Well my new shooting partner, er. . wife was raised in a Bay Area liberal college professor pacifist household where guns were evil black noisy things that kill people and should be banned. She was OK with me shooting but didn't even want to see one. Then my son wanted me to teach him to shoot pistols and she went to the range a few times to watch and kind of got a feel that people were really nice. Then she was OK with the idea of a loaded shotgun in the closet. Then she was OK with a C & R license when she found out how they tied into history and saw how I got involved in studying WW1 and european history. Now she is shooting a revolver at the range and having fun, asking for more ammo and more time. We are going a step at a time and went shopping today looking at some .357 revolvers for her. Did it happen overnight? No, we have been married 29 years. What we have is a "live and let live" attitude towards each other, and a respect for each other's viewpoints.
The two things that changed her viewpoint? One was seeing an enfield as a box of parts being cleaned and prepped over a week or two, just springs and pieces of metal, and sitting talking to me while I was reassembling it at my bench and my question halfway through assembly: "At what exact moment does this take on a personality and become evil?" She said from that moment the lightbulb went on that it was just a machine, like a chainsaw.
The second? When I remarked to her that our last boy would be going off to college and she would be alone about half the nights of the week. (I work night shift in an ER) And if she had to call 911 I would feel better if she had some "teeth" until he showed up. She thought it was sweet that I cared and agreed to try some "Kindergarten 101" revolver shooting. After the first day with a .22 revolver she was hooked. Said she felt weird about it at first but now it's like driving a car. And she keeps saying she's having fun.
One step at a time. . .baby steps
Changing the world-one hoplophobe at a time
