And one more:
Charges of trespassing were later dismissed with a judge’s commnet that open carry of a weapon was absolutely legal.
I don’t know if there was any racial component to this, but Moore is black.
My default answer is that in case I’m ever burglarized by a musk ox, I want to be ready.
If someone here says that, if it weren’t for the need to protect the rights of gun owners they wouldn’t bother with guns at all, then I guess I’d take them at their word(barring previous postings that contradict this position, of course).
Does anyone here care to state that this is the reason they own guns?
Well, I’m one rabid anti-gun person who has become slightly less so due to people explaining why they have guns.
I’ve lived in urban/suburban areas of Southen CA all my life, and in my experience the main thing people do with guns here is commit crimes; given that, I saw no real reason for them to be allowed.
However, it was pointed out on the Dope that people in more rural areas may actually hunt for food, and that for poor rural folk this might be their only affordable source of meat. I honestly did not know that people still did this anymore; I thought that all hunting was only for sport.
Also, they mentioned that a gun can be useful in keeping predators away from herd animals, or for dispatching a wounded/diseased animal when taking them to the vet to do it is impractical.
I still think that all firearms should be banned in cities. But I do understand now that “a gun is a tool, not just an instrument of murder” is sometimes accurate.
Might I assume that the word has gotten around, and that musk ox harassment has dropped to a tolerable minimum?
It is the reason that I own certain guns. Every gun I own I bought for a purpose. Some for hunting. Some for self-defense. Some for target shooting. Some exactly because they are the ones that antis are most intent on banning. Those in the last group were purchased to exercise and demonstrate my right to possess them despite the intense desire some folks have to suppress that right. One example from that group is a Polish AK-clone. I test fired it when I bought it and it has sat in the gun cabinet ever since…five or six years now. AK’s, in and of themselves, aren’t of intense interest to me. Saying “Nyahh-Nyah!” to anti’s is.
I’ll let others speak for themselves, but there’s a long history of gun owners being questioned about their choices. Much like the history of Jews with people asking questions about why Jews do certain things outside of the mainstream, or asking a black person about why they do certain things, or asking a nursing mother why she feels the need to do that in public. The pattern recognition engine that is the human mind kicks in and the questioner, regardless of their intention, finds themselves lumped in with anti-semites, racists, or boob-o-phobes.
If you don’t have a need to know why someone owns a gun, then stifle your curiosity, or be prepared to accept whatever answer you may get. Idle curiosity which resembles pointed curiosity may sometimes get pointed answers.
Enjoy,
Steven
Why don’t you, on this message board dedicated to fighting ignorance, give us a list of questions people shouldn’t ask unless they can show a proper “need to know”?
I own guns because they are a part of my culture and heritage. I like to hunt and target shoot. I like guns because they are well made tools and once you buy them their value rarely ever goes down. I have a couple rifles that I have never even shot once yet and I could not give you an acurate count of the weapons in my house without taking a count, at least a dozen. I also believe that shooting and proper gun safety and handling are desireable skills to have.
Guns are also part of my community. The local school scholarship foundation dinner and auction was held last week to raise money for scholarships and one item that drew a lot of bidding attention was a pink handled AK-47. The dinner and auction was held in the high school gymnasium, was attended by our state senator, and the idea of auctioning guns off on school property didn’t raise one eyebrow.
Gun ownership is perfectly normal where I live. At about one minute in, the pink AK-47:
You’d think so. But just as they start to calm down, the finback whales start making trouble.
Good answer, and…dayumm! That’s a cute gun. Cupid would be proud to wield such a weapon. 
What are the current regs on harpoon ownership and display?
Why do you vote?
Why do you pray?
Why do you touch yourself?
Why do you eat meat?
Why do you shower?
Why do you engage in oral sex?
If this is one’s approach with strangers when they are honestly curious, they should not be surprised that they get the brush off more often than not. If this is their approach with friends and those they know well, the brush off is sending a message. The person being queried doesn’t trust you.
Bold answers mine. And what is your opinion of those that ask such questions on a message board like this one? Are the polls in IMHO and Cafe Society too intrusive for your tastes?
Sometimes it’s a terse response and sometimes it’s an effort to steer the conversation to the political aspects of gun ownership. Even if someone can’t understand using a gun for hunting, fun, or self-defense, they might be made to understand why some of us think an armed citizenry is an important safeguard for liberty.
Guns are so much a part of my life and so normal that the question always sounds bizarre to my ears. It’s like asking why I own a toothbrush.
I treat people who ask “why do you NEED gun x” (or any gun whatsoever) as being anti-gun people because over 25+ years of gun ownership and use I have never, under any circumstances, had someone in real life ask me such a question who upon further conversation did not unambiguously reveal that they were in fact anti-gun. In hundreds or more of instances (discussions, debates, casual conversation, etc.)
Therefore, I don’t need a double-blind peer-reviewed study to back it up before I become naturally suspicious.
That having been said, I am also very often (but not nearly as much) asked “why do you need” with respect to my swords. One conversation I had recently at work became surreal - I was showing some photos of my swords, and someone came up to say:
Them: “Why do you NEED all those swords?”
Me: “I don’t need them, I want them. Except for the ones I fight with. Those I need.”
Them: “Isn’t a sword really stupid to fight with? Shouldn’t you have a gun instead?”
Me: “I fight as a martial art. I have lots of guns for both sport and protection.”
Them: “Oh, I don’t like guns. I wish Obama would just ban them all so we wouldn’t have to worry every time we drop our kids off at school.”
Me: (sighing) “OK. … What do you think Obama would think about all my swords?”
Them: “I don’t know…probably they should be banned too. I don’t see why anyone would NEED them. … kids could get hurt.”
At that point, I deemed the conversation to be beyond all hope of intelligence. But it’s an example, if extreme, of the “why do you NEED” mentality at work.
Please note that the “why do you NEED” reaction is not synonymous with being anti-gun. Many anti-gun positions have at least a sound and logical basis, or kernel of reason to them. “Why do you NEED” does not.
I doubt any gunowner saying this owns guns ONLY because ‘they have a right to’. They just aren’t wanting to get into a long discussion about their reason for owning something they have the right to own.
Basically, it’s a leading question that’s been used by anti-gun types in the past as a Gotcha! If you say ‘I like to hunt’, then that gets a certain response from anti-gun types ranging from ‘oh, you like to kill Bambi’ to ‘there is no need to kill animals with a gun when you can just go to the supermarket and buy meat’. If you just like to shoot you get other responses (mainly the ones I hear are ‘why…that doesn’t sound fun to me’ or ‘that’s kind of stupid and dangerous’). Same with if you answer it’s for home protection…lot’s of responses to that as well, generally fairly condescending and negative coming from anti-gun folks, which, let’s be honest here, are the only ones who would ASK this question in the first place. Folks who like guns or own guns pretty much already know all the reasons someone would want to own one.
We love the smell of gun oil in the morning…it smells like victory…
-XT
I don’t see any of your answers being that far removed from:
Because I can.
To shoot stuff.
I like the smell of hot gun oil.
As for message boards? I am the guy answering polls with MYOB if it is an option, or whatever choice I think goes against the grain.
I feel no sense of anonymity on the internet. Those that want my honest opinion will, as in everyday life, have to earn my respect and trust.
To be honest, it’s that last reason I have so much trouble with, and I tend to think people who argue seriously about it are slightly off their nut (which includes a very close friend of mine whose opinion I greatly trust on most matters but gets a little wild-eyed about the possibility of needing a gun to fight back against a tyrannical government).
It’s something I understand intellectually, particularly when reading up on American history, but even despite the lunacy in Washington, I’ve simply never felt that it’s something that may be necessary in the near future. My own worldview has never encompassed the idea of needing to protect myself from my own government with violent weapons. It’s just too abstract for me.
I get protection from burglars, I get hunting, I even get sport shooting. But arming yourself explicitly for the purpose of defending yourself from the government seems about as practical as me readying myself for the day the Millennium Falcon swoops down from the sky and Luke Skywalker tells me I’m to be the next great Jedi.
That all said, I generally don’t have any serious issue with gun ownership for whatever reason, and ever since I heard the analogy that having a gun in the house is just as sensible as having a fire extinguisher in the house, I’ve intended to own one and take safety courses. It generally has not been a high priority, though.
…another thing is that “why do you NEED” smacks of a certain level of intolerance, when asked in the way in which it typically is asked. One can spin the question into an innocent “just finding the facts, ma’am” question, but come on. In real life it’s typically asked in the same tone and with the same facial expressions and body language as “why don’t you go to church?,” “why don’t you eat meat?,” “why don’t you like men?,” or “why did you buy a motorcycle?”
People who really give a flying fuck about your personal decisions and who aren’t just asking the question as a lead-in to judgment ask questions in very different ways, and I don’t need a citation to prove real life. Anyone who doesn’t know or hasn’t experienced this at least once in real life should probably retire to a cabin in the woods and finish their manifesto against 21st-centuray society.