Were you ever anti-gun?

I think, for like a minute, when I was like five, I might have been.

Seriously, I don't recall ever having an opinion on the private ownership of guns until I developed the one I currently hold, and that was in my early teens.

No, not ever.

Nope.

I was never "anti-gun," in the sense that I always found them interesting. I was, however, in favor of various forms of "moderate" gun control. I was very worried, for instance, when the federal AWB expired in 2004. When crime and homicide continued their downward descent, however, it made me question the assumptions that I had about how the world worked vis-a-vis guns and crime.

In the years since, I spent a lot of time combing through FBI crime stats, CDC injury stats, and various pieces of research about crime. In the end, I came to the conclusion that gun control, even when well-intended (and I probably differ with most THR'ers about the good faith motivations of many, though not all, proponents of gun control), simply doesn't move the needle on crime or murder.

Now, when you apply that to my baseline proposition that people shouldn't tell each other how to live their lives absent a very, very, very good reason, you end up being against most gun control. Because it functionally achieves very little at the expense of quite a bit of meddling with very large numbers of citizens who aren't going to do anything harmful no matter what the law is.

Been an enthusiast as far back as I can remember, and even further according to pictures in my photo album from before the age of lucid recollection. So that's a no.

YES

I was born & raised in NYC and that was the general mentality.

I did not know anyone that hunted or shot.

Then I went upstate for the summers and got to shoot and play at hunting.

Then I became an adult [ sort of ] and saw that a gun was NEVER the problem.

Kennedy got shot,MLK,Bobby etc,but I did not blame the gun ---- ever.

Moved out of NYC to Western NY and became a hunter and a shooter.

Got my CCW, did guard duty and armored car work.

Took the test and became an LEO and a shooter and collector.

See the gun as a tool for a purpose,fun is the best part, S/D is the other part.

As a Jew,I see the need to own the means to defend yourself,your loved ones AND your nation.

No. I was raised in a gun owning home from a long line of shooters/hunters/soldiers and was taught to shoot and hunt from a very young age. Being anti-gun is as foreign to me as being anti food.

That's an excellent question. I never was but I've 'converted' several anti-gunners to gun lovers so they are definitely out there. Some may not want to admit it but hey, this is The High Road and knowledge is the goal, no one is gonna get bashed.

I was raised around guns since single digit age and don't or have never considered myself anti 2A.

However, and I'm probably going to ruffle some feathers here, I am a proponent of gun safety. And in more recent years I've found myself getting behind the idea of being required to have some kind of accreditation on competency of basic gun safety in order to possess a firearm. If everyone was raised like the FF's figured they would be and like myself and a lot of others were back in the day, we wouldn't need such a thing. But that's a perfect world.

I understand, respect and adhere to the fact that the 2A is a constitutional right, but there weren't cars, planes, trains etc. back when it was written. All things which require training and accreditation in order to operate just to name a couple, and for good reason.

There's a part of me that feels that if we're not going to require formal training for firearms then we shouldn't require formal training for anything. There are many other things out there just as serious as a loaded firearm yet most pro-gun folks think that anyone at all (who's not a criminal) should be able to possess a gun.


This is really my only "irk" and I could definitely see how it could be construed as anti, although it's not intended to be. Maybe some of you could enlighten me.

I was never anti-gun but had some experiences along those lines. My Dad basically thought a rifle and a shotgun were OK but handguns were the devil's tools, and the NRA was worse than the devil. That was how I was brought up. One day an NRA member, rather than arguing with me, gave me a few copies of The American Rifleman and told me to read them, and if I agreed with them, perhaps I ought to join. I did, and I did. Later I bought a Colt Diamondback without telling Dad, found that the sun did come up in the morning, and never looked back.
There was a time I was not in favor of concealed carry, thinking there were people who probably should not be carrying. A friend told me that those people were already carrying -- I realized he was right and have carried since it was legalized here.

Yes. Handgun only. It took a midlife crisis at age 40+ to make me change my thinking. I can thank, Butch Wilson, of Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1990, to make me finally see the light.

Butch, where ever you are today, my thanks forever for the epiphany you gave this deluded soul!

No,,,Never an anti!
In fact my admiration of firearms was cultivated in my youth by watching such television shows like Combat, The Rifleman, Wanted Dead or Alive. You know,all the classics!

I grew up in a household that had no gun except the ones i owned.
I never heard a word pro or anti gun form my parents. They let me decide.

My dad owned a couple of rifles, but only taught me basic safety and basic marksmanship. His hunting days were over by choice, and he didn't encourage me one way or the other. But he didn't object to uncles taking me hunting and now enjoys the fact that I shoot and I got my brother shooting...

Got my first .22 at nine. I don't think I was before that. LOL!!

When I was 20 years old and knew everything except what a jackass I was, I was totally antigun. I ran with a very liberal crowd and since I was a poor college student, I liked the Democrat way of thinking. You know, the idea that everyone should get a bunch of free stuff they haven't worked for. I also grew up in a non-hunting family, in a city to boot.

Then I moved to the country, got out of a really bad relationship with a rabid liberal, started working really hard for my money, didn't like the notion of giving my money to free loaders, and realized that there was nothing violent about guns, and that in the right scenario and circumstances, a gun was nothing but a tool to achieve a goal. In a difference scenario, a gun was a piece of sporting equipment. I began to wake up. I bought an AR-15.

Then I had someone pull a gun on me, and I felt helpless. I realized how foolish I was to not be exercising my constitutional right to keep and bear arms. So I bought a revolver, and never looked back.

Nope, never ever! I even use to bring gun magazines into school and have it opened up inside my textbook.

Never. As far back as I remember I loved guns in movies and watching my dad clean his guns. I bugged him to take me shooting, of course.

It wasn't much fun getting shot at in Vietnam but I never blamed the gun, in fact I now have SKS and AK pattern rifles. I know some vets who hate a certain type of gun but I understood the enemy was my enemy, not his rifle. Same goes for criminals, it's the criminal, not the AR or Glock.

Far back as I can remember I always wanted one of those cool looking revolvers just like the TV cops used (at the time). My uncle didn't have a handgun (at least he didn't tell me) but he had a .22 rifle and let me shoot it off a couple of times. I guess I was almost 10 years old at the time.
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Nah, my mom has said many times that she thinks I was born with a rifle in my hands. However, my beautiful wife of 45 years, while never exactly anti-gun, was terrified of guns when we got married. That was partly my fault. Being born and raised into a family of hunters and gun enthusiasts, it just never occurred to me that my wife, whose mother wouldn’t even allow a gun in the house, might be a little bit apprehensive about them.
So what’s one of the first thing my wife’s brilliant husband does less than a week after she married him? He takes her up on mud hill to try out his dad’s new 30-30. After a couple of shots I turned around to ask my bride if she wanted to give it a try. She was pale as a bed sheet, trembling and had tears running down her face.
I was dumbfounded, but I guess to someone who had never heard a gunshot other than on TV or in a movie, even a little 30-30 is pretty darned loud. Besides, my wife’s mother had 19 years to instill the “guns are evil” silliness in my wife before she ever met me.
Anyway, I took my bride out with a .22 loaded with shorts the very next day. After some gentle coaching, and careful teaching of the safety rules, she was grinning from ear to ear as she regularly punched holes in the tin cans we’d brought with us. That was in June, 1971. By October that year, she had her own 20 gauge double, and she was happily walking with dad and me as we trailed behind a couple of dad’s Brittany Spaniels searching for pheasants.
Nowadays, my wife has as many guns as I do. She always carries. In fact, they’re not required in Idaho anymore, but she actually had a CCW license for 8 or 10 years before I decided to get one. She’s a better shot than I am with a revolver, doesn’t like semi-autos, and had a custom, Model 70 Winchester, 7mm Rem Mag built for herself a few years ago.

After VA Tech, I felt something was needed, just didn't know what.

The problem was that I was uninformed and just wanted something to change.

When I started learning more about firearms, my pro-2A side really developed into what it is today.


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Nope. One of my earliest memories was of my mom potting a big woodchuck out from under our barn. I still think we should have eaten it. One of my first presents, after a fishing rod at 4 or 5 yrs old and a knife at 6 or 7, was my BB gun. I think I was 8. Hard to remember, as I'm 65 now...

Never

There was a time I had more trust in our government, but by the time I was 18 had learned to love my country and be cautious about our government.