Why do you own a gun?

Cross-posted with some additional thoughts:

Apart from the answer implicit in the above post – that I own firearms as a tool to protect the safety of me and my family – I enjoy shooting. It’s a physical challenge: to control a well-machined and engineered device to consistently deliver a 10 mm diameter projectile to a target 25 yards away.

And then when I get tired of that one, I put away my Ruger P944 and start trying to place a 5.7 mm diameter projectile 50 yards away. My targets are black circles on white paper.

It’s fun!

And there is no discrepancy between the the fun of target shooting and the utter seriousness of the thought of shooting a human being, any more than there’s a discrepancy between saying cooking is fun and the idea that you might defend your life by stabbing a assailant with a kitchen knife.