Why the interest in guns?

[Cosmoline]

I find that firearms are the perfect blend of art, history, physics and biology all wraped up in a package I can use for hunting or sport that takes a lifetime to master. What more could you want?

Even after I'm an old man, I will still be able to work firearms and use them. It would take a very serious injury to keep me from firearms. Even the loss of two legs and an arm wouldn't do it. Can't say that about golf. Nor can golf balls move at twice the speed of sound.

 

[Mongo the Mutterer]

Because I'm damn good with a knife...

And I'm old and fat and not so fast.

But I can put 10 rounds in a 3" circle at 15 yards in 3 seconds ...

Oh and I have a pecker the size of two government 1911 slides laid end to end...

(the 10 round stuff and the knife stuff are true...)

 

[JohnKSa]

Who needs a reason to have a hobby or a reason to pick one hobby over another?

 

[MountainPeak]

After I turned about 4, I found that hammers lacked an ability for fascination.

 

[Kurush]

A good gun is a piece of history, events that shaped the world, compressed into a small chunk of metal and wood. My M1 Garand was born in May 1943, I don't know where it served, but it saw hard enough combat use that it had to be rebuilt--probably several times. My Mosin-Nagant was born in 1940, and given the rifle shortage in Russia at the time, there can be little doubt it played some small role in repelling the Germat Wehrmacht. I have a Russian M1910 Maxim kit. The Maxim was the first true machine gun, and the story of Hiram Maxim's career on its own is fascinating. I can barely imagine what its career might have been. Did it repel Ludendorff's infantry charges in WWI? Did it serve in the Winter War? Kharkov? Kursk? And just how did it end up here anyway? Perhaps it was given to a Soviet client state, or even captured in battle.

The Yugoslavian AKs being sold today were used by Serb paramilitaries. It is entirely possible that my Yugo AKs were not only used in combat, but in war crimes. That's a much darker history than the justified wars I spoke of above, but that doesn't mean it should be shunned or ignored. It's a puzzle piece from a history book just like the others, and it would be unrealistic to include only guns from justified wars in my collection.

I could go on and on for a dozen pages or more, but I'm going to have to stop here. I hope you can get your psychologist to come around, I've made converts from some of the unlikeliest of corners.

 

[dzimmerm]

The essense of it

There was a statement that I made a long time ago that did not strike me as particularly enlightening. It was only after I found someone else quoting it that I thought, Wow! , I must have said something interesting.

This quote defines the reason I own firearms and practice with them.

"I am sorry that some live in a fantasy world where guns are not
appropriate. I only hope that your fantasy is not ripped to shreds
when someone you love is killed and all you can do is offer the
assailent another target." - dzimmerm, on kuro5hin"

That pretty much says it all. Guns offer the opportunity to defend oneself and one's family members.

There are loads of other reasons I like guns but those reasons were not enough to make me go out and get one.

I can pick apart a car's mechanisms to appease my love of machinery

I can practice a perfect weld using an oxy-acetylene torch to exercise my zen concentration.

I can go to harbor freight and drool over tools for all kinds of uses to satisfy the tool user hunger in me.

I can read and BS on message boards to get my fix of humanity and like minded individuals.

But the car will not stop the burgler, nor the welding equipment the rapist, nor the hand tools the murderer.

Only my resolve and a handgun can give me the chance of stopping those miscreants.

dzimmerm

 

[Too Many Choices!?]

Because it is part of MY AMERICAN DREAM...

Because it is my birth right as an American Citizen.
Becasue I am a man created by nature, and men protect. To protect, a man needs a weapon...
Because becoming proficient with arms requires control of your abilities.
Because with said control of your abilities you do reach a ,"Zen-like state".
Because of my love of life.
Because history repeats itself, take a look at the track record !

 

[berettashotgun]

I really like shotguns, hitting a dove on opening day is my actual hunting high point of the year. Guns facinate me, striking a part of my soul that really gets the serotin dumping. They affect me in the same way an addict is "hooked" on crack. It is a brain function that must be soothed, or else I get grouchy and think about running over cats. dzimmerm~ Please never refer to harbor freight concerning tools- I really have a facination with tools made in the 1st half of the 1900's, and the quality is tremendous- something harbor freight can't even offer......

 

[BullfrogKen]

The nature of that question is insulting, and a non-question as MasterPiece points out. "Why do you like such and such . . . so much?" Define so much. In fact, why should one to defend an interest in the face of such hosility at all? Any answer certainly isn't to be appreciated.

I've not yet met a person working in the mental health field who wasn't mentally stable themselves. I'm convinced they went to school to learn about themselves and try to unravel their own problems. After attempting to figure out what ails them, they find themselves at the end of the journey, realize they must make a living, and use the degree they earned in the process to do it.

 

[Janitor]

So, BullfrogKen -

So let me get this straight -

Here we have a person who is familiar with guns and has shot guns, but just isn't very interested in using/playing with/training with them. And this person sounds like they're comfortable with guns and gun owners.

So if this person (who doesn't enjoy shooting all that much) asks a relative what it is they enjoy so much about it, it's a hostile question?

Wow. And here I was thinking that she may simply be curious because she didn't understand the attraction. I obvioiusly have to learn to be a LOT more suspicious of peoples motives.

 

[fb]

Snake Eyes is right

Tell her its because you have a very small penis

 

[BullfrogKen]

Janitor, its a question loaded with a value judgement. Coming from a person who on a daily basis converses with people to discover things such as what motivates us, I doubt it was a slip of the tongue.

Phrasing a question, "What is it you find interesting about guns?", or "What about guns do you find attracts you to them?" contains no value statement with it.

"Why do you like guns so much?" has a value judgement attached. "So much" conveys the attraction is very strong, suggests maybe a little too strong, and instantly puts one on the defensive. The person asked such a question must find reasons to support why he likes something "so much".

A lay person might not realize that he or she is communicating a judgement asking a question that way. But, I'd expect better from a psychologist.

 

[Taurus 66]

BAE, psychologists are simply out to confuse everyone ... you know, "Repress your love for guns." or, "You're a man, so why aren't you wearing a dress?" - Upitty side a down a stuff and innidy side out! Have you ever noticed there is no clear definition of the word "normal", that is until you ask a psycho?