Gun Ownership : If You Don't Like Guns, Does It Make Sense to Own a Gun?

[Angela22]

I don't really like guns, but I have been thinking about how learning how to shoot a gun can save a life, even if not my own.

Would it make sense to just own my own gun? Even tho I don't really like 'em?

 

[ogoun]

From what you've said, for the most part I'd say no Sister, give up the idea.
If the home is where you're concerned about then an open bore 12 gauge shotgun is the best thing one could ask for. It doesn't take a lot of practice or know how beyond the direction to point it. Besides it is the absolute best weapon in an in close encounter. (anyone stupid enough to not back down in the face of a 12 gauge......)
BUT if you have children in the house they obviously also don't know about weapons so having any sort of fire arm around will be a moot point as any kind of defensive weapon because if you have to go digging up the ammo or unlocking it from somewhere to make it of any use then.................you've lost any advantage you would have hoped for.

Pistols take an extraordinarily amount of practice to use with any precision at all.....at all........at all. And that's just within 10 yds or so. That's why semi's are so popular one can put a lot of lead out there quickly and possibly hit what you need or want to. Otherwise a revolver would be the weapon of choice because they're simple with few moving parts and never fail with a jam no matter how often you don't clean them or the circumstance used in.
Now on top of that kind of practice of hitting something within say 30 to 50 feet that something is shooting back trying to kill you. And you very scared (is there any need to say that?). That 50 feet may as well be a mile.
Then you have the weight of the fire arm. Nah, not the actual ounces it might weigh but the weight it has in just the carrying, it changes a person inside. All the world becomes the enemy. No matter where you find yourself you're waiting for the enemy to jump out. It changes you inside and hollows out souls.

 

[Queenie]

Thank you Sis. @Angela22 for starting this thread. I've been giving gun ownership a lot of thought for a few years, read up on it, but never followed through because, like you, I don't particularly care for guns.

But, as I get older, I've been thinking more about the need to have a weapon that could stop a perp/intruder instantly because I'm not feeling as safe as I want to. Like you said, Bro. @Symbol of America, I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

I've shot a 12 gauge shot gun before but it's been many years and it was out in the woods and only one time. So I need to learn a lot...how to respect the weapon, and Bro. @ogoun, you made a good point about a shot gun vs. a pistol. When I think about it, I think that was causing my hesitation. I think a shot gun would be a better choice for me. Are there gun ranges where you can practice with them too? I need to learn the force of the kick when you shoot it.

 

[ogoun]

Thanks for the vote of confidence SOA but I've in honesty have tried my best over the years to forget and ignore all advances in weaponry. As for what I keep they're really not anything out of the ordinary one would find in almost home in the rural agri/isolated woods. That is to say utilitarian tools like small bore vermin rifle, a small .410 and a larger 12 gauge (my prize. over/under Beretta). When I still hunted deer I had a nice pump .308 Remington Field Master I really liked that I had a custom stock made for but sold it a while back. And I still have the first weapon I learned how to shoot with as a child, an old block locked .22 my dad found in an abandoned mine shaft and cut down to make it a pistol. Don't know if I'd dare even shoot it now.
A couple of weeks ago head'n down the road I noted a strange car parked on the shoulder kinda on my abutting neighbors line, coming back home the car had moved to parking on my front line and no one around to be seen. My drive way is about 150 yds and my studio/shop nor the house can be seen from the road. Great just great, so I get Strider on lead and start wandering around and finally head through the woods and getting to my neighbors house see this guy wandering about with this drone flying over head. But before we (Strider and i) could stop him in his tracks my neighbor comes bolting out of the house saying it was all ok, it was a real-estate agent just taking pictures. Looking back at a smiling like an idiot agent I told him if I saw him or that drone any where close to my place I was going to get some skeet practice. And walked away.
Which in a round about way gets me to where to practice handling a shotgun, a skeet range. I prefer trap myself but some people like the predictability of skeet.

 

[ogoun]

More fun to shoot them down though!