Why the interest in guns?

[BAE984]

Hi all, I've been a lurker for months and months, and enjoy reading your threads here, and thought maybe I can contribute some.

So, getting back on subject, I have a family member who is a psychologist. She knows of my interest in guns and love of shooting and asked 'why do you like guns so much?'. It wasn't supposed to be a disturbing question, but I really couldn't think of one reason. I guess I like the challenge shooting offers and the concentration it requires. I've always been a history buff, and really like the 'lineage,' if you will, of many firearms. Then I guess I like having the power to not be a victim.

So how 'bout you guys? Does anybody have a really good reason for their love of firearms?

 

[Solo]

I like guns
Because they are fun.
Because they give me power to defend myself and resist attack.
and
Because I can.

 

[Justin]

Because guns are cool.

Duh.

 

[rust collector]

Tools have always fascinated me, especially ones that wonderfully crafted or simple and efficient. Some guns are as useful as a pair of pliers, others are rich canvases displaying artistry that no longer exists. Some are quirky, others elegant in their engineering. Then of course there is the historical/cultural aspect--I sure wish my Enfield or Dad's old Fox Sterlingworth could talk.

Guns say a lot about us, if we will listen.

 

[ctdonath]

Guns are a useful and entertaining tool.
Oddly, society is profoundly skittish and ignorant of them - making it difficult to pick up the subject without a very deliberate effort. If you want to know anything reasonable about the subject, you must take it on seriously to wade thru the fear and misinformation.

For me, it was the intense anti-gun movement, threatening a plain Constitutional right, that spurred me to take on the subject from a legal/rights angle. About the same time, a friend suggested I fire his 30-06 ... and I knew what my next hobby would be.

Funny how interested people can be in something when someone else threatens to prevent access thereto.

 

[grampster]

Because I can.

 

[SIGarmed]

Because this is a free country so why not? What does your psychologist family member enjoy? Why don't you ask her why she enjoys it?

Many people try and make a negative inference to the fact that some may enjoy firearms. This may not be the case with your family member, and I'm not trying to be sexist, but that sort of question is not so uncommon when it's from a female that is out of touch with said hobby. Unfortunately, and to our detriment sometimes people don’t realize this because we have become such a politically correct society.

 

[MassHunter2190]

I've always been attracted to shiny stuff. Stuff that goes BOOOM seem to get my attention too.

 

[Eightball]

They're sweet, and because I can. And, annoying almost every leftist/liberal anti I come across just by existing is enjoyable . That, and it's in my blood--my great-grandpa was a crack-shot, my dad enjoys it, I enjoy it. Great stuff.

 

[BAE984]

She was not trying to undermine my interest, or question my intentions, she was just genuinely curious. She has done some shooting, but has no passion for it. My family has always been a hunting family, and guns were tools (we're a little bit country ) Part of being a psychologist/scientist is an interest in what interests other people. I think somtimes we as gun enthusiasts tend to take offense at anything that we think may possibly threatening/questioning our interests.

Oh, and 'because I can,' hardly seems like a reason for an interest. To me, anyway.

 

[iiibdsiil]

Tell her the thought of killing someone really makes you excited. Tell her about these visions you have of standing over a dead body. Then go

 

[taliv]

Oh, and 'because I can,' hardly seems like a reason for an interest.

don't knock it.

seriously, a lot of us grew up with guns, in a time when things were a lot different. i'm only 34, but when i was growing up, guns weren't a problem anywhere except ghettos. they were just there.

now, we're losing freedoms left and right, and society has changed so much for so many reasons. when i was in kindergarden, living in sacramento, i would walk to school and back almsot a mile each way, every day, no problems. today, in a crime-free small-town, TN, i won't even let my 7 yr old daughter play in the front yard without me being around watching. things have just CHANGED.

to me, nowhere is that change more evident and tangible than gun ownership. so, my obsession with guns is really just how i hold on to the way things used to be.

and oh by the way, they are fun, and cool, and there are plenty of challenging sports and competitions, and practical for self defense.

and one more important reason... mall ninjas notwithstanding, the people i've met in the gun culture are uniquely interesting. above average character, color and competence.

 

[Snake Eyes]

I have a family member who is a psychologist. She knows of my interest in guns and love of shooting and asked 'why do you like guns so much?'.

Tell her it's because you have a small penis.

 

[Len]

For some of the above reasons. And, a subtle difference for me. It's not so much the guns as the shooting. Not a hunter, but can understand those who love it.

In my medical field, I deal with death in the course of my job on a daily basis...and before this I was a paramedic.

Because of the inherent seriousness and danger involved in using guns, target shooting or plinking offers me an incredible mental vacation. When I'm shooting, I'm thinking of absolutely nothing else...and that's the beauty of it. My mind isn't on the job or the bills, or the deadlines... It's fun, it's loud, anyone can improve if they practice enough, you can compete against yourself, or with others, and they guys I shoot with are a good bunch.

That's a lot of benefit from a "hobby."

 

[Snake Eyes]

the people i've met in the gun culture are uniquely interesting. above average character, color and competence.

I'm sooooo glad the post above this one was directly below that comment!

BTW--I am in no way implying anything about any persons anatomy, nor insinuating anything that might upset Art's Grammaw.

I just thought the comment might twist up the head shrinker.

 

[Davo]

The mechanics of firearms is fascinating.
Ballistics alone is fascinating.
History. Remember wwII? My mosin was there.
Realizing you have the power to take a life, and that being a good thing because you are one of the "good guys". "Bad" guys hate this.
The satisfation of incrementally improving my shooting skills.
If required, the ability to feed myself/others.
The satisfation of making improvments to my guns.
The joy of spending a day outdoors, as opposed to the couch.
The smile I get when I hit my target every time.
The satisfation of my buddies asking "when are we gonna go shooting again?"
Excercising a right that few people on earth have.
It makes girly men squirm. (There are alot of those around here)
Meeting good people at the range.
I feel relaxed when im done.
Being able to talk to you guys about them, and life in general.
They are FUN!

p.s- Len, you Paramedics are an awesome and studly bunch!

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

Recreation, meditation, history, challenge, love of skillful designs and craftsmanship.

 

[Cesiumsponge]

Guns, girls, and cars. They go fast and make lots of noise

I have a thing for tinkering, so mechanical/electrical devices intrigue me. I will sometimes disassemble my firearms, study the parts, and reassemble with it. I'll look at the parts and appreciate the engineering that went into such a device. Before firearms, I was into high voltage and pulsed power as a hobby. Blowing stuff up and making noise without chemicals As a child, I was the kid that dad yelled at because I took apart his powerdrill and lost all the parts trying to make it work with the case off. Eventually he wised up and kept me busy with erector sets or whatnot. In the future, I'd like to be adding mechanical watches and automobiles to my tinkering list but I don't have the money or facilities for that currently.

That's just the tinkering aspect. I find shooting lets me concentrate and forget the hustle and bustle of daily life. It lets you release stress too and work on focus and improving your techniques. When you're shooting for seriousness, you'll start monitoring every little nuance from your breathing to how stuff or limber your muscles are.

After shooting, I always feel tired...I don't know why but it's always a pleasant drowsiness afterwards. I go home, clean then, and take a nap.

 

[Hardware]

"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend"

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

 

[JMag]

Tell her, unlike guns, women talk back...

 

[esheato]

and one more important reason... mall ninjas notwithstanding, the people i've met in the gun culture are uniquely interesting. above average character, color and competence.

+1

 

[MasterPiece Arms.com]

I've gotten that EXACT question from women before. I know you think she was just being genuinely curious, but there is obvious arrogance in that question, which is actually not a question at all (because there is no answer to it and she knows it). If she's a halfway decent psychologist then she should know how arrogant that wording is. If a patient of hers pulled that move, she'd probably be on them like white on rice to either break it up into a REAL question or come clean about the hostility.

When women don't like something, they mask that (in their minds, their hostility is thus not visible) by pretending to ask a question that actually has no answer. I think you noticed this because you said

It wasn't supposed to be a disturbing question, but I really couldn't think of one reason.

Clearly you sensed that this was a dead end fake question. What did you end up telling her?

Calling her a "scientist" for asking this is kinda nauseating. A true scientist would have asked true "find out" questions, that actually have answers. A true scientist would have first established a relative benchmark from which to gauge how much you like something, before asking for your personal motivations to be condensed into a single sentence.

It's good to talk about this, because all of us have, or will have some woman ask this exact non-question at one time or another, probably with the same wording. I have found it very helpful that when someone asks a personal non question like "why do you like guns so much," the best skill to have is to be able to recognize a NON QUESTION when you hear one. Once you recognize that you are being handed a non question, you can find a response that is minimally confrontational. The smartest way to do this is to partially change the subject and ask something like "When was the last time you fired a gun?" To tell you the truth, I would've asked this psychologist/scientist point blank "why do you ask?" If she was actually looking for information and understanding, she should have no problem clarifying her true motives.

If I sound low on patience, it's because 100% of the time I've been asked the "why do you like guns so much" question by people carrying a concealed uterus, it has turned out that they were just taking a swipe at me and were never interested in my point of view in the slightest. I don't exaggerate in saying that either. I USED to try and be nicey nice and anser that non question, and when I have, it has always been followed by proof of what I've already mentioned. I would absolutely love to hear a recording of the tone and inflection in her voice when she asked you this. I'll bet her voice didn't exactly sound like she was doing a clinical study.

 

[Cesiumsponge]

I've gotten that EXACT question from women before.

The rebuttal is "why do you need all those shoes and jewelry."

At least I can explain away firearms as a useful skill that can keep food on my table, and keep myself alive if need be. I have two pairs of shoes. One for casual and one for workin' and I don't own a single piece of jewelry unless it has an hour and minute hand on it. Questions like those tend to be more passive-aggressive than direct hostility. In general, I don't see direct hostility as a usual choice of women in gender interactions. It's pretty darn sly.

I don't really view psychology as a hard science. It seems more like a hit-and-miss run-with-the-ball thing. Look at all the psychology majors. Most of them aren't even psychologists.

We brought this gal once to the shooting range. She eventually caved in and reluctantly went along, asking the usual "what's the point?" "why own guns?"...the gamute of passive aggressive statements which all pointed to "I don't wanna" .

You can tell what the indoctrination of "evil guns" does to a person when you plant a big, black rifle in a new shooter's hands. After the paranoid, timid phase, she pulled the trigger... firing it, which shattered all those misconceptions absorbed through her environment over the years. We had to drag her off the range when it was time to pack up. She was asking if she could find more stuff to shoot and bring her own targets.

She found out we made another trip once when it was convenient without her and she was furious

 

[mnrivrat]

OK

As my 80 year old aunt would say - It gives me a sense of security .

That's not a bad reason all by itself . Behond that, I think the reasons vary a bit with each person with of course a bunch of overlap.

Target shooting for example can give one something to enjoy by creating a challenge. Much like bowling might do for some.

The same goes for shooting games like trap, skeet, sporting clays, 3 gun , etc. Cowboy shoots and muzzle loader shoots give people a reason to re-visit the past and play a role. Very intertaining and challenging to boot.

The mechanics can be fasinating , and tuning the mechanics to peak performance gives some a senese of accomplishment and a relaxing hobby.

Most shooting sports give people the same satisfaction as other sports, like gulfing, fishing, bowling, archery, as they creat a test of skill and sense of accomplishment when improvement is made. The concentration needed is a relief from other stresses as one focuses on doing it right.

The sense of security & ability to be able to defend yourself and family is a noteworthy reason. Nobody else is responsible for your personal safety and protection against criminal acts.

Firearms have always inspired the artistic side of many, and the engraving, fine wood, or other fancy features can indeed come together to have artistic appeal.

And the list goes on, and on.

 

[ezypikns]

As Robert Ruark wrote.....

"Most men are just boys with a bald spot and a mortgage". Boys like to throw rocks. Just think of shooting as throwing rocks really fast. Plus they make a big noise too. We boys (and some girls) like that. What the heck, it's just pure fun.