I’m 63, a former Marine and have always been a strong supporter of gun ownership rights. Never owned a gun until 1989 when my wife bought me a small caliber rifle for “plinking.” Couple months later I used it to thwart a home invasion. Afterwards I augmented it with a larger caliber handgun. Did so purely for home protection. Never be without one again. I’ve since acquired two other rifles, but these are for sport/target shooting.
I would if I had more money.
I own an 1853 Enfield rifle-musket, a 1756 English land pattern musket (aka Brown Bess), and an 1851 Navy cap and ball revolver, all modern reproductions. I wouldn’t be able to afford real antiques and wouldn’t want to shoot a 200 year old gun anyway just for safety reasons. A lot of shooters don’t like black powder because of all of the fuss involved, but that’s the appeal of it for me, doing things the old fashioned way.
I have some modern guns as well, like a .22 rifle that belonged to my dad (which has sentimental value), a .44 mag revolver in case I ever want to go all Dirty Harry on someone (do you feel lucky, punk?), a .30-06 hunting rifle, and a .22 pistol that I use a lot for target shooting mostly because it is cheap to shoot. The .44 mag revolver is the only gun I have that I bought for personal protection reasons. I live in a pretty safe area, and personal protection isn’t high on my list of reasons to buy guns, though it is a consideration. I do have a concealed carry license.
Mostly, though, modern weapons don’t appeal to me that much. Anything else I buy will probably be something old fashioned or otherwise unique. I’ve got my eye on a double barrel howdah pistol, so that may be next.
I have a S&W 8-shot revolver. Unusual perhaps, but not hard to find.
I only own my Stoeger Cougar .45 that I just purchased the other day, and my reasons were to get proficient at target shooting (I need a hobby in the wake of my impending divorce and the fact that I work so many hours that I never get to see my friends anymore), home defense (although I live in a really quiet, semi-rural neighborhood, Hidden Valley Lake in SE Indiana (we have our own website: http://www.hiddenvalleylakepoa.com/) and just a liking of guns in general.
I will probably buy one, maybe two more guns at some point in the future, a shotgun for sure (love Mossberg .500’s in matte black) and a deer rifle, probably a .223 since its the round I have the most experience with, they are readily available and somewhat cheap as far as rifle rounds go.
I picked up my first pistol about 90 minutes ago. I feel safer. Tomorrow, the range. I’ve shot many times before but never owned my own weapon.
Yea.
If you don’t mind me asking, how degenerative is your condition? Do you suffer already from severe shakes or is it just a general breakdown or weakness of muscle control?
My Colt Woodsman Match Target (First Series), made in 1938, is a semi-collectible; if it were pristine it would be worth a lot but because it’s engraved with initials and has some signs of wear it fell into a price range I could swing when I saw it at a gun shop and HAD TO HAVE IT. As it turned out, it was a better fit for my hand and thus more accurate to shoot than the pistol I had at the time, so it turned out to be a practical purchase.
Those odd-shaped wooden grips are called “elephant ears” and over time tended to get broken and replaced with more conventional grips, so finding an original set could be called unusual. Certainly makes the gun notable enough that the owner of another gun shop, upon hearing of my good fortune, told me with hushed reverence: “Don’t ever sell it.”
Nothing too unusual. I have a bunch with stories or sentimental attachments, but that isn’t the same thing.
I’ve been a gun owner for nearly 16 years now. I was given my first one when I was 13. I’ve got 7 of them, but I only bought my first one last month. The first 6 were all gifts. I guess I own them because a lot of people have given them to me.
Interestingly, I too have lived in North Idaho. My family moved to Sagle, ID (near Sandpoint) just before I turned twelve, and that Christmas I got my first .22. Previously, we lived northwest of Chicago and in New Jersey; I had thought guns were illegal having only seen them in movies before moving to the Pacific Northwest.
I own guns for a variety of reasons. I love to shoot, and I own two mid-length AR-15s, two Glock 19s and five .22s for that purpose. I like developing the skill to put ten rounds in one ragged hole at various ranges. I like the noise and the smell of burnt powder. I like standard capacity magazines (30 rounds per mag in the case of the ARs; 15 for the Glocks) that allow me to shoot more and reload less often.
I also appreciate the aesthetics of firearms, and the genius behind the best of gun designs. For instance, the 1911 is over one hundred years old and is still prominent in military and competition use. IMHO, the performance of the 1911’s single action trigger is still unrivaled in the handgun realm.
While I won’t say firearms are the best long-term investment one could make, I will say they are a sound investment in that, after the initial loss a gun takes when it goes from new to used, the firearm’s value will only go up with inflation if not also in collector value. I don’t want to sell any of my guns, but I do see my collection as somewhat of a rainy day fund if there is no alternative. Plus, searching out collectible firearms at pawnshops, etc. for bottom dollar can be a lot of fun.
Self-defense is also an important reason for gun ownership. It is not my primary reason for owning guns, but I am more proficient with guns than I am at martial arts. I feel it would be foolish not to use my firearms skills to my advantage if the need presents itself. That said, I live in a relatively small college town and I rarely carry a handgun though I have a permit to do so.
I have only been hunting once; I frankly don’t enjoy the sport as much as I enjoy putting holes in paper. However, I certainly can appreciate a good hunting story 
Severe weakness and loss of balance. no shakes. I am still allowed to drive a car. If I ever feel that I am no longer safe, away with both.
I grew up around guns. Everybody I knew owned a few guns for hunting and I got a couple over the years, even though I wasn’t really interested in hunting at that time (my teen years.) It was just normal to own a gun or two. My parents didn’t seem to be concerned when I, at 14, took my shotgun out into the woods. Only when I moved to the city for college did it dawn on me that some people had never been around them and had strong anti-gun feelings.
Oddly, my dad, the marine, did not like guns. He resisted us getting guns and it was clear he got no pleasure from them. He never seemed to view them as anything other than just a dangerous tool, like a chainsaw.
These days I’m turning into my dad I guess. If I lived in the country, which I don’t, I would own a shotgun and maybe a .22 for varments and unexpected guests but would otherwise not be interested.
I own a few guns. I have goofed around shooting clay pigeons. I enjoy the craftsmanship involved in production of a nice gun. My guns have come in handy when we had a dying whitetail on our property. Personal protection as well is a reason. There are many strange folks out there. If one showed up at our house in the middle of nowhere, I would not think twice defending myself.
I should add, I’m not one of those people who would normally own a gun for personal protection, because I don’t think I could ever actually shoot someone. Or, to put it another way, I don’t think I could accurately assess a stituation in time to make the choice to shoot someone.
But I lived far out in the country for a few years at the end of a lonely, mile long dirt road. More than once, strange cars drove up to the house. It was reassuring to have a shotgun leaning by the door when two or three strangers got out and started toward the house. If they had refused to stop and state their business they would have been shown the weapon.
Self defense but, more importantly, defending my family. I’ve never been even close to using for that puirpose and I’ll consider myself lucky if I never do.
Taurus Mod. 82 3" .38 spl.
The defensive gun-owner’s prayer: “Please God, don’t ever have me need it. If I do ever need it, thank God I have it.”
Indiana resident, here. Because I’m a woman and live alone, I own a pump action-shotgun for home defense. The Divemaster, who is a licensed firearms dealer, got it for me primarily because frankly, with a shotgun, there’s a lot less of the thinking and aiming to worry about.
Double-ought has a fairly large spread pattern – and let’s face it – racking a round into the chamber is an unmistakable and pretty intimidating sound.
I think I’ve posted this little tale elsewhere on the Dope, but case in point: I had couple of rocket scientists tried to break into my place one night. I suspect they were trying to maybe beat an eviction by emptying out the house and had screwed up the address, or something similar.
Unless they’re completely brain-dead, I suspect most bad guys probably don’t have a noisy diesel truck running out front on the street at 3am with a trailer attached. That, and they woke me up trying to jimmy the fricking door open!
I have no idea why I didn’t call the local constabulary. Probably should have, but I pattered downstairs with my mighty Remington or Mossburg or whatever it is, tapped the muzzle on the door hard a few times – and racked a round.
After I told them exactly what I was going to do with said shotgun should they break down my door, they left in a bit of a hurry. 
I own a muzzle loading flintlock rifle only because I’m a historical re-enactor. I use it to fire blank, black powder charges for demonstration and ceremonial purposes and have never loaded or fired a lead ball.
I also hold a Massachusetts cannon and mortar firing license. Same reason.
I fired one last night that I’ve had for years and just never got around to using. It’s a Nagant M1895 I bought for a few dollars when I still had a curios and relics FFL. Ammunition isn’t easy to find, even at gun stores, despite the large numbers of these guns that were imported in the last 10 years or so. The single box of it that I have was a gift from a friend who purchased it on-line. The stuff isn’t cheap, either.
So last night, I triggered off a couple rounds. Noise and recoil were both very mild. I hit the bucket I was aiming at and was rewarded with neat .30 cal holes. It’s fun to sit and play with this gun as it is mechanically peculiar, but until really cheap ammo ever comes along, it isn’t worth shooting.
Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a person before that owned guns but never fired a live round.