Why do people become anti-gun?

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Part of it is sensationalism

If 150 people are killed in an airplane crash, it makes world headlines

There are 150 killed every day in the US in autos and it doesn't even get a quick mention
 
The biggest reason people don't like guns is because they come from the world view where whatever we're talking about, it's always someone else's problem - and most likely the government's problem.

Guns represent the individual taking care of business. People who are antigun generally have coniptions at the thought of you and me living our lives unhindered. If you think about it, they're generally the type who also have a problem with gas guzzling vehicles, not recycling, and optional driver-side airbags.

With a gun in my hand, I am as powerful as a police officer, and depending on the gun, maybe even a soldier. We're talking about people who have successfully controlled how much waste will fit down my toilet. How thrilled do you think they are with the idea of me shooting someone when I get mugged?
 
Mainly, I think because some people are impelled to force other people to think and act as they believe. Notice that few people on the pro-gun side want to force anti-gunners to keep and bear arms -- and when it happens, it makes national news (and the pro-gunners always leave an out for those who really don't want to own a gun.)
 
Well, for one there are a lot of people out there that have very limited access and experience with fire arms, and on top of that firearms are continuosly misrepresented in the media (news, movies, bozo celebrity comments). All they know are lies and half-truths. They are just plain ignorant.

To make things worse, firearms are very noisy. If all firearms came with integrated sound suppresors from the factory I feel that people in general wouldn't fear them as much.

As a final thought it is in the Government's best interest that its subjects fear modern weaponry.That way the people won't procure firearms themselves and they will cower away from the only people that have them:The people in power and their employees;the Government does nothing to support or promote the 2nd A and everything to undermine it.
 
They're just jealous because we have fun shooting our guns. If they'd quit singing Kumbaya and let go of each other's hands long enough to pick up a firearm and go target shooting, they just might enjoy themselves.

But seriously, I think they hear the news reports where the reporter is speaking about the shooting in a sad pitiful voice, and then they get all emotional about those "bad ol' guns"!!!
 
People dont think, they just repeat things they hear that make sense to them.


They news makes Guns = Death make alot of sense to alot of people. Just because something makes sense dosnt make it true
 
I think many have had a tragic event involving a firearm happen to their loved ones during their life. I'm exchanging email right now with an anti activist who lost family members to a 16 year old with a gun. To her the problem is kids have or can get guns. Most of us I believe would say there are deeper social issue to blame. I can certainly understand the raw emotion that must drive you after something like that.

For the rest of people I think its largely that alot of people aren't raised in households that care about guns at all. The most common way they form their opinion is from the information gleaned from the mainstream media which is traditionally quite biased.

Most people don't talk about or consider the possibility that while we have a functional government now that it may become oppressive at some point in the future. For some reason people assume you're saying lets start a militia and overthrow it and won't open themselves to the possibility that sometimes men do terrible things to their countrymen. I guess in a way thats a wonderful testament to how great we have it and how long its been that way while also being a sad reminder that many have forgotten the heritage that has made us the free nation we all love today.

Most people are also very protected from the time they are children on. Its almost unthinkable to many that at some point they actually have no parent figure (be it actual parents or government) to protect them. We have cell phones and police, help is just around the corner. Most people will never have to be self reliant in such a fashion in their lives and figure anyone with a gun is looking to do harm and not protect themselves.

Most importantly I think we have to ask ourselves how we can keep people from going anti-gun or turn them. The answer isn't how much money you send the NRA in exchange for the newest magazine or collectable truck stop crap they're offering. Take a new shooter to the range as often as you can. I've taken several people of both genders and I have yet to have one come back that didn't have fun. Their pre-shooting ideas ranged from pure anti to no real opinion. After shooting they've all wanted to go again and while not all have become the 100% 2nd amendment supporters I would like, I don't think any could be called anti anymore. A couple are going to become gun owners themselves.

I think the impact of someone firing a gun and seeing that they work nowhere near the way hollywood or the brady group had led them to believe is just overpowering. Its one thing to talk about "bullet hoses" and hip shooting. Its quite another when someone actually sees guns are tremendously loud, have recoil, and a target that seems so close could wind up being oh so hard to actually hit where you intend.
 
Anti-Gun Propaganda.........

...........starting at an early age. It's everywhere.

On Tuesday, a kid in Springfield Twp., Pa, outside of Philly, brought an "assault rifle" to school. He fired 5 rounds into a cinder-block wall, and the 6th into his own head.

The next day, some sort of anti-gun rally was held. The school board made sure that there were a bunch of little kids from the local grade-schools in attendance.

Just one example.
 
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He fired 5 rounds into a cynder-block wall, and the 6th into his own head.

The next day, some sort of anti-gun rally was held.
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I wonder what would happen to automobile culture if the same reasoning was applied.

"He drove his car into a cynder-block wall, driving a two-pound chunk of a cynder-block into his own head.

The next day, some sort of anti-car rally was held."
 
Because they read the chest beating and brevado on gun forums.."My cold dead hands", let them try and take it", "Would you join the revolution","How far would you go to keep your guns" and all of the other anti-gov't, anti-police rhetoric.....
 
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Many people develop their beliefs (including there anti-gun beliefs) as a means to belong with those around them. Condsider an 18 year old kid that never gave the issue a second thought until he finds himself standing on a liberal college campus with tables of liberal orginizations han ing out anti-gun material. Such a group will welcome him with open arms if he imbraces their beliefs. Being alone in a strange new place with a crowd willing to accept him as one of their own, its not hard for him to see their views as very persuasive.

Some other reasons are: early indoctination, using false logic in reaction to a trady and using false logic to foster a feeling that the person is doing something meaningful (saving others for those bad instruments of death) with his/her life.
 
Zen

Good points. A desire to fit in with those around them
is something that afflicts adults as well. I have often won debates with antis, simply because no one had ever taken an opposing view. They don't know what to say. They look like someone just hit them in the back of the head with a shovel. Often, they wind up agreeing with me, at least to my face.
 
I think the most prevalent is ignorance. People fear that which they do not understand.

That, coupled with media bombardment of "if it has a gun, it's a criminal, or a bigoted cop who is gonna write you a ticket and have you strip searched over jaywalking in the wrong neighborhood" has a LOT of the middle of the road leaning toward anti...

Good news is that those folks are swayable. Take one of 'em shooting.
 
Here's why I was Anti-gun:
It was a multitude of different factors:
  • No emphasis placed on firearms growing up, good or bad.
  • Historical aspects of 2nd Amendment in schools focused on the group right, not the individual right
  • Media Portrayal of guns, I grew up in the DC area. Every night there would be crime posts and gunshot murders
  • Didn't understand target shooting, or hunting. I thought both were silly and dated and that their practitioners should change
  • Thought that the police could be everywhere at any time.

That's really it for starters.

TJ
 
People dont think, they just repeat things they hear that make sense to them.

They news makes Guns = Death make alot of sense to alot of people. Just because something makes sense dosnt make it true
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I call this the "Fastnet 79 Syndrome."

Fastnet is a yacht race, from Portsmouth, England, around Fastnet Rock off the coast of Ireland and back. In 1979, while the racing fleet was at sea, a major storm hit, several yachts were sunk and several people died. The race committee afterwards held a meeting to try to prevent such a disaster from happening again, and someone seriously proposed that racing yachts not be allowed to carry life rafts!! Or if they did carry them they would have to be stowed "so as not to be accessable to the crew whilst at sea."

Now I can see people shaking their heads at this. Why would anyone make such a proposal?

Well, in studying what happened, they found that everyone who died either died in a life raft, or while abandoning ship. No life rafts, no one can abandon ship, and no one will die, right?:banghead:

Oooookay, Einstein, what happens when the bleemin yacht sinks? Do we just walk across the water?
 
It was a multitude of different factors:

* No emphasis placed on firearms growing up, good or bad.
* Historical aspects of 2nd Amendment in schools focused on the group right, not the individual right
* Media Portrayal of guns, I grew up in the DC area. Every night there would be crime posts and gunshot murders
* Didn't understand target shooting, or hunting. I thought both were silly and dated and that their practitioners should change
* Thought that the police could be everywhere at any time.
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My wife grew up in a similar situation, but add on top of that her first "experience" with firearms was that in high school her best friend committed suicide with one.

Honestly, what I don't understand is why so many of you guys don't understand anti-gun types. Firearms are dangerous. Firearms are powerful. Firearms are shrouded in a cloak of myth and stereotypes. For someone who has had no experience with them, or worse yet someone whose experiences were those of my wife, it's very easy to understand why they would think "firearms are dangerous, we're better off to prevent danger". If you can't understand their position, I suggest you sit back for a moment, take a deep breath, and think about it. Sure, it's a position I disagree with for many reasons, but it isn't that difficult of a position to understand.

Seriously, stop for a minute, think about what you truly believe. If the RKBA is truly that important to you, can't you see how understanding your enemy is so much better than resorting to slander?

Think about the car analogy. How many here are saying we should get rid of seatbelts? To these people it's the same thing, they see a danger, and want it to be minimized. The problem is they are focusing on the tiny part of the system, and don't understand the higher level dangers that disarming a populace imposes. The trick is to be smarter than they are. To them their beliefs on the situation are rather rational and we seem to be the irrational ones. Education, not name calling, will be the solution.

For instance:

Guns represent the individual taking care of business. People who are antigun generally have coniptions at the thought of you and me living our lives unhindered.
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No, in my experience they honestly believe that there's no "business" to take care of. Until you understand that at the person-to-person level, you will not advance our goals, you will only serve to lump anyone who is "anti-gun" into some nebulous "them liberals" cloud.
 
I'm impressed...

...with your responses, typical of what I'd expect from THR members.
Media influence is indeed powerful, especially with its "If it bleeds, it leads" policy. I like the suggestions that have been made to actively engage antis with rational conversation in an effort to change their views, and include them in your shooting experiences.

I think the next ten years are going to be especially pivotal and dramatic with respect to our 2nd Amendment rights. I've read extreme dire predictions that "there will be no gun industry or private gun ownership after eight years of a Hitlery presidency." During Clinton I, FFL licenses decreased from 250,000 to about 50,000, our military was trashed, and thousands of military grade CMP firearms were destroyed. During Clinton II, predictions are that FFL's will be reduced to 5000 or less. This may just be rhetoric, but I believe anything we can do as responsible gun owners to get our message across will hopefully prevent further erosion of our rights. Education is the key, plus supporting and electing leaders who will speak out loudly for liberty.

Maybe I'm being simplistic, but we have to be diligent in expanding our numbers, while at the same time reducing the number of antis if our rights are to survive.
 
Maybe I'm being simplistic, but we have to be diligent in expanding our numbers, while at the same time reducing the number of antis if our rights are to survive.
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Curly, THR has a pretty good "signal to noise ratio" when compared with most internet boards.

As far as "expanding our numbers" -- my wife, whose first experience with firearms was that tragic loss of a friend to suicide, now has three of her own guns, with three more on the way. She understands the guns are tools, and that their use, good or bad, is up to people.

It is always about people. That's why I made the comment that we should understand our enemy on a person-to-person level, and not lump them in to a group. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- that's all something that happens on an individual level. All that is can only be experienced at the individual level. When we reach out to individuals, we can teach them and share our values.
 
1. Ignorance
2. The press demonizing dangerous objects, remember they report what sells and gets ratings not always what is news
3. A firearm was part of a tragedy, suicide, murder, etc. It is easier to blame the gun.

When I was in high school there was member of my church group who killed himself with a firearm. The church brought in a therapist to talk to us. She spent the whole time blaming the gun. Years late I found out the real reason why he killed himself. He was battling a drug and alcohol addiction that stemmed from abuse as a child.

Most people do not have a strong opinion about guns positive or negative. What they know is purely based on Hollywood and the press. Probably the two worst sources of information. As usual the best way to fight ignorance about most subjects is education.
 
No, in my experience they honestly believe that there's no "business" to take care of. Until you understand that at the person-to-person level, you will not advance our goals, you will only serve to lump anyone who is "anti-gun" into some nebulous "them liberals" cloud.
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This is the single most intelligent thing I've read here in a long, long time.
 
There are a number of reasons:

1. Ignorance - Most rank and file gun control supporters I've known were completely ignorant of firearms. They don't know a single shot 12ga. from a 5"-38 naval rifle. The rest were completely ignorant of certain areas of firearms, being incapable, for example, of distinguishing between automatic and semi-automatic firearms. The leadership of the gun control industry prey upon the ignorance of these people the way the leaders of the Holocaust denial movement prey upon their followers.

2. Malice - A lot of gun control advocates aren't afraid of guns. They're afraid of Black people, Hispanics, etc. with guns. I've seen anti-gunners in the internet display their racism over and over again for more than a decade. In addition, there's a strong streak of misogyny in the anti-gun movement. Many times I've seen anti-gunners declare that women will "have their guns taken away" by an attacker, or even worse, that a woman with a concealed firearm will simply shoot the first man who stops her to ask directions. Paradoxically, the same people who claim that a woman can't stop a man from taking her gun from her, claim that she can at the same time defend herself WITHOUT a gun using the martial arts.

3. Un-American Ideology - I've seen more than a few anti-gunners who are simply nihilists and support ANY use of governmental authority without reference to right or wrong. These people fear the ability of people to resist governmental oppression. These people actually condemn the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto and Sobibor for violently resisting their own murders. They view ANY resistance to governmental oppression as more evil than the oppression itself, even genocide.
 
I was thinking just like kb2 responded as I thumbed thru the responses.

Traumatic experience are much more likely due to autos than guns but the media dont rally on autos and alcohol like guns.
 
It has been my experience that most "anti's" have had some kind of personal incident with firearms, or have been force fed incorrect information from the media. This does not however mean that they have to end up as "anti's". One girl I knew was incredibly nervous around firearms due to some personal event that she never was willing to go into, but had no problem with others owning them.

My best friend's girlfriend had never shot before (typical northeastern upper class type girl), so one day I took them. On the way to the range she started to get really quiet and nervous. I asked what she was afraid of, and when she told me she was afraid somebody would get shot, I calmy reassured her that we would all be fine. At the range, she ended up deciding that the 10/22 was quite fun and put up some pretty good scores. When we got back into the car, I reminded her that nobody had any extra holes, and she laughed and told me how much more comfortable she was, and how she was surprised how much she enjoyed herself. Was she a "convert"? Not really, but by the time she was done, she had a grasp on why people enjoyed the sport so much.
 
At the range, she ended up deciding that the 10/22 was quite fun and put up some pretty good scores.
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Sometimes it seems that proper application of the "lowly" Ruger 10/22 has done far more to advance our common goals than all the letter writing, lobbying, and "politicin'" combined. My wife first learned to shoot on a 10/22; I later bought a stainless one for her 21st birthday, her first gun.
 
too often it comes about because of a tragedy
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I think the tragedy scenario is a rarity. I've had one uncle mangled by farm equipment(most of him lived) and one almost killed by farm equipment. Early on you just learn that STUPID KILLS. It's one of the benefits of a farm education. I'm neither anti farm, nor equipment used therein, as a result.

That aside, the most common anti gun sentiment I've found is the totally clueless blisninny state of mind. The mentality that people aren't evil, guns are, and if we just take the guns away, they'll all behave...:banghead:
Dan
 
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