Single Six. A few years later, after an incident in a laundramat where I was accosted by a couple of gangbangers, I realized for the first time that the police are not there to protect us, they are there to help pick up the pieces and start investigations. I now have an everchanging collection of firearms and a CCW. Now my kids are going to the range with me to start learning gun safety and the joys of a .22

I had a coach who used to tell me "even a cockroach can learn". Same goes for liberals.

 

[Zark-9]

OK, I need to weigh in here. We never had real guns in the house until I was about 13 when my dad, who I had never seen handle a gun, produced his old 20 guage he had stored and gave it to me. Its odd, but when I think back on it, he had already taught me the 4 basics when I was a 5 year old playing with my cap pistols and an 8 year old when I got my first Daisy. I think it meant more because he also made sure I understood the difference between toys and weapons, and that I was basically in the posession of toys and had to learn some things first. Later, with his encouragement, I remember getting a kit and reblueing the barrel of that shotgun.

In my "liberal years" I really didn't think about it much but I did contract some contagious thought disorders from my peers. These disorders included ..."guns are ok if you are a hunter", "if you were a real sportsman, why in the world would you need more than a single shot", "no wonder the crime rate is up ...look at all the guns out there", and the ever popular "of course the founding fathers meant for the 2nd amendment to refer to the National Guard!"

I am pleased to report that I have now been cured of these afflictions by the helpful efforts of some very good people, I remember what my Dad taught me so many years ago, and I am quite comfortable with my transformation into a responsible gun owner who understands what he carries, why he carries it, and the debt he owes to so many who gave all so that he can.