Why don't significantly more people own handguns?
- Thread starter BRobb19
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People naturally associate weapons with death and violence. As a whole, people don't (and shouldn't) like death and violence. People beluieve that by avoiding weapoins they can avoid (or prevent) death and violence. They may be wrong, out of touch, etc... but I believe that in their heart of hearts, that is what many people bvelieve- and is why we see so much hostility towards military-type weapons and handguns but a generally warm appear on traditional hunting/civil firearms.
- It's an expensive hobby, and without good local shooting ranges, it's a lot of money for not much hobby time. If the closest range is an hour away and expensive, you are not going to get much trigger time. In a word - urbanization.
- Fewer and fewer people are growing hunting/participating in shooting sports. My guess is that there's a very high correlation between growing in a house where those activities happened and choosing to purchase a handgun as an adult.
- Most people don't perceive themselves to need a handgun for self-defense. Statistically speaking, they are probably correct.
Mike
ArfinGreebly
Moderator Emeritus
No Exposure
Like many folks my age, I did a four-year stint in the military.
They handed me a rifle and pointed me at a target, and had me make holes in a silhouette once a year.
When I was done there, I moved on, figuring that the whole holes-in-the-silhouette thing was someone else's job now.
I had, in fact, grown up in a northern California community where hunting was culturally ingrained and guns were common, but my own family didn't have them. Subtle reasons I was not to figure out until later.
So, here I was, early twenties, out of the .mil, and looking to do something with my life. My education and experience inclined me away from those areas in life where conflict and a constant urgent need for self defense were common. I went off to Europe and spent several years doing the urban version of the "Peace Corps" concept.
Now I'm thirty-something, young family to raise, new geek career, and my associations still kept me away from areas where trouble simmered "just beneath the surface."
It wasn't until I was over fifty that some things changed and I found myself rudely awakened to the idea that "I am SO not prepared for that!"
Then I did what geeks do: I researched. A lot. And the conclusion was manifold. I had spent years in denial, avoiding trouble, as though trouble will leave you alone if you stay where you "belong." I had managed to convince myself that my safety was someone else's job. Yes, really. And I had convinced myself that that guns were kinda dangerous, and the people who had them were a little nutty.
It's not nice, waking up late in life, and realizing that you've allowed a thread of cowardice to compromise your family's safety.
The greatest moral shortcoming of people as a group, at large, is their inability to confront evil. An unwillingness to admit that evil exists. A denial that evil can impact their own lives.
Now, being a bit of a geek, I did what you do, researched and analyzed, shopped and questioned, and finally got a gadget of my own.
Now, some four or five years later, I have some confidence, some competence, and a few more gadgets.
But.
I was over fifty when I figured it out. I had bought into a set of broad cultural memes that had kept me ignorant and frightened for three decades.
Subtle stuff. No close association with firearms growing up. Media characterization -- uniformly disparaging -- of firearms as dangerous. And a tendency of gun owners I knew to be somewhat gruff and terse when questioned about "why."
And if you think about it, "gruff and terse" is hardly surprising. Imagine that you're just a regular guy, and you've taken the obvious step of arming yourself, and some clown who likes to debate all kinds of pointless things inquires "why" you have them?
Things changed slowly, for me, but one of the pivotal events was when the wife of my friend the dentist was murdered. They found her in her van outside their practice. He armed up. He got another pistol for the office and trained all his staff.
And I quit asking "why."
No amount of "logic" and sophomoric argument can compete with real life.
That was the beginning for me.
There are many, many people for whom that "beginning" event just never happens, and the balloon of smugness at their proficiency in debating pointless stuff is never popped.
It doesn't help that there is a discernible effort to move our society away from reality and toward a soft, smug, sophomoric existence, debating the number of angels on a carbon atom, and the best way to blame Man for that.
It's not a tremendous intellectual feat, really, to understand the basics of survival, and to grasp the threats to survival on a personal level. Heck, even I can do it!
It's not hard at all.
Provided you ever start the thought.
Like many folks my age, I did a four-year stint in the military.
They handed me a rifle and pointed me at a target, and had me make holes in a silhouette once a year.
When I was done there, I moved on, figuring that the whole holes-in-the-silhouette thing was someone else's job now.
I had, in fact, grown up in a northern California community where hunting was culturally ingrained and guns were common, but my own family didn't have them. Subtle reasons I was not to figure out until later.
So, here I was, early twenties, out of the .mil, and looking to do something with my life. My education and experience inclined me away from those areas in life where conflict and a constant urgent need for self defense were common. I went off to Europe and spent several years doing the urban version of the "Peace Corps" concept.
Now I'm thirty-something, young family to raise, new geek career, and my associations still kept me away from areas where trouble simmered "just beneath the surface."
It wasn't until I was over fifty that some things changed and I found myself rudely awakened to the idea that "I am SO not prepared for that!"
Then I did what geeks do: I researched. A lot. And the conclusion was manifold. I had spent years in denial, avoiding trouble, as though trouble will leave you alone if you stay where you "belong." I had managed to convince myself that my safety was someone else's job. Yes, really. And I had convinced myself that that guns were kinda dangerous, and the people who had them were a little nutty.
It's not nice, waking up late in life, and realizing that you've allowed a thread of cowardice to compromise your family's safety.
The greatest moral shortcoming of people as a group, at large, is their inability to confront evil. An unwillingness to admit that evil exists. A denial that evil can impact their own lives.
Now, being a bit of a geek, I did what you do, researched and analyzed, shopped and questioned, and finally got a gadget of my own.
Now, some four or five years later, I have some confidence, some competence, and a few more gadgets.
But.
I was over fifty when I figured it out. I had bought into a set of broad cultural memes that had kept me ignorant and frightened for three decades.
Subtle stuff. No close association with firearms growing up. Media characterization -- uniformly disparaging -- of firearms as dangerous. And a tendency of gun owners I knew to be somewhat gruff and terse when questioned about "why."
And if you think about it, "gruff and terse" is hardly surprising. Imagine that you're just a regular guy, and you've taken the obvious step of arming yourself, and some clown who likes to debate all kinds of pointless things inquires "why" you have them?
Things changed slowly, for me, but one of the pivotal events was when the wife of my friend the dentist was murdered. They found her in her van outside their practice. He armed up. He got another pistol for the office and trained all his staff.
And I quit asking "why."
No amount of "logic" and sophomoric argument can compete with real life.
That was the beginning for me.
There are many, many people for whom that "beginning" event just never happens, and the balloon of smugness at their proficiency in debating pointless stuff is never popped.
It doesn't help that there is a discernible effort to move our society away from reality and toward a soft, smug, sophomoric existence, debating the number of angels on a carbon atom, and the best way to blame Man for that.
It's not a tremendous intellectual feat, really, to understand the basics of survival, and to grasp the threats to survival on a personal level. Heck, even I can do it!
It's not hard at all.
Provided you ever start the thought.
22-rimfire
Member
Thoughtful post, ArfinG.
Most everyone HERE already own firearms or are actively planning on buying something soon.
The smugness you speak of is rampant in our society. Many will not experience a life changing event and survive.
The other side of the coin is that I grew up with firearms. It was as normal taking a walk with a 22 rifle or hunting small game as going to the bathroom. Everyone did it that I knew. Only in high school did I start to see that I was growing up "different" from most of the urbanites I was in school with. They called me names and I sunk behind my little shell. I later found out that more than half were jealous of the way I grew up and what was normal.
As I grow older, I see less need for firearms. My wife always says something like... why don't you sell some of them..... most never get shot (etc etc). I carry and am a firm advocate of the 2nd Amendment. But I do it for other people, not necessarily for myself. I haven't even been in a fight since I was in grade school and that was a long time ago. I believe in adequate protection and planning for emergencies whether or not I ever use the stuff for myself.
Most everyone HERE already own firearms or are actively planning on buying something soon.
The smugness you speak of is rampant in our society. Many will not experience a life changing event and survive.
The other side of the coin is that I grew up with firearms. It was as normal taking a walk with a 22 rifle or hunting small game as going to the bathroom. Everyone did it that I knew. Only in high school did I start to see that I was growing up "different" from most of the urbanites I was in school with. They called me names and I sunk behind my little shell. I later found out that more than half were jealous of the way I grew up and what was normal.
As I grow older, I see less need for firearms. My wife always says something like... why don't you sell some of them..... most never get shot (etc etc). I carry and am a firm advocate of the 2nd Amendment. But I do it for other people, not necessarily for myself. I haven't even been in a fight since I was in grade school and that was a long time ago. I believe in adequate protection and planning for emergencies whether or not I ever use the stuff for myself.
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MD_Willington
Member
.GOV makes it cumbersome to own in some places.
Price.. I just spent $500 on our van... a decent handgun is similar in price, well the ones I like at least.
Price.. I just spent $500 on our van... a decent handgun is similar in price, well the ones I like at least.
ConstitutionCowboy
member
"Necessary steps". That's the problem right there. There was a time - a long span of time in our history as a nation - when there were not any "necessary steps" to be taken to obtain a firearm; be it a rifle, shotgun, or hand gun.
The more you make it a pain in the commonly referenced anatomical region, the less people will be inclined to engage in that pain. It's simply human nature, and it's been taken advantage of by the anti crowd....Not to mention how we let it happen.
That said, fear of so many abuses of that right has prompted many to endure that pain of late. No matter how much it hurts, you gotta take care of your excrement sooner or later. (Us Okies prefer to take care of it sooner.)
This is one of those times. It's gettin' later, too.
Woody
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mljdeckard
Member
My sister asked me a few years ago to help her get a gun. I flat refused. She asked why, and I told her, she isn't ready to give the time, money, and mindset required to own it, train with it, and keep it safe from her kids. I told her, if you're sure, and you still want one in a year, ask me again.
That was about four years ago, she hasn't said another word. I will encourage everyone to be armed, unless I know they aren't up to it.
That was about four years ago, she hasn't said another word. I will encourage everyone to be armed, unless I know they aren't up to it.
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