40 Watt range? Isn’t that just a hair dryer?
I want your hair dryer! They’re like 20-50 times that, or at least used to be.
I don’t think this has to be political although I understand some people reacting that way. Some people see guns as an evil and others see them as merely a tool.
Hair dryers can ba 1600 watts.
When my dad passed away 5 years ago, he left me some. I kept the .22 rifle we used to use for target practice when I was growing up during weekends on the 80 acres he owned up in Northern Lower Michigan. I also kept his shotgun.
He also had two pistols that I gave away. One that his pastor and good friend really wanted and my dad asked me to give to him and the other to a gun collector I work with.
I still feel comfortable having some sort of defense at home, and my wife likes that we have something in the house, so I keep what I have for now. Both of our families have had them around all our lives and it is something we are comfortable with. I don’t feel I would ever need a pistol to carry with me nor consider getting a concealed carry permit like my dad had, so those we passed on.
Several
Put me in the camp of tools. And like other Dangerous tools of it’s ilk, should not be in the hands of regular people, because it’s a tool, not a toy.
I am not going to respond because this isn’t P&R. I respect your right to feel how you feel.
Sorry, I was just agreeing with, that’s all.
Guns are a tool, like a crane, bulldozer, backhoe, or a forklift, and should be treated as such.
New Yorker here. Don’t have one but can get one at the corner bodega in a pinch!
Not much of a gun culture here in NYC, so not like I grew up shooting them “out back”. So, naturally, I don’t care for them.
Do I have a problem with people owning guns (legally)? If they are responsible, psychologically sound, and properly educated on their use and safety, no. The problem I have is with the number of illegal guns out in the streets, and in the hands (legally or illegally) of people with bad intentions and itchy trigger fingers.
Were you really, though?
In my situation that I kind of detailed in post #14 up there, this is a question that I’ve since asked myself many times. If the guy who swore he would kill me had actually broken into my apartment and came at me with evil in his eyes, and I stood there and just happened to have my loaded handgun in my hand, would I have actually been able to take aim and fire on him?
I honestly don’t know that I’d have been capable of it, even if I thought my life was in danger. I’d like to think I could, but until I’m actually facing that scenario, I just don’t know that I could do it. In which case, the briefest hesitation on my part could easily result in him taking the gun away from me and using it himself.
Years ago, after one of my girlfriends was raped, she came to me and wanted advice on what kind of handgun would be the best for her to buy. I managed to talk her out of the idea using the example I just gave.
But everyone is different. If someone could actually save their life by shooting an attacker, I’m not going to try to stop them from getting a gun. But in the case of that girlfriend, I was pretty sure it would end badly for her if she actually tried to defend herself with a gun. I mean, there have been success stories to be sure, but I feel they’re kind of rare, statistic-wise.
No guns here - not a surprise, since I am a dane, and we usually don’t have guns in any capacity. My grandfather had one at one time though, that he used to shoot into the air on new years eve, until we forced him to give it up - so stupid!
Own a couple. Carry daily.
Got the guns when my old man passed, so the pistol is one I always associated with him.
Rifle is just an M1, have that because I had a choice of his rifles, I always wanted a Garand.
Sold the AR-15 he won in some NRA raffle and never shot that looked like it was modelling every possible attachment you could think of at the estate sale. As his buddies said “well, that was just free money.” I think it sold for the most of the collection.
Yes. Mindset is actually a big part of firearms training that most people skip. Most beginner firearm classes are a brief skip through the law, the four rules of gun safety, and more of a “manual of arms” on how to operate your gun. Very few get into the mindset of whether you’re capable of using deadly force when it is justified (and very few students return to the range regularly to work on their shooting skill, remember you’re responsible for every bullet that leaves your gun). I’ve taken advanced courses that were 5% range time & 95% classroom discussion on mindset, signs of someone being a threat, deep discussion of the law on when you can use deadly force, case studies, etc. I’ve done all of that training because the encounters I’ve had made me think deeply about whether I was ready and able to use deadly force when justified. I think some people can pull the trigger, and some people can’t. Unfortunately, if someone is capable of an armed “hot prowl” (entering a dwelling they know to be occupied), then they fall into the “can” group.
I think my years as a city attorney showed me a lot of horrible crime & shooting scenes, and that has affected my attitude as well. If an intruder(s) interrupts my day/night to threaten the lives of me and my family, I know what we could end up looking like, so I’m taking the first clear shot and will continue shooting until the threat has ended.
I have 5 firearms in my house, all of them heirlooms. My father’s Colt .45 from the military, a Swiss 8mm army rifle, a Japanese WW2 rifle, and my grandfather’s 30-06 and .22.
None of them have been fired in at least 30 years. I am slowly restoring them and hang them on a rack much like family pictures, etc.
So we are moving to a more remote area of Colorado in the next few months (yes the store is staying), where we may have more problems with wildlife (bears mostly, but also mountain lions). My wife and I have been talking about that we might need to get a shotgun and rubber-slug rounds to scare away animals if they are attacking our chickens, etc. I’ve never felt the need to own a gun before now, but am considering one for this type of use.
If you have chickens the bears and mountain lions are a concern, but what is most likely to get them are coyotes. All these animals have all day, and all night, so a gun isn’t really an effective deterrent. Look into electric fencing.
Plus most areas have regulations about firing guns in inhabited areas so firing warning shots at wildlife from your back yard may be frowned upon.
I lived across the street from a national forest growing up and we kept chickens on our 5 acre lot. We mostly kept them in a covered coop and the only thing that ever got the chickens was the neighbor’s dog, and even then only early on when we’d fence them when they were out foraging. We shifted to free-range foraging and it never was a problem again. They’re adept at avoiding predators.
We sometimes had black bears come into the yard to eat plums off our plum tree, and it wasn’t uncommon to see grizzly droppings in the woods, so bears and cougars were definitely around.
I do not.
Growing up in Texas alot of my friends families were into hunting and guns. Mine was not but I had no major opinions (sidetrack: my grandfather was into cars and r/c planes, and I thought that was way cooler than hunting).
In high school then into college I got into JROTC then ROTC before serving in the Army. Learned to shoot and qualified very well on the M16. My service was on the medical side at a major military hospital in an urban area; seeing the victims of gun violence is when I had a bit of a values change in how I view guns in society.
My current property borders national forest land outside of reno. Though my part of the forest is more national sagebrush land. My drive is a bit of a wildlife corridor and the camera I have watching it catches coyotes going by often and the occasional bear or bobcat. I don’t keep any animals, but a few times a year my nextdoor has stories of the coyotes getting someone’s chickens or a dwarf goat or something. The replies are always filled with advice on electric fencing.
To add one other thing I’ve gleaned from rural life and nextdoor, what the bears are really after are your bird feeders (and trash cans).