Funny thing... just last night, I went and looked at how much (and how little) ammo I have.
Counted up about 1k rounds of factory ammo in 9mm, and a few bricks of .22LR. There were a few hundred more rounds divided between 6.5mm Jap, .45ACP, .380 (stockpiling when I get it cheap for my daughter), .25ACP, .38SPL, .38S&W, and Makarov. Maybe another thousand all put together.
Now, the reason it seems funny to me that this doesn't seem like a lot of ammo, is that for most of my life that woulda' seemed like some kind of James Bond stash!
In 2010, my eighteen year old daughter told me she wanted to get some kind of a gun called an "AR-15". She had to explain to me what it was.
A couple days later she came home with a firearm called a "10/22", which was a cheaper gun that shot a cheaper round. When she showed me a 525 round box of ammo, I asked her why she needed that many. Seemed like a lot to me. I didn't say anything more about it, but thought it seemed a little weird that anybody would really felt they needed that many bullets!
So, how did I go from being a properly indoctrinated gun-fearing native Seattleite to getting my head straight about all this? My kid took me to the gun range with her boyfriend and his dad.
Within a month, I had gone to the pawn shop and bought my first pistol. Within a year I was pressing out .45 and 9x18 on a Rock Crusher.
Sure, there are a lot of people on the left side who are kinda' "lost causes", but I think the best thing a guy can do is be ready to take anybody who's not firearm phobic to a gravel pit, hand 'em a Woodsman or a Single Six and a brick of .22, and let 'em shoot some bowling pins.
They may end up buying a gun on the trip home, or may never shoot again. But, if we introduce 'em to our hobby in a mellow, non-intimidating way, we will have at least maybe planted the image of a guy having a half dozen guns an a couple thousand rounds of ammo as being a normal thing.
Just my .02.
-Bill