Proud gun owner checking in, in my house I have:
Beretta 96 Brigadier, .40
Beretta Cougar L, 9mm
Beretta 92, 9mm
Mossberg Cruiser, 20g shotgun
BSA short magazine Lee Enfield, .303
North American Arms mini revolver, .22 LR
Colt Python, .357
Thompson Center 22 Classic, .22 (with a very nice Luepold scope on it)
Armalite AR-10’ .308 (with a P.O.S.P. scope)
Ruger Mark II, .22
Unclviny
After my father’s death, we came into possession of his guns, a .22 handgun, a .45 revolver and a hunting rifle, specifics unknown to me. The rifle is stored in the attic for space reasons, the handguns are available for defensive purposes within the home but between robust security and our dog it is a hope that we’ll never have to use them. I don’t anticipate ever getting a carry permit. I have gone to a range on several occasions where I was permitted to practice with a gun similar to the .22 owned by the range maintainers. That’s sufficient for me.
I grew up in a very pro-gun family. My parents hunt and use guns for sport, my 70 year old father still takes prizes in the senior division at target shooting competitions. My entire extended family hunts, and considers guns for home defense just natural common sense.
I am the only one who doesn’t hunt or own guns. I have a son with impulse control issues, so the only reason I could think of for owning a gun (to protect my child) wouldn’t work, as I’d have to put so many safeguards between him and the gun that it’d be inaccessible to me in case of emergency. That’s not to say there aren’t great safety methods available that are quicker, I know there are many different types of safeties and ways to prevent a kid from getting hold of things they shouldn’t, but they are things I’m not willing to do. The risk to my son of having a gun in the house where he may eventually get to it seems greater than the risk of me needing one to shoot random axe-wielding boogeymen breaking in to kill us.
I have no issue with other folks owning and carrying, as long as they’re not idiots about it. I’d never see my family if I had rules like Dio was talking about, yet they carry when they visit and it just never comes up. It’s not as if they’re brandishing over dinner, carrying concealed is just a way of life for a lot of them and things stay concealed, safeties stay on, etc.
I don’t own a gun and won’t ever (again) own a gun. I used to have a Mossberg shotgun and a Czech-made 9mm pistola, but I sold both of the fuckers about 4 years ago and haven’t regretted it.
I’ve got to ask…what exactly happened to make you change your mind?
Me? A long story, but essentially, over the course of several months, I decided I didn’t want to be one of those people; a frightened suburban white guy who keeps a dangerous weapon in his home in anticipation of an event that will probably never happen. There was also the thought that if IT did happen (ie: being the victim of a stealthy burgler or a brazen home invasion, or some other horrific scenario involving dangerous “bad guys”) would a gun really, honestly do any good?
It’s more complicated than that, including why I got the guns in the first place, but that’s it in a nutshell; I didn’t want to live my life being afraid.
I guess I can understand your reasoning…well actually I can’t understand it at all, especially the part about being a “frightened suburban white guy.” I don’t have the slightest clue what being a white guy or being suburban has to do with anything, nor do I understand how you could really think that having a gun would not do any good in - as you put it in your own words - a horrific scenario involving dangerous bad guys. Really? A gun wouldn’t do any good?
Why don’t you try telling that to the police who you would presumably call if such a thing happened. After you dial 911, tell the dispatcher that you want the police to come unarmed - since, as you said, a gun wouldn’t really do any good in that situation.
And before you even say “but they’re trained to use guns” - be aware that some cops are totally rusty in their gun skills, and some officers only practice at the range a few times every year. A regular citizen who takes a handgun class and practices at the range once a month might be better qualified with a handgun than the cops in his town. I have heard some real horror stories about woefully underskilled police officers.
I had actually started to type out a response yesterday to that effect but thought it immaterial, since I had already answered the poll part.
We have several hunting weapons including two crossbows, as my husband and older son are avid hunters.
Hubby also keeps a .22 pistol for carrying when he’s out on haying jobs which are out in the country.
I don’t see what the big deal is either way, whether you have them or don’t. We don’t have them so hubby can beat his chest and declare what a fearsome warrior he is; and I don’t think less of anybody for either owning guns or not owning guns. Keep your panties on, people.
I don’t own any guns, mostly because when I need a new computer desk to replace the shaky one I am currently using, a $600 firearm is hard to justify. I have experience using both bolt-action and assault rifles, revolvers, and semi-automatic handguns. I can field-strip, clean, and reassemble a Beretta 92, and I have been clocked as stripping and reassembling an M-16 in a minute and a half (45 seconds of this I spent fiddling with a stuck cam shaft pin).
Some basic training in the use of firearms is required by my employer for most of the employees, and is covered during our initial employee training. My particular job also occasionally requires the carrying and use of a firearm, but usually I don’t have access to them (for obvious reasons, my employer has decided that Customer Service representatives do not normally get issued firearms)
Visitors can only bring firearms into my home with my permission, especially if I get to play with them.*
Airman Doors, despite my own experience with firearms, I find myself irrationally afraid of them, and feel I could learn to like them with a bit more exposure to them. Care to let me spend some range time with a few of your weapons? 
*And by play with them, I mean handle them, magazine out, chamber verified empty, not pointing them at people or expensive things, etc. all usual firearms safety rules apply
I know how to use one and I want to get one for the house but haven’t gotten my wife over on my side yet.
To be honest, if I came home with a new gun, I don’t think she would really have a fit. Its just at this point, I have given her a veto in the matter. That is subject to change.
We don’t have much of a castle doctrine in PA. From what I have seen, if someone comes in your house, I doubt you’ll be convicted you for shooting unless you chase the intruder outside the home to shoot them, shoot him in the back or shoot him when he is already down.
Nope. If the desperado has a gun and I have a gun, it’s going to come down to…
A. I have a young kid in the house, so having a loaded gun ready to shoot sitting somewhere where I can quickly and easily grab it is not an option. The intruder, being polite as all intruders are known to be, patiently waits for me to take my piece out of the drawer, take off the trigger lock, pop the magazine in, chamber a round and threaten to shoot him (or to not waste time on threats, and just shoot him outright).
B. Being a frightened, candyass gun nut, I say screw the safety of my child and just have my loaded, unlocked gun under my pillow or on my nightstand. Being terrified of the fact that I, also, am armed, the “bad guy” will piss his pants, drop his pistola and patiently wait for the police to come and pick him up (because I’d look like such a badass standing there pointing a gun wearing my boxers and squinting to see without my glasses).
C. He’d panic and shoot me, or, good forbid, shoot me, my wife, and my kid. I’d squeeze off a few shots at Mr. Bad Guy; maybe a kill shot, maybe just nick 'em up a bit. Either way, myself and possibly the ones I love are going to get shot.
D. The Bad Guy drops his piece and runs. Panicking, I shoot him dead. I get to live with the fact that I killed someone over my DVD player and $500. worth of my wife’s jewelry (not to mention the potential legal ramifications, and the possibility of revenge seeking friends and relatives; whooooa, that’s scary…maybe I should buy a gun?).
Now, if the desperado is armed and I’m not…
A. He’s gonna’ shoot me, and maybe my family as well. I suppose that if I were armed, we could have us a really cool, wild west-style shootout just like in the movies, but…if he’s willing to commit murder when he’s just there for a simple robbery it’s not like I can prevent him just with the threat of shooting back.
B. He holds us at gunpoint, we give him all of the valuables, he leaves.
Not that any of these hypotheticals really matter, as either of these scenarios are about as likely as getting attacked by a shark at the exact moment that I’m struck by lightning. Home invasion robbery by a stranger is unbelievably rare; in the areas of cities where we usually live it’s practically unheard of. Burglers who carry guns, and are ready, willing and able to shoot someone are also quite rare. The average thief just wants money and/or property, not to rape and kill.
I’m hardly a representative sampling of Average Joe America, but I have been a crime victim on several occasions. I was mugged and got the Christ beat out of me in New Orleans while shitfaced drunk. I’ve had apartments/houses burglarized on five occasions in Fort Worth, Austin & Denver (I wasn’t home during any of them). I’ve been threatened by large groups of angry punk-ass kids twice. I had an asshole attempt to carjack me once. I was robbed at gunpoint while working in a convenience store twice, and once (a failed attempt) at knifepoint.
On absolutely NONE of these occasions would a gun have done me any good; point of fact, having one could easily have made the situation much worse and resulted in my death or my incarceration.
You see, Cowboy, real life isn’t like the movies. The scene of the “good guy” outdrawing the “bad guy” and blowing his ass away and the proud townsfolk cheering just doesn’t happen outside of Hollywood.
Likewise, the scenario of three young, almost certainly ‘ethnic’, mad dog, escaped convicts on crack breaking in your door intent on tying you up, raping your wife and then shooting both of you is an almost complete fabrication. Even if it did happen on a semi-regular basis in your neighborhood, you being armed, pumped full of testosterone and as gung-ho as John Wayne wouldn’t do anything other than raise the body count.
But you see, that’s their job; that’s what they get paid to do. When you’re a cop (or a soldier, or a security guard, or…) part of the job entails placing yourself in situations where you might get shot at. Usually if the “situation” is a break in, the “bad guys” are long gone before the cops get there, anyway. And, if they are even halfway good at their jobs, the “bad guys” will be in and out with your stuff long before you even know they were there.
I grew up in social circle that tends toward the pacifist and anti-gun. I have never held a gun in my life and have no desire to change that. My first impulse upon finding out that someone enjoys shooting or hunting is to think negatively toward them, but I have at least a few friends who are responsible gun owners and go to shooting ranges occasionally and I don’t think any less of them in the slightest.
[Severe Moderator Admonition]Take the gun debate to Great Debates.[/Severe Moderator Admonition]
I shouldn’t have taken the bait. Apologies; it won’t happen again.
We have a small caliber handgun, kept in a drawer in an upstairs bedroom, not loaded. I don’t even know where the bullets are. Hubby has a couple of rifles, or maybe they’re shotguns – he used to hunt pheasants but hasn’t done that for years. They’re in a closet in the basement.
I am not a fan of guns, but my dad owns a pistol for self-protection while he makes deliveries, and my brother in law is a hunter. I don’t think less of either of them for it.
I don’t own A gun, I own MANY guns 
(many being more than one, but less than a million)
I reload my own ammunition for two of my guns, and have a decent supply of commercial ammunition for my firearms
I know if my state is a Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground state (yes, it is)
more importantly, I’ve owned and used firearms my whole life (I’m 40 now) and in all that time, I have NEVER raised a firearm in anger, nor have I had a Negligent Discharge (A.K.A. “It Just Went Off!!”)
If we’re ever invaded by paper targets and/or clay pigeons, I’ve got it covered…
MacTech, Thanks for your response. A close relative of mine has a large gun collection (many guns ;)).
I considered adding categories for some of the additional details that you volunteered (e.g., number of guns; whether they are used for hunting, protection, etc.). I decided to keep the poll simple, but was hoping that people would post more information if they wanted to.
Also, when I was discussing my own experience with guns earlier in the thread, I decided to include going to the firing range, but I left out the skeet shooting as I thought people might laugh if I included it.
Isn’t this the very definition of threadshitting?
AT, you’ve expressed your dislike of the poll feature many, many times. We get it. You don’t like it. We now understand that you especially don’t like (or rather, don’t understand) anonymous polls.
Given that, here’s my advice.
DON’T PARTICIPATE IN THEM. DON’T EVEN OPEN THEM if they bother you. Hell, stay out of IMHO altogether if they disturb you that much.
There are lots of different types of threads on these boards I dislike. I just don’t open them. I don’t fault the people who want to start/participate in them, or fault the MB for allowing them. It’s quite simple, really. I open/reply to threads that interest me, and ignore the ones that don’t.
Oh I forgot, the castle doctrine thing. I voted before I realized you could pick more than one answer. I don’t know if CA has one. Actually I’m not entirely sure what that even is.