Do you own a firearm, for protection, or for sporting purposes?

both

Just hunting really, I’m not really into carrying every day.

I don’t own a firearm. I don’t even think anyone in my immediate family who I am with now does either. No guns in this house to my knowledge.

I was a avid bird hunter before getting married, Mrs Squeeky didn’t care for wild meat, so now all my targets are paper, clay,or metal.

Nope, I don;t want a firearm in my home. I have managed to live on rural properties for decades without the need for a gun. I have had an old neighbor shoot a couple monster rattlesnakes under my deck but I feel guns do more damage than good and I have zero desire to hunt innocent wildlife for sport, I find that an archaic and deplorable “sport.”

Target practice is fine but wanton killing is not.

I do not own firearms, and I never will.

@glacial and @Coloma do you have a problem with people that do want to legally own a firearm?

@SQUEEKY2 I’ll cook anything you bag…lol, I’m good at it, too. :)

@SQUEEKY2 No! But I do have a problem with the bizarre gun-worshipping culture that appears to exist in the US. I do not understand why they are evidently so afraid of each other that they feel the need to carry guns around, or keep them at the ready in their homes.

@SQUEEKY2 As long as they are respnsible and I advocate mental health evaluations too.
In the 23 years I have lived in these hills here in the Sierras I have been shot at by a nut case neighbor that took pot shots through the trees, have had a bow hunter zing an arrow at my horse and I on trail and had a dog shot by a rancher whose cows escaped and were on my property and he blew my dogs hind leg off with a high powered rifle when my dog chased his cows BACK onto his land. Pffft…I think many gun owners are trigger happy and their egos are dangerous.

Oh, and the group of drunk redneck bubbas that were waving their rifles in my face and getting angry because I wouldn’t allow them to follow a buck onto my property they had been hunting. Scary, 5’3 little hippie blonde chick against 5 rifle totin’ rednecks that had about 100 pac of Coors Lite in them!

No. I will not own a gun, nor a side arm, nor a rifle. Guns are designed to kill things. I don’t like killing things, and the only reason I have to kill animals is to eat them.

I do not own firearms, and I never will.

And, to answer @SQUEEKY2‘s question: I have no problem with people that do, so long as they stay the hell away from me.

No,but I enjoy target shooting.

@cookieman why would you be afraid of gun owners, must make going out and doing anything a real task,because you would definitely come into contact with firearm owners.

@zenvelo what about people that have them for sporting needs such as trap or skeet shooting,IPSIC, or other sporting needs?

@SQUEEKY2 The motive behind trap or skeet shooting or target practice is to hone one’s skill to be more effective at killing rather than maiming.

When I went on a trap shooting excursion through work last year, they threw a disk across the ground and called it a rabbit. I have no intention of going out and shooting at rabbits, so I don’t own a gun.

@SQUEEKY2 A lot of people, especially on this particular site, seem to think people who own guns just SNAP and go on rampages. The mass shootings have convinced a lot of people that that is a fact unfortunately.

@KNOWITALL Actually, what I think (as someone who doesn’t embrace guns the way Americans appear to) is that it is American gun owners who are afraid that someone will snap and go on a rampage. Isn’t that why they carry guns, in case they should need to use them? Otherwise, why bother? This is why I see carrying a gun as a sign of fear.

As a person who does not own guns, I’m the one who isn’t afraid of some ordinary person snapping and going on a rampage.

@glacial I don’t carry a gun around and even if I did, I’d call the law before using my weapon if at all possible.

I refuse to live in fear and have a couple of guns to hunt with and target shoot with & I love shooting handguns, it’s a sport/ hobby, I’m not trying to kill other humans. Also, I kind of think it’s my responsiblity to be able to take care of myself and others if the need arose, before law enforcement could arrive.

@KNOWITALL “I kind of think it’s my responsiblity to be able to take care of myself and others if the need arose, before law enforcement could arrive”

Exactly my point. You fear that this might happen, to the point that you own a firearm and have trained yourself (you hope) to be able to use it in a crisis.

@glacial I don’t fear it will happen, I want to be prepared if anything happened that threatened my safety or the safety of people I care about. I don’t see that as a negative or as living in fear. Again, a case of personal responsibility that I think everyone should practice.

@KNOWITALL I get that you don’t see it as fear, but look at it this way – if there were specific steps you could take to protect yourself against an alien invasion, would you take them? No, because you don’t actually anticipate that this will happen. You do think that needing to use your gun is an occurrence that is likely to happen in the future, or you would not actively be preparing for it. You have to have a significant fear of personal violence to do that.

@glacial Must be my day to get chewed out in every single question today. <sigh>

Shooting is fun, and if it helps you or others in future, even better. Peace out.

My son bought a hand gun for his job, when he was a licensed security guard, but now he wants to sell it. No one will buy an old, cheap handgun.

@KNOWITALL I have been a firearm enthusiast for my whole life,and your right shooting is a fun sport as long as it is done legally and safely,and there is no way I am ever going to give it up because a few people think I’m a Rambo, or going to go on a shooting rampage.
With that kind of theory those people should totally give up alcohol they have a greater chance at drinking and driving than I do committing a violent crime with my firearms.

@YARNLADY People like me would. What calibre, a .22?

@SQUEEKY2 Agreed.

@KNOWITALL I have no idea.

@YARNLADY Ask around, .22 shells are cheaper and small, so women like them a lot. My MIL loves her little handgun and she’d probably 115lbs and 5’2”.

@SQUEEKY2: You misunderstand. I don’t fear gun owners. I have a healthy distrust of them (similar to that of attorneys or priests).

Don’t get me wrong, if you like to target shoot or even hunt and want to call it a sport, that’s fine. I don’t agree with you and wouldn’t do it myself, but I can recognize the attraction.

But folks who feel the need to conceal carry get the fish eye from me.

@cookieman Exactly.

@cookieman Meh, I know several that conceal and carry and there’s really only only two that freak me out, but I get you.

For sporting purposes, I have a 12-gauge bang stick I use down below in case of the rare predatory shark, or those equally rare times the thing I want to eat is as big as me. I prefer to catch that fish from the surface, though. But when opportunity knocks…

I have a Remington 870 marine-grade 12-gauge “shorty” on board but am loathe to use it because, although I’m sure to stop the intruder, I would have to spend the next week working on repairs. I also have a carrying permit and a Taurus 9mm semi-auto somewhere around here which I haven’t seen much of since I left the states.

Most permit holders don’t carry all that often. I basically never do. Never felt a real need to unless I’m way out in the wilderness. Pepper spray is pretty damn effective and there are very very few things people deserve to get shot for. I don’t really hunt but I’m not against it (never really done it much myself). I love marksmanship, always have. It’s been part of my life since I was a kid and I’m not giving it up. 99.9% of the time my firearms are stored in a safe unloaded and bolts removed. For those against hunting do you eat meat? I’m basically a vegetarian but for health reasons. I’m all for wild game and I wish I could get more of it because I’d eat meat more often. To be against hunting and still eat supermarket meat to me is like being opposed to abortion yet support the death penalty….or vice versa. What we do to domesticated animals in feed lots and processing centers is about the most inhumane thing we do as a society.

@ARE_you_kidding_me The only objections to hunting on this thread have been to killing animals for “sport” alone. I do eat meat and I have no objection to hunting for food.

@glacial Ditto, I love wild game and lots of it gets donated to the needy as well.

I also don’t have a problem with “pesting” I don’t know any common hunters who do it just for “sport.” Even the bear hunters in my neck of the woods eat the meat. Some of those big game hunts in Africa or whatever are a different story.

I own firearms for target shooting hunting and home defence purposes.i grew up in a rural area with large wooded areas and I went shooting daily from age 8 until I got married a month before I turned 30.if I was not out on the bay,rivers or creeks I was out in the fields and woods.

@1TubeGuru me too, I’m in suburbia now and miss that lifestyle like you would not believe. I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.

I do not own any firearms or other weapons for hunting or defence. I am not opposed to those who own and use them responsibly.

No, not necessary. Country (Regional) Australia is one of the safest places in the world to live. But even when I lived in Sydney, I still didn’t need one- just stayed out of the bad parts…..