I work with quite a few millennials and Gen Z types who have grown up indoors on video games and anime. They are completely cut off from reality and the outside world. I have been confronted multiple times as to why I own firearms and why I enjoy them.
I worked 26 years with state government before retirement with hundreds of millennial and Gen Z coworkers who also grew up indoors playing video games watching anime and reading manga (Like Gen X me in my teenage years and in my 20s).
While they were cut off from reality of outdoors (I grew up riding dirt bikes in Mojave Desert/Red Rock Canyon and hiked all over Southern CA mountains with Vietnam vet stepfather with aspirations of joining the Army so I could tell my kids/grand kids war stories too), they were keenly aware of weapons and firearms watching likes of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun -
https://quotetheanime.com/recommendations/best-anime-with-guns/
And while I played Quake/Unreal in early 90s and transitioned to Call of Duty/
America's Army after my stint in the US Army, many of these millennials/Zoomers were quite familiar with firearms and curious about them. So when they found out I shot USPSA matches and had AKs/ARs/SKS/shotguns along with 1911/Sig P226 (X Files was popular with FBI issue weapon and why I got my German model)/Makarov/Tokarev/CZ 52/Glocks, we had shooting/range days where they got to handle and shoot these firearms.
Of course they enjoyed shooting guns to actualize their video game/anime/manga dreams in real life and many of them went onto becoming gun owners later in their lives.
And when progressive liberal feminist LGBTQ anti-gun coworkers asked why I was into guns, I asked them what they would do if gang bangers kicked in their doors because they got the wrong house (Sad but true reality for several CA cities I lived in) and raped/killed home owners/occupants even though they cooperated as gang initiation because calling 911 won't help them at that moment.
When I told them my house was broken into three times with me confronting the intruder once (And believe me, you fight like you train) thanks to my martial arts/Army training, apprehended the intruder until police arrived; other coworkers told stories of being burglarized/robbed.
So when anti-gun coworkers got depressed/anxious because they knew crime/victimization happened in the same town/city we both lived in (Gang bangers don't discriminate whether victims are pro/anti-gun), I would use a pencil laser pointer as gun barrel and demonstrated "point shooting" by putting red dot within an inch of anything inside the office (Door knob, light switch, etc.). When their eyes got big and smiled, I told them gun ownership is "self defense rights issue" and offered to teach defensive point shooting taught to me by my defensive shooting instructor who taught PD/SD SWAT teams starting with "
Natural Point of Aim" then moving onto 4 hour instruction on point shooting outlined here -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/flinching-drills.864546/page-2#post-11416785
Many of anti-gun coworkers ended up becoming gun owners and when new anti-gun coworkers end up talking about guns with other coworkers, they tell them, "Talk to John and he will teach you to shoot with your eyes closed".
... And I reach for the pencil laser pointer.
One of three agencies I worked for surveying hospitals/health care facilities had large district office in Bakersfield, CA (We occupied the entire floor of high rise building) ... full of progressive liberal feminist LGBTQ anti-gun coworkers but in the heartland of gang banger home invasion robberies. Most were not happy that I shot USPSA matches and had guns (I was actually thinking about moving up to shooting 3-gun at this time as 3-gunners kept inviting me to their stages and I actually ran a stage using pistol only and managed to hit popper launched clay pigeon on my third attempt but I was impressed how fast they shot and reloaded their shotguns). When I returned from a week long survey one day, I was met by coworkers with tears in their eyes because someone they knew got victimized and they wanted me to take them to the range and teach them to shoot.
When I inquired why, one by one admitted they all knew somebody who were victimized and latest victimization was the final straw.
I ended up taking the entire office to the range and taught them abbreviated natural point of aim/point shooting. They all got guns and some of them even CCW permits. I helped district manager finalize her master's degree multi-media project and she is an avid runner/jogger. She now runs with Glock 26 strapped to her person, everywhere. Carry permits in California? Yes, this was around 2008 when prisons were releasing inmates in
preparation for prison closures. Local police chief and sheriff went on camera annually to discuss limitations of departments' resources and budgetary constraints (Police response was slow stretched thin) and promised gun permit issue to address rising home invasions and Kern County went onto issue record setting number of CCW permits.
About this time, my sister bought a new house on 5 acres in Redding, CA near VA home/air port and since BIL worked away from home often, she was worried about her and children's safety. After being spooked by someone trying to break in, she came down and we went to the range and she shot all of my pistols. She is 5'6" with small hands. One that she liked the best was fullsize M&P40 with small grip insert and she later went onto shooting matches with it outshooting most male shooters. When they moved to Denton, TX for retirement, she goes, "They open carry freely here!" and I told her they were Texans now and should do what Texans do but I did buy them his/her conceal carry pistols (Taurus G2C) as house "moving" gift.
These are some of reasons why Californians and now Texans carry.