Does every gun you own have a reason to justify its purchase?

Yeah I’m purpose driven, pre CCW I owned a half dozen firearms including those I inherited.

Now I’m over a dozen with a couple of hunting guns and the rest Carry guns and backups.
 
I don't "need" any guns. For me to by another handgun it has to be a semi (not revolver) suitable for SD which is 9mm minimum.
The SA-35 having steel parts sparked my interest, no magazine disconnect and supposedly addressing hammer bite had me place a deposit.
I don't need a HP clone, but I don't have a HP and if I like it may / could carry it.
 
My first 3 or 4 rifles, a 12 ga and 3 or 4 hand guns I could justify or maybe a better word would be rationalize.

The rest I just wanted.
 
I have less than a dozen. Most because I like guns, otherwise I could get by with a shotgun and a carry gun.

My wife is thankful I don't drink or smoke. I remind her about the time I spend some of our funds on guns.

Id rather have a handful of guns, and a good stash of ammo, than a lot of guns and limited ammo.
 
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Does every gun you own have a reason to justify its purchase?

Absolutely without a doubt because I wanted them. However, in all fairness guns were not always that easy to buy. With kids growing up and a mortgage as well as beanies and weenies on the table and others things in life demanding income some guns had to wait. Today with the kids having kids of their own, doing well and retired the wife and I can enjoy life much more including the things we like. The gun safe is also home to some of my wife's fine jewelry as well as my guns. I see a gun I like and want I buy it but life wasn't always that simple or great. During life you live within your means. I never needed a sweet Colt 1911 but we did need to pay the mortgage. :) That's life!

Ron
 
The Glockodile said:
This be 'Murica...

As much as we call gunz toolz, they really be toyz...

:rofl:
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Spell-check not working today?
thunderbyrd said:
guns are also works of art.
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I can agree with this in some respects; I've seen some mighty fine firearms that are, indeed, works of art. Even the clean lines of an old pistol or revolver with scars and finish wear have esthetic beauty sometimes.

But not ready to call guns "toys." While they can be used recreationally (and mostly are), and can be the source of much fun activity, they really are tools of serious intent.
 
I tend to buy guns for a purpose. Just having it sit in a safe makes my OCD get overactive. I wish I could just buy guns because I want them but my brain doesn't work that way and stay at peace. Not knocking it, just can't do it myself.
 
Every one helps remedy an issue with impulse buying. I feel much better now with this therapy approach. Doesn’t work but I feel better.
 
Never really gave it much thought, one way or the other, when I first started getting into guns . It's like back in the "Good Old Days" a lot of quality guns (mainly high end S&Ws and Colt 1911s), were few and far between; likewise the funds to buy them were also few and far between. Didn't have to come up with a reason why I wanted that particular gun (something I always wanted, was a great deal, needed it for hunting, home defense, or competition or maybe it was just using it for a range toy). Read up on it in gun magazines (pre-Internet days), then made my best deal on it. Sometimes this required selling another gun or (rarely), trading one in on the new/used gun.

After awhile it becomes a bit of a routine as I made the rounds of the local gun shops searching for whatever and plan my weekends as to when the next gun show was going to be. Pretty soon I found myself with quite an accumulation of guns, some with no real purpose except that at one time I really wanted it but now I don't really have any specific need for it.

Then I got married, bought a home, started having kids, went back to school part time and now all of a sudden all of that money and free time I use to have chasing down deals on guns was gone. Time to thin the herd and then I realized that some guns were going to stay; some for sentimental reasons while others because they served a certain purpose. And the rest eventually got sold and new guns became few and far between (yet again), as other expenses took precedent over the wants/needs of adding to my gun collection.

So as I have gotten older (and hopefully wiser), I still get a thrill out of buying a new gun, if only for the fact that I have come full circle and I'm back to where I was over 40 years ago! If I want a gun for a specific purpose, like CCW, then I will research it (much faster and easier these days), and go from there. And if something turns up that I want purely for fun (such as a Beretta Stampede and a Rossi Model 92 I picked up some years back), then I'm going to get them too!

No justification required!
 
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Hokkmike said:
A lot of people say that firearms are like tools. I kind of agree. I am not rich enough to have guns just to have guns.

If, after time, I see one that is not getting use or seem to have a purpose then I think about trading or selling it. I will admit that this is probably not a good trait.

I would think the ideal compliment for a "minimalist" shooter would consists of a hunting rifle, home defense gun, shotgun, cc weapon, and a .22 of some kind. That is just about where I am. I know some people like to collect on a theme - say WWII rifles, or Winchesters. Others have some guns that are family heirlooms and have sentimental value.

I have a friend that says he has 64 firearms but I never have seen more than one or two. I keep thinking that they are stored around the house for his kids to sell after he passes. Of course, how many guns he has and how he spends his money is his business, but that is a is a lot of $$$$ sitting around.
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Only 64?
 
I don’t have to justify the firearms I own, the clothes I wear, the food in my kitchen, or any other damn thing I own, do or say. I’m a free person in a currently free country.
Let’s turn it around. How do you justify asking such a question?
 
I have a strong appreciation of the worldwide design, engineering, manufacture and historical usage of firearms in military, law enforcement, and sporting applications, with "focus" on the post-Civil War to 9/11 period. As a teen, I vowed to have a "representative" example of every primary US service long-gun from 1865 to the then present time, plus the key arms of the major players in WWI and WW2. I am pretty close to accomplishment of that goal. I have little to no interest in what's hot on the current market- polystrikers, Barbie-15s, short action cartridges of the month, and economy bolt actions trying to see who can have the highest plastic part percentage.
 
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I'm lucky enough now in life that I have a little bit of discretionary funds that I use to buy a new firearm from time to time. I'm what people nowadays would call a collector more then a gun owner. What I collect depends upon what catches my eye or peaks my interest at the time. I'm also a very bad impulse buyer. I go to a LGS and see something different then the run of the mill handguns and I'm all over it. When I started years ago I bought cheap crap guns for no apparent reason. Today I've sold all of that crap off and I have a good collection of what I consider to be pieces that I hold in high regard. I don't see myself stopping, unless I go broke or something... I go to the range often, but I must admit that I have a few toys that haven't seen range time in years.
 
My "justification" has always been: New gun or pay the mortgage............. Sometimes the mortgage can wait........ But only a couple of days......... :p
 
Self imposed minimalists excluded, justification becomes less important the farther away you live from poverty. I was once a self-funded, broke college student and young husband/father, and remember well just trying to build up to the basics in bare bones gun needs. Fast forward 20+ years, and we're in a completely different situation than those early years. When I want a gun, I buy that gun (within reason). No justification needed. At some point, I may hit a threshold where owning so many guns begins to feel like a burden in maintenance and storage, and I could see perhaps selling some off to maintain a manageable limit. But today is not that day!
 
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For awhile, I was purchasing many guns that were just "good deals", without real thought on application or overlap on already owned examples. The best example was an older Taurus PT-58. Nice gun, great manufacturing, got extra mags with it cheap, but what was my need for an almost full-size, double-stack all-steel .380 with no historical provenance? I put it back into the marketplace for somebody who actually needed or wanted it.
 
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kje54 said:
My "justification" has always been: New gun or pay the mortgage............. Sometimes the mortgage can wait........ But only a couple of days......... :p
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We don't have a mortgage anymore, but as I've said before, my wife and I are both into guns, hunting and shooting. So we've run out of room in this house (which we've lived in for 42 years) for more guns and gun safes. We're not about to buy a bigger house though - that would mean we'd have a mortgage again. Talk about a vicious circle!:D
 
What if one is overcome by the desire to own a flat latch Chiefs Special and that feeling will not relent? Not just any Chiefs -but a flat latch?
Does that constitute a reason?

Having a “reason“ for acquiring something is certainly an eye of the beholder type situation.
Perception is reality.
 
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