I've struggled with a concise answer to that question for years. I started shooting before I had any concept of rights and freedoms; back then guns went "Boom!" and that was enough justification for a young boy to like them.
A little later, I was able to hunt by myself. I loved being out in
the woods, tracking critters and being part of nature. Guns meant a productive hunt, with meat on the table afterwards. Plus, they still went "Boom!"
Shortly before I was old enough to vote, I became conscious of civics. Rights, freedoms, social responsibilities - I learned they all came from somewhere. Part were inherent, part were earned, but they all had to be fought for. Guns became a symbol for that fight, and tangible assurance from the protector of those rights that I was part of the process, and could be trusted with my own life. And, they still went "Boom!"
I went to college, studied constitutional law and poltical science. I went to law school, studied more constitutional law and more politics and more about rights and how to protect them. I may not be able to explain it without a several-hours lecture on rights and responsibilities of citizenship, but now I know why the great men who founded this country had the common sense to spell out the rights guaranteed by the second amendment. Guns do indeed mean freedom, as they always have to americans. Plus, back then they had muskets, which produced a particularly satisfying "Boom!"
Now, I still love the boom, but the other half of my brain could not rest easy without the freedom to make that boom. I live in a safe area, but I carry because I can. I can buy all the food I want at the corner store, but I hunt because I can. I don't really need to put a hole in anything a thousand yards away, but I got a rifle and a scope because I can.
Now, I've got a statue of a mountaineer standing on a rock, gazing out over the hills, in buckskin suit, holding his rifle. It was that ubiquitous-in-West Virginia image that inspired me as a child, when I saw my dad dressed the same way. As I grew older and more learned, I realized that something I knew way back when I started shooting summed it all up: Montani Semper Liberi.
