[Stuck1nhead]

Just curious really. Whenever I tell someone that I own firearms they just seem freaked out by it. Especially if the conversation goes that I also have mental illnesses. My psychiatrist and therapist were very adamant that I get rid of them. So just curious, I feel like I might be the only one on here.

[Medusax]

Not yet, but I intend to get one soon. I am alone most of the time, and I am not in the physical shape I was in (obviously) as when I was younger. I couldn't even run away if I had to. This is a small town, the police department is a JOKE on so many levels, and we have more than our share of crackheads. I am not going to let some indigent steal the things I have worked hard for. END OF. HOWEVER....I will NOT get a CC. I realize that I have too much of a temper and dislike of people, and going to jail would be counter-productive.

[downandlonely]

I have no desire to own a firearm. People who have them in the house are more likely to be accidentally shot by a family member than to shoot someone who's breaking in. Plus I'm clumsy and don't know how to use a gun. And I deal with guilt a lot. If I killed someone, I don't think I could live with myself.

[divine1966]

No. I do know how to use a gun. But I have no desire to have guns around. I am not in law enforcement or military. So no need for guns for me

[WishfulThinker66]

- NEVER - and I would never knowingly enter a household which had them. In fact, I steer clear of those who would own them to begin with. I don't need people like that in my life.

No. I am not a hunter, police officer, military person, FBI, or any other type of security or law enforcement person. Also, I don't want to shoot anyone or anything, including myself. So, I will not have a gun.

I live in a pretty safe area.

[Stuck1nhead]

I got into guns when I was sixteen and I moved to Virginia USA. Before then I never touched a gun since I lived abroad. But I had a very natural gift when it came to handling and shooting a firearm. I was a great shot and could easily out shoot those with much more experience than I. So I began competing and that led to carrying. Then not carrying, to buying and selling, etc...

[Mountaindewed]

No I don’t own any, but I understand people who own them for protection.

[sarahsweets]

I am curious about them I'll admit. I wouldnt even go near buying or owning one without lessons. I live in a state with the most strict gun laws so I do not even know what owning one would entail.

[WishfulThinker66]

The only people who actually need a firearm are those who find it necessary to hunt to feed their families. Somehow, I don't see a great need for such traditional lifestyles South of the 49th parallel. And, as I've said before, you don't need an assault weapon to do so either.

[healingme4me]

I'm curious about them, myself. However, at this juncture, there's no need and the laws are stricter than strict. If I lived out-country and where wild animals lived, yeah....no doubt. I don't begrudge gun owners nor the reasons why the wording is what the wording is.

[Jester's Rags]

No gun here. My wife told me that if a gun comes in the house, she and the kids leave the house. It would really be a bad Idea for me to have a firearm anyway. I do collect knives though :-)

I do not own firearms. I didn't grow up with them and I'm just not comfortable handling them, myself. But I understand people having them. I know there's a whole safety behind handling them too.

[Goforward]

I don't own a gun and never will. There are too many guns out there in the USA. I wonder if we had much stricter gun laws would we have fewer shootings. Besides how many times do you hear about someone actually defending themselves with their arsenal at home?

[Medusax]

Originally Posted by Goforward

I don't own a gun and never will. There are too many guns out there in the USA. I wonder if we had much stricter gun laws would we have fewer shootings. Besides how many times do you hear about someone actually defending themselves with their arsenal at home?

My aunt and my old neighbor. In two totally different areas.

[Medusax]

People like WHAT, exactly?

[LiteraryLark]

It's my personal belief that those with mental illnesses should not have access to firearms.

[eskielover]

Sure do. I have my CC also. I live alone in the country on a farm. I don't hunt but when out hiking in my woods with my dogs & get surrounded by coyotes just shooting it scares them off.

Also nice to have the protection to cover myself until our sheriffs arrive. Neighbors barn has been broken into probably stuff for drug money....so if they wander over here to find stuff they will regret that choice. I have had a house full of my doggies & their barking would scare off anyone but now I only have one that barks & my guardian doggie died just before Christmas last year. Being able to protect myself is important.

Everyone hunts here.....I just am not into killing BUT if my own life is threatened that is a different story.

Lol.....was thinking I should put up my target I shot so well for my CC.....no thief would come near my home. The CC class was awesome. It covered the laws & we had great discussion with one of our local sheriffs who provided the class.

All my friends have their CC also.

[WastingAsparagus]

I don't see much of a problem with them, but I do not own one.

I enjoy shooting targets. I think it is a great hobby. I also prefer privately hunted meat to factory farming strickly on the principle of animals living a good life, to the best we can.

I understand why people arent comfortable with them, but I think they are fun for sport.

[luvyrself]

Stuck1n Head—. This might be a career area (trading on eBay, instructor, etc)for you since you seem to have an aptitude for this. However since you haven’t always been stable, maybe you should lock them up (or ask your dad to do this) when you aren’t feeling well. If this sounds strange, reader, pls understand that this young man has had a lot of difficulty finding a career path , which has been very distressing to him.
Gun control is such a complicated subject as shown by the diversity of responses here. I believe they should restrict sub machine guns more. More control, more training would be good. I was an elem school teacher and whatever is causing school shootings should be nipped in the bud, definitely.

[healingme4me]

@luvyrself the more that I'm learning the more sui ideation seems to be pairing up with part of what needs to be considered in finding solutions to these events. The complication with that, however, as members of places like PC know, is that not every individual that has ever considered that as an alternative solution to their life is capable or even interested in murderous rampage.
Does someone like Eskie, who has openly discussed her past deserve to be stripped of her right to guard her lone self and her pets whilst out on her property or in nearby hills and mountains? Which, I mean, how do we use the MH system as a means of prevention?
These weapons are typically procured at gun shows but how do we regulate the difference between innocent usage and ill intent? Machine guns are illegal and I could point out hundreds of innocent hunting usages to the AR which is mearly but a company logo and not an accronymn that has been planted through barrages of being drilled into minds through media, such as sport and hunting and it simplifies the process. Bump stocks are illegal. Modifying anything legal is illegal.

And I'm with you....how do we make the bleeding stop? How do we get individuals to stop being heinous?

[saidso]

Originally Posted by Stuck1nhead

I got into guns when I was sixteen and I moved to Virginia USA. Before then I never touched a gun since I lived abroad. But I had a very natural gift when it came to handling and shooting a firearm. I was a great shot and could easily out shoot those with much more experience than I. So I began competing and that led to carrying. Then not carrying, to buying and selling, etc...

I live in Europe where most guns are illegal, or very tightly circumscribed. I'm glad not to live in a US state where most people carry.

I have a question StuckInHead. Seems like you've stepped on from being skilled at something and winning competitions to dealing in guns without much thought. Don't you think that dealing in guns carries a responsibility for whether the guns that you sell might be used to kill a person?

It's an honest question, not trying to trap or answer for you but just wondering about the processes involved. I once had to decide between killing someone with a knife or potentially dying myself, and in that moment I knew that killing is too much responsibility for me to carry. Granted that was an individual family member so the responsibility was personal, but the prospect of me dying instead was very real. I have "a thing" about human life. I do fantasise about killing, but I would have to be reduced to a state of desperation over a long period of time to do it.

A second question to US friends here: from when I first lived in some very dangerous localities (1970's) up to the present, I and other people have noticed a difference in public response to violence because weapons have changed. 50 years ago there was a lot of street violence, but onlookers would almost always intervene. Fights (apart from Mafia stuff) were usually using knives, stones, bottles and fists. Now we've had terrorists using automatic weapons. There is a lot less street violence but when it happens people run away. People from a cross section of ethnicities are noticing this.

Nowadays there is an element of fantasy about fighting - gaming and such - because young people have probably never seen someone killed or injured in their daily life. When people are dead from street violence in your neighbourhood, that makes you seriously consider self-defence and the value of human life. That person's death is on your shoulders for ever.

It's odd that having safer, easier living conditions seems to have generated less, not more respect for human life?

Having lived in some violent neighbourhoods I'm prepared to fight, but I take public security very seriously. I appreciate going out of my front gate without fear of gun violence. Killing someone isn't a fantasy game?

Saidso

[saidso]

As an aside, I also wonder about how the US public have started saying that people aren't out of adolescence until 24 years old, and your young people can't drink until 21 - yet you can fight in the military and carry firearms. Or am I mistaken? So far as I know in Europe age of maturity is 18 for everything. People don't say, "oh at 24 his brain was still undeveloped so he isn't responsible"...… just my curiosity about maturity and responsibility.

[Stuck1nhead]

Originally Posted by saidso

I live in Europe where most guns are illegal, or very tightly circumscribed. I'm glad not to live in a US state where most people carry.


I have a question StuckInHead. Seems like you've stepped on from being skilled at something and winning competitions to dealing in guns without much thought. Don't you think that dealing in guns carries a responsibility for whether the guns that you sell might be used to kill a person?

Selling guns does have responsibilities attached to it. Now I probably don’t do as much as I should when I do sell a gun.

Hmm, if a gun I sold was used to commit a crime I would feel some guilt but after all a gun is a inanimate object and they don’t commit the crime. It’s the person wielding the gun that commits the crime.