Canadian with 32 yrs in the military and I have fired a variety of weapons either during training exercises (with blanks) or with live rounds on a range.
Canadian; my father owned (possibly still owns?) a .22 and a shotgun which he would use on very rare occasions to shoot a prairie chicken/partridge/grouse/whatever for supper.
One time my brother and I and a friend of ours took the .22 out (with permission) to shoot at some bottles or whatnot. I only fired it once and that was enough for me.
Another time, when I was in the Cub Scouts, we had an overnight camp at CFD Dundurn because one of the Cubs had a father in the armed forces. We got to hold an FN FAL (heavier than a .22!) and the father demonstrated firing a STEN gun.
US resident. I legally own 1-5 firearms that I’ve purchased. I have possession of 10+, firearms that are legally owned by my FIL to make space in his own home for his collection, which has increased over the years as he has inherited firearms from parents / brothers / cousins and my wife and I are the only people of the current generation who even target shoot. So, at a rough count, I have 30 more firearms heading this way in the future.
I haven’t gone target shooting since pre-COVID when ammunition prices started to spike into the “dear god, I spent more than a dollar a round” for target shooting - and I shoot traditionally cheap calibers.
Now that prices are back to the realms of “as painful going to movie with popcorn and a soda” I could got back to the range, but… TBH, they tend to be very, Very political these days, and as I’m generally considered a socially liberal type, I just don’t want to be with those people.
Looking back, I think the sheer weight of all my guns caused the boating accident.
I’m in the US. I have never touched a gun in my life, unless you count the BB gun I shot a few times in summer camp.
i inherited a small game rifle/shotgun, a Savage 22 Cal. 410 Over And Under Model 24. not much stoppimg power for anything bigger than a turkey. I have never fired it, and it is kept in a vault, unloaded with ammo in a separate cabinet.
i have also fired many pistols, rifles and shotguns at a range run by my old employer, the department of corrections. i am a pretty good shot but don’t really get into shooting so I have fired no gun in over 20 years now.
Canadian City Boy, never owned or handled a firearm. Don’t believe anyone in my family has ever owned a gun, but I think my brother went to one of the gun ranges in Vegas.
When I was sixteen, for Christmas that year I asked for an air rifle, to plink cans in the back yard. My dad, out of some faint stirring of tradition, decided to give me instead his 12 ga. Mossberg shotgun, which he bought for the brief time he had friends who hunted. Er, thanks, Dad, but I’m pretty sure the police and neighbors wouldn’t like me shooting tin cans with a twelve-gauge.
I still own that gun - have simply never gotten around to selling it - but I’ve maybe fired it three or four times in 35 years.
Every now and again, I think about taking it to a skeet range. Some friends own handguns - a Sig Sauer for her and a Glock for him - and I’ve been range shooting with them. Enjoyed it, but not enough to invest in a handgun myself.
Somehow, I’ve managed to avoid the gun-lust of so many of my contemporaries. I don’t think they’re particularly cool, nor imagine that a gun is the best way to protect myself, nor link my masculinity to how many steel phalluses I own. But shooting is fun.
Incidentally, there’s a sweet sequel to my Christmas story. After about a decade of telling that story at family gatherings, one year my dad got clever and surprised me with an air rifle, on Christmas morning. I did have a lot of fun with that.
For the non-US posters, keep in mind that there is no registration, no data base where our gun ownership can be tracked. Some of my guns were gifts, the original purchaser is not tracked to me having the gun. One was a raffle prize at a benefit dinner and given to a brother in law, two were gifts from family members. I bought one myself.
Up until a few years ago there was a benefit dinner for the local high school scholorship foundation where the raffeling of guns was a big hit. Right in the high school gymnasium. They discontinued that but it was a big fund raiser.
Things are different here.
The often quoted 300 million guns in the US is way outdated by at least 20 years. Here is an FBI record of NICS background checks, which are done at the point of sale, so it is a reasonably close tally of gun purchases. Another 450 million since 1998. Rather than 300 million guns in the hands of private citizens in the US, the real number is probably close to a billion.
I’m from the US, and own eight.
Tripler
Short on ammo, though.
I also fired .303 rifles as an army cadet. We fired rounds at targets though and I was good enough to be in the junior County team firing something a bit more accurate. I also fired a Bren.
I have not touched a gun of any kind since leaving school and have no wish to be anywhere near one.
It’s a truly terrifying number of owned weapons, granted, but consider that many of them are owned in multiples by a single individual (see the thread) and the number of gun-owners is substantially smaller.
Doesn’t make them any less dangerous, but as my MIL said when my FIL started unloading his collection onto us, you shouldn’t have more guns than you can shoot at the same time, which maxes out at 2 at best, unless you manage some sort of strange kama sutra level positioning… at major risk to life, limb, and happiness if you get my drift.
Do people only have 1 screwdriver? 1 saw? 1 pen? Only eat 1 thing?
Different tools for different purposes.
How many purposes can there be for a gun?
- kill an animal
- kill a person
- practice (target shooting) for the two functions above
is there anything else?
I know this sounds snotty, but I don’t mean to. I just can’t think of anything else where a gun would be a good tool. Maybe
- frighten away a person or animal with a loud bang,
but even that is probably easier (and safer) to achieve with another method.
Guns–7mm Remington Magnum–elk
.22, plinking, gophers
.22 Magnum–long range gophers
9 mm pistol–when I thought my life was in danger from a redneck I was trying to send to jail (failed).
.410 Taurus Judge–close range gophers
Shotguns for birds and smallish game.
Rifles for big game.
Through inheritance, I own a WWII-era Browning pistol, and a Korean War-era M1 rifle. Both belonged to my father and neither have been fired in several decades. I do remember my dad taking me and my brother out to the desert to shoot when we were kids. My tooth-pick arms could barely hold up the rifle to steady a shot. The pistol my uncle gave to my father when we moved to Northridge, CA in the early 1970’s, probably as “protection.” They are both in my friend’s gun safe now, and awaiting a time when I can get them appraised, registered, and sold.
No offense intended, but you are why gun people get so frustrated. Do your SO only have 1 pair of shoes? Do you only own 1 pot to cook with? Before the tragic boating accident - Commander-sized .45 in a kidney holster if I am dressed in my usual Hawaiian shirt. Light-weight .38 in a shoulder holster if it’s hot and I’m forced to wear a jacket anyway. Browning Hi Power if I’m wearing bulky clothing outdoors. None of them print if I pair them with the right outfit. About 10 different calibers for the rifles, depending. Of course, a lot of those were when I got seriously locked into collecting Mausers. Sad they all got wet.
I checked “Non-US, never owned, never handled” but I lied ever so slightly. When I was a kid another kid and I were allowed to plink with his dad’s .22 rifle, with adult supervision. But it was just that one time, so “never handled” probably comes closest. l did, however, in my irresponsible youth own a .22 pellet gun, the kind powered by a CO2 cartridge. I did stupid things with it like target shooting indoors, which at one point caused a pellet to ricochet off something and hit my roommate on the arm, which in turn caused him to give me a well-deserved smack. And that’s about the totality of my experience with guns.
Non-U.S. I carried a rifle for my three years of military service, and during my periodic reserve sessions until I was discharged at 45. I also fired several other weapons in the army, although never any pistols. I’ve never discharged a weapon while out of uniform.
I do own a pistol, sort of. See, my father died rather suddenly last summer. He had a licensed pistol, which he needed for his job. However, neither I nor my siblings have a firearms license, which means none of us can legally keep the weapon. So as soon as the shiva was over, I opened his safe, took out his pistol (a 0.32" CZ), cleared it to the best of my ability, put it in a shoebox and drove it to the nearest police station. They put it in their safe and gave me a receipt. According to the law, if no licensed owner claims it within 18 months, they’ll destroy it.
I’ve considered getting a license for it, but between the firearms license fees, the mandatory training, the licensing fees for the pistol itself, and the fact that I’ll have to buy a safe of my own, it doesn’t really seem worth it just to have a pistol I’ll never need lying around the house. I’ll probably let the cops melt it down.