My wife: Pro-in-theroy, Neutral in practice...
We've been married eight years, four kids.
When we first met and were dating, my wife was in "don't rock the boat" honeymoon mode. I think at the time, to her, my gun collection (already numbering about 12-14) was just "bachelor toys". Kind of like dirt bikes, or an apartment decorated with neon beer signs, Maxim and Playboys on the peach-crate coffee table, and a pinball machine in the living room etc.
(All my roomies and I managed was a liberated "Keep Milwaukee Clean" municipal wastebasket in the kitchen, but you get the idea.)
If anything, I think she took delight in bugging her father, a liberal Protestant pastor, with the fact that she was dating a "non-college grad with a gun collection", and how it made him squirm. Then enjoyed even more how his stereotypical vision of me was shattered when he and I actually met. Instead, he found his future son-in-law was a mild-mannered intellectual AJ Dual, who never finished school simply because he was already making a good living as an I.T. consultant.
The first instances of her pulling the "they have to go" game over my guns was when we were talking about getting engaged and moving in together, and she realized we were already a pretty permanent item, and she should test the waters and try throwing her weight around. I put my foot down, and it was a non-issue again within a day. That told me it was just the normal, non-dysfunctional, kind of control play in our relationship that human beings are all prone to, whether they admit it or not…
The same thing came up again when we bought our first house, and again when we learned she was pregnant with our first set of twin girls. (Yes, two sets of twin girls 11 months apart…)
Each time I put my foot down, and it was over so fast, I sincerely doubt guns were ever the "real" issue. (sigh) Women...
, now that I've got
five under my roof, what am I going to do?
Hide in the basment, and pee and bathe in the laundry tub once they're teenagers, probably…
Ultimately, she's neutral, to "pro in theroy". In part because she's honestly disinterested in firearms, which I can respect, and partly just because she's got a somewhat stubborn personality, the type of person that often needs to approach things at their own pace, and be allowed to think it was their own idea etc. My major coup though was that I and my family did manage to turn her in to a conservative-right little "L" libertarian, much to her family's dismay.
On occasion, her gun-neutrality has gone to extremely grateful in about a microsecond on a few
"bump in the night" occasions, or when the dog has suddenly gone nuts. All so far have been nothing, but I found them humorous.
Just recently, she has expressed interest in my handgun lock-box combination when she viewed the Wisconsin sex offender website, a few months ago, and found one living three doors down from us. Luckily, he's only a third-degree offender, and has kept his nose clean for over a decade, but it was an eye-opener for her about the "real world" that lurks just outside your doors..
