Why do YOU keep DOING It?

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Werewolf

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What is it about firearms and shooting them that keeps you doing it?

After all it is a very expensive hobby if you indulge in it regularly. It's loud and can cause permanent hearing loss. Depending on the weapon it can potentially be painful to shoot. It can be tedious and boring to clean 'em up afterwards. In many cases you get to be treated like a criminal by your government for even daring to want to own one. God forbid you should ever use one to protect your life or the life of others - the government could ruin more than a few days and your financial well being for having the audacity to imagine that your life is worth more than the life of some scumbag who wants your stuff or worse your life. If you run into the wrong type of LEO who is ignorant of the law and you are CCW'ng your day can go downhill real, real fast.

Dang - that's a lot of bad stuff - but still I continue to acquire new firearms and love shooting every single one of 'em.

MY ANSWER:

I'm an instant gratification freak - for real. What that means is that when I do something I want to know right now what the results are. In real life the career path down which I've trod more often than not means I must wait weeks, months or sometimes years to see the results of what I do. I don't like that at all - I put up with it because - well - one's got to make a living

So the stuff I do for me is usually stuff that provides instant or almost instant feedback. For example I trade in the stockmarket heavily (even did a stint as a self employed day trader once). It is rare for me to hold a stock for more than a month. Usually I'm in and out within a week. But as fun as that is it's not instant gratification and waiting to see what a particular stock is gonna do can be nerve wracking (still fun though).

Which leads me to guns. The gratification from firing them is almost instant. You aim, pull the trigger and in a few milliseconds you immediately know the results of your action. "Damn - that sucker went dead center - cool" or "Crap - how'd that one miss so bad". AND then I can take action to correct the problem or reinforce what I did that was good. And the skill is always improving.

And that's the gist of it. It's why I put up with all the potential BS involved with shooting. It provides me with instant gratification while doing something that is both fun and improves a valuable and useful skill.

HOW ABOUT YOU?
 
- Because I can. I have a right to keep and bear arms.

-Personal responsibility. To myself,and those close to me. To protect my rights, To teach and pass the knowledge and skills to others. Tradition - I feel is necessary be it the Constitutional, or shooting aspects.

-I enjoy firearms. hunting, sport shooting, historical, learning and helping others to learn, being with like minded persons.

-I want to.
 
All the normal considerations aside, such as defense, satisfaction of skill, upholding American ideals....

For me, it's a zen thing.
 
For me, a big part of the love of firearms is the love of hunting. I love to hunt because:

-Like many sources of recreation, it is an odd mixture of relaxation and excitement. In upland game hunting, for example, there is the relaxing long walk with good friends, punctuated by the adrenaline rush of the flush and the shots.

-Hunting always puts you outdoors where you can enjoy the beauty of the world and its wildlife.

-There is a deep satisfaction, probably in our genes, from procuring your own food for you and yours. Scientists tell us we are hunter/gatherers, after all.

And the practice for hunting--at the bench, or with clays, or whatever, echoes all the relaxing/exciting/satisfying emotions that come with hunting.

Another part of it, though, is self-reliance--the comfort that comes from knowing I could defend myself and my family if necessary.

I am calmer, more secure, more aware, when carrying concealed. And again, when I am at the range or running drills, I get a satisfaction that relates to that security. I am reminded by the successful completion of a drill that I have the skill to potentially avoid or prevent a threatening encounter. I am not prey. I am a protector of myself and my own.
 
For me, it's another reason to be outdoors. It gets me out in god's country, where I can see, hear and smell things that most people never get to experience. I also like the feeling of being personally responsible for my own well being, and that of my family. I'm very independent, and I like it that way. It represents a piece of my heritage and history since both my father and grandfather served in our armed forces. They fought to uphold american freedoms and ideals, and they both loved and appreciated those liberties that responsible gun ownership represented. I get my enthusiasm for firearms from those kind of men. I want to emulate that kind of patriotism. The old school kind.
 
why the hobby....

Werewolf,
Very interesting post and you do bring up some reasons to not get into this hobby of ours.

I've always had an interest in firearms. From when I was a kid, I was fascinated with playing cowboys and indians, army etc.

I stay in this hobby for several reasons:
1)independance -by owning and becoming proficient with a firearm, I can develop the skills to put meat on the table without having to rely on the super markets etc. Also, I don't have to rely on the policeman to come to my house at 2am to remove a goblin that is/was trying to harm my family.

2) Fascination -I find firearms absolutely fascinating tools. The technology of using a combustible material to propel a projectile has been around for what, 800 years or so? Yet there are many varieties of firearms, calibers, etc.

3) Character building -owning and using a firearm requires the user to take on a great amount of responsibility to use the tool safely. Becoming proficient with a firearm requires discipline, confidence, etc. A person can use a firearm to learn these characteristics as well as many other characteristics, like interest in the outdoors, comeraderie with other enthusiasts, competiveness, strive for excellance, etc.

4) Rebeliousness -Although a less noble reason, I'll admit to also pursing the shooting sports out of rebelliousness against the antis. As long as I'm safe, I don't think that the rebelliousness is a harmful situation.

5) challenge -the challenge to be more accurate with a firearm is fascinating and interesting.

That's a partial list of my reasons for pursuing the shooting sports.

-Jim
 
I think it is a practical and rewarding hobby. I can use my guns as tools to hunt with - I can play at target shooting (at which I am too inconsistant to be good) - I can defend myself and family if the need arrises - It allows me to collect all sorts of interesting, historic, and beautiful works of art (IMHO), and the guns maintain most of their value over time, with some appreciating greatly. I've been in love with guns since my childhood days; most likely inspired by the old B&W cowboy shows on TV. But during the turbulent sixties, I learned that self defense was not just a TV fantasy...it was a matter of life and death, even in the heart of middle America.
 
a) It is fun

b) It is my duty:
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce
and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate,
state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject
or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of
the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear
arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I
will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United
States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national
importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I
take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose
of evasion; so help me God.
Click to expand...
 
Kind of a "Zen" thing for me....

I find that when i am at the range, no matter what else is causing me grief, I can block out those things and relax; concentrate on shooting. good stress relief for me. {and all that stuff everybody else said, too!}
 
Kind of a "Zen" thing for me....
I find that when i am at the range, no matter what else is causing me grief, I can block out those things and relax; concentrate on shooting. good stress relief for me. {and all that stuff everybody else said, too!}
Click to expand...

Zen...
For me too really and I'm surprised that I failed to mention it in my original post. When I'm on the range I can get into a zone where the rest of the world just plain ceases to exist or almost anyway. No worries, nothing to agitate or cause frustration, just the target out there and the concentration it takes to put lead down range right into the center of it.

That feeling is even more pronounced when I'm shooting at an IPSC event. There are times when I have become so focused on the targets and shooting the stage that I literally (and quite unintentionally) block out the rest of the world 100%. The only other times that has happened is when I was in life threatening situations. A strange but not unpleasant state of being where time is expanded and one's mind is set on one and only one thing - ignoring all other external stimulus.
 
I don't WANT to shoot these things!

I'd much rather be hugging a tree or trying to save Bambi from all the sadists out there spoiling the ecosystem. I'd rather go protest at the state capitol on behalf of the VPC, watch Oprah and Rosie, participate in the MMM and vote Democrat.

If I could I would be lobbying liberal politicians to develop more socialist programs. I'd get your kids out of private schools, save inner city youths, ban books, boycott leather and eat vegetarian.

But my father and both of my grandfathers left me a bunch of guns, and (sobbing) in a moment of weakness in my youth (and last Thurday) I bought a few guns. I was bespelled under their demon sorcery into purchasing ammo, holsters, reloading equipment, accessories, tools, targets, cleaning supplies, and attending gun school. Horrors!

Now I'm such a slave to the guns and their truck; I haven't time to devote to the better things in life. So I bear the burden of my forebearers and just keep shooting them. :(

Smoke

:neener:
 
one of several reasons from my 22 years on this earth:

When I was younger, Mom was married to an abusive drunk, not owning any firearms, she was forced to defend herself and her children with table legs, saucepans, coffeepots, chairs, lamps, you name it, she fought back with it. If she hadnt been so resourceful, I doubt she would have lived to this day. If she had been armed, I doubt she would have met so many cops, had so many hospital visits and a friend of hers wouldnt have been raped.

Despite having two kids, he won't come here. He wont call. He wont write. He knows the 9 year old stepson he had is now a grown man that was still standing after every fistfight, even after fighting a guy twice my weight or jumped by six guys. He knows I own several firearms and have plenty of rangetime. He knows I'll protect my family at all costs.

Mom told him this on the phone not long after he got out. He hasn't called since.

Ironicly, I guess I should thank him. He tought me at an early age that the police arent always there before the dust settles, and our own protection is our own responsibilty. I realize I wont be able to level the playing feild in all situations, but I can better my odds. Thats why I started. Thats why I keep going.
 
Last edited:
Some good answers here, and I'll add one that I think is at work much of the time, but we don't realize it.

When a person buys a gun he is often buying a dream. Every time he holds that .458, or that double rifle his friends thought he was crazy to buy, he is on that safari he'll probably never make.

With his Pre-War M70, he's sitting around a campfire in Colorado, on an elk hunt with old friends now dead.

He's winning the Wimbledon Cup or some other match with his long range target rifle that he seldom shoots any more, but the last time he did, it put five shots under a nickel at 200 yards, and he can see that target just as well as if he were holding it.

He's shooting next to Rob Leatham (and beating him) with the high-dollar racegun he bought but hasn't fired yet.

All of a sudden he's on a horse in Wyoming with his $1,500 custom Linebaugh .475 in a flap holster, instead of thinking about how he's going to swing the $15,000 new kitchen his wife wants.

With his prewar S&W .44 Special and IWB holster he's shoulder to shoulder with Jelly Bryce, about to take on an armed robber holed up in a cheap motel room.

This is why you so often hear a man say "I never should have sold that gun." He sold it because he hadn't shot it in years, it was just sitting in the safe, and his wife wanted new appliances. He didn't realize the tremendous power it had to bring his dreams closer.

What gun brings YOUR dreams closer?

JR
 
John Ross asked:
What gun brings YOUR dreams closer?
Click to expand...

My Win M94 in 45 Colt. Hands Down...

Figuring out why shouldn't be too hard - I grew up in the 50's - different times. Now I get to play for real - well - kinda anyway.
 
I shoot because I enjoy the power. A fine firearm in my hands and the skill to use it well give me great control over my surroundings. I may never need that power, nor have I ever had cause to use it, but it is gratifying to have it nonetheless. One of the gunwriters said it pretty well: a gun realizes the ancient Greek dream of Zeus throwing his thunderbolts down on the land from on top of Mt. Olympus. I like being Zeus.

Society may consider this attitude to be "uncivilized" these days. So be it.


I also shoot to spite the anti's.

- John
 
Sort of like explaining why I like the color blue or the taste of spicy chili...I just do.

But here's what I can come up with:

I enjoy firearms because:

* target and competitive shooting
* hunting
* history...pick up a Garand, Trapdoor, Sharps, lever action...they just reek of it
* the firearm in all its forms is a mechanical and chemical marvel
* they can be a fine piece of art
* collecting stuff can be fun
* shooting can teach responsibility
* it's my duty to protect family, country and self
* sometimes it's just fun to shoot stuff


Oh, wait, I just read John Ross' reason...dang, I wish I had written that...that's pure poetry.
 
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