I grew up rurally around guns. It was a different world then.

[captain queeg]

Learned to shoot my brother's ,22, and got my forst gun when I was 11 (410 shotgun). We did a lot of shooting back then though we were always careful never to shoot in any direction towards any people. This is 60s and 70s in Ohio. I bought a couple pistols when I was in my 20-30s, one of which I still have and never have fired. No one I knew had a pistol. I haven't fired a gun for probably 30 years

I kind of remember when guns started being fetishized. A guy at work bought a AR type gun. Back then you could only have a 10 shot magazine, and handguns could only have the same. I remember I used to give the guy shit and say he'd sit around at night drinking and fondeling his gun. You know, I nailed that way back then, I've never thought that was an out of line description. At least people back then were familiar with guns, and there were rules like no large capacity magazines. It is scary how many guns are out there, and what types. With all the gun violence congress still hasn't acted. Guys like Kyle are just itching to try out their toy,

[pfitz59]

1. At my rural high school everyone had guns and knives

guns in the truck. knives on the belt. fighting was done with fists. guns were for killing game. knives were for skinning. we had fisjung poles as well

[captain queeg]

2. Yeah. I'd say we had more violence back then, but just physical fights

The idea of bringing a gun or even a knife would never even be considered.

[vercetti2021]

3. I was around them all my life

I've learned to shoot from age 12. Almost each weekend I'd be shooting my .22, my .45 and a shotgun. The model escapes me. But I was taught to hunt. Though I never could bring myself to kill an animal. So instead I did target and skeet shooting. I had more fun with recreational shooting instead of game. I own a small handful of guns. Rifles and handguns. But nothing military grade since I never believed a normal and I mean normal civilian needed something the military uses. Sadly now I don't get much recreational in since ammunition supplies are lowered nowadays thanks to the paranoid right nutters.

[American Interregnum]

4. I grew up without guns

Since 1994, I've bought several. That's not a coincidence.

[maxsolomon]

24. I grew up without guns.

I've lived in big cities my whole life, sometimes in dangerous neighborhoods.

I've never bought one. That's not a coincidence.

[BlueLucy]

5. I've never even been in the same room where someone had a gun privately.

I've never held one in my hand. I am thinking about buying one now.

[maxsolomon]

25. Can I ask why now?

To protect yourself from other people with guns?

Because a well-regulated Militia is necessary for the security of a free state?

[JohnnyRingo]

6. I though maybe I wrote this and forgot.

Growing up in NE Ohio, after my Daisy, I had a Remington Nylon 66 semi that fired .22s. There was always a brick or two of ammo laying around so plinking became a pastime. I couldn't have a pistol until I turned 21 and went on a buying spree of Colt single action armys. Some were in commemorative boxes and never fired. Bad times came in the '90s and they were gone.

All except one. I still have My 100 year old 1908 Colt hammerless Model .380 that I keep around, but I very seldom shoot it.

[captain queeg]

9. That's funny. When I read yours I wondered, pretty similar

And I had a Remington 66 nylon. I had the one with the 7 shot clip. I sorta wished I’d gotten the other one with the 10 shot tubular feed. I got that a little later because they had such a reputation of never jamming and that seemed to be a problem with a lot of auto loaders. I still have it in storage. Also NE Ohio. Not too far from KSU.

[JohnnyRingo]

19. I'll be in your neighborhood tonight.

Now if you tell me you're going to the Wallflowers concert at the Kent Stage I'll really freak out. I live near Mosquito Lake.

[captain queeg]

20. Knew you were close

But I don’t live there any more. Grew up in Garretsville but I moved out to WA quite awhile ago. Used to fish for walleye on Mosquito.

[doc03]

16. Cabala's wants $600 for a Nylon 66 today. I never had a Nylon 66 my dad

bought me a Remington bolt action with a wooden stock. To my dad a plastic stock would be
like desecrating a gun, guns had wood stocks period and if you knew how to shoot all you needed was one shot.
I quit hunting 20 years ago, I just lost interest in killing harmless animals. I still have 4 long guns and
6 handguns and shoot target occasionally. I have never had any desire to own an AR-15 style rifle and don't
think a civilian should own one. I am like my dad rifle stocks are American Walnut a bolt action rifle or pump shotgun
are for hunting. Semi autos are for wasting ammo and killing people.

[captain queeg]

22. Well, for plinking a .22 auto is pretty handy. Didn't know they still sold the 66 and how much it

cost nowadays I think it was around $100 when I bought it. That said, .22s kill a lot of people and I don’t think a lot of people realize it’s not a BB gun. I actually had a friend years ago that considered it not much more than a BB gun. I wouldn’t know where to go nowadays to safely shoot. I guess a gun range, but back then we’d just go out in the woods.

[doc03]

23. That is the old vintage ones from back

in the day. They quit making them in 1989.

[kaotikross]

7. I grew up around them too.

A lot of liberals own guns, we just don't fetishize them. I would say the problem isn't the weapons so much as it is the conservative and criminal elements thinking they're the solution to every problem, no matter how small and no slight, no matter how insignificant, need be ignored because if it escalates they can always "go get their gun". In that respect conservatives are no different than gang bangers.
I was amused by how easily cons threw the "good guy with a gun" theory out the window regarding Gaige Grossewitz (spelling?) who was an actual legal "good guy with a gun" just to support Kryin' Kyle. The smarter potatriots of course saw the problem with this so the NRA/GQP Meme Brigade had to get the rank and file dumbassery that make up the base believe he was illegal.
Naturally, when any potatriot had this pointed out to them on social media they decried it as "fake news", even when proof was provided because it ruins the "Kyle was cleanin' up the dirtbags" narrative.

[Thunderbeast]

8. My urban high school had a rifle range

in the basement below the library.

Liberal western city.

Go figure...

[hatrack]

14. We spent a week in PE class target shooting at the college rifle range (9th grade)

It was fun, and nobody thought anything of it (this would have been 1975 or 1976, IIRC).

[marie999]

10. We live in a rural area, 60% Republican and 40% Democrat.

We own rifles and pistols. Many of the people hunt so there are a lot of rifles. How many own pistols I don't know, but I have never seen anyone open carry one. We have lived here for 20 years and never a murder in that time. In the nearest city, Jacksonville NC, I haven't seen an open carry, but there have been murders.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. Yorktown High School, Arlington County, Virginia, 22207

It's as blue as can be. I don't know where the kids go now, if anywhere. Maybe Joint Base Fort Myer-Henderson Hall.

A lot of military families live in Arlington.

Arlington Delays Closure Of School Shooting Range

By Jennifer Lenhart June 18, 1999

The only rifle range in the Arlington school system, which had been targeted for closure, won't be shut down for at least another month, the Arlington School Board decided last night. ... In a 3 to 2 vote, the School Board rejected the recommendation offered by Superintendent Robert G. Smith to immediately close the range, convert it to storage space and turn what is now used for storage into two classrooms. Board Chair Darlene M. Mickey and Vice Chair Libby Garvey voted in favor of closing the range.

Smith's recommendation came in response to parents' concerns after the shootings at a Littleton, Colo., high school in April. Some parents objected to the Yorktown High School rifle range, questioning whether students should be allowed to fire guns in school. ... Garvey said she favored closing the range as soon as possible, but added, "This is not about ending the program, it's about moving it." Mickey said her objection was not about safety, but about space.

In a follow-up action, the board voted unanimously for a recommendation made by board members Elaine S. Furlow and Mary H. Hynes to ask school officials to investigate alternative sites for the range. ... Furlow and Hynes said they wanted to know whether such sites exist, and the cost of using alternative ranges. The board agreed to address the issue again July 14. In another motion, members approved the creation of two new classrooms.

"I understand and respect all of the concerns about young people having guns at school," Hynes said. "We need to continue to support the team. It's important for kids to be on it. It's important for kids to get a [varsity sports] letter." The Yorktown range is one of three in the Potomac High School Rifle League. The others are at Landon School in Bethesda and St. John's College Academy in Northwest Washington.

Yorktown's range opened in 1967 to accommodate the school's rifle team, which was established in 1962 and practiced at a now-defunct range at Fort Myer. About 55 teenagers use the range, including the team at Arlington's Washington-Lee High School and the teenage rifle club sponsored by the Optimists Club. ... Students who use the Yorktown range, which is open only after school hours, either bring their own -- unloaded -- weapons to school in gun cases or use the school's 22 long-rifle caliber single-shot target rifles. These guns, which are stored in a locked cabinet when not in use, are designed for target shooting and must be reloaded after every shot, rifle coaches said.

{snip}

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

12. +1

[Baitball Blogger]

13. Rotcy people who were on the rifle team would carry their guns on the school bus.

No big deal.

[Septua]

15. It WAS a different world...

..and gun owners were responsible. School, restaurant, Walmart, church, concert etc shootings were virtually non-existent. "Guns don't kill; people do" was an accurate observation...and still is.

[stopdiggin]

17. Pretty much the same here.

Guns were extremely common (and no one gave it much thought) - and attitudes were extremely different. No one thought the 2nd amendment was a political football - and no one was walking around with a big chip on their shoulder.

[maxsolomon]

26. it changed with the "Cincinnati Revolution"

when LaRouche et al took control of the NRA and began making guns political.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_at_Cincinnati

[Paladin]

18. Well said. (nt)

[Elessar Zappa]

21. Gun violence was actually higher back then.

Until this last year, homicides were at the lowest level they’d been at since the 1950’s. The 70s, 80s, and 90s especially were far more violent eras. We do have a new problem now and that’s mass shootings and right wing violence. It must be dealt with by banning assault weapons, making all guns harder to get i.e a waiting period, licensing, etc.

[onethatcares]

27. it was all good

up until the Dirty Harry movies and Charles Bronson movies came out then alot of idiots decided they would act the roles out.

With Thanksgiving coming up this post brought up memories of hunting without adult supervision the morning of. Marlin over/under .22/410 single shot nylon stock rifle for squirrel and rabbit. I was 13.

[LiberalFighter]

28. Gun owners that spend too much time with them

Should be ridiculed. Identify them as fondlers.

[hunter]

29. As I frequently say here, gun fetishes are disgusting.

I don't have any problem with hunting for dinner. In a lot of ways that's more honest than buying meat in the grocery store. I also recognize the utility of guns on ranches and farms. (I don't have any fondness for ground squirrels...)

Nevertheless I haven't hunted in the 21st century, partly because my wife is vegetarian approaching vegan and I'm mostly vegetarian, and partly because there are too many whack jobs gun fetishists out there.

My great grandparents were all Wild West. In the family tradition fools and their guns were soon parted.

Another tradition I learned was to never let anyone I'd care to shoot live in my head.

Imagining the sorts of people one would care to shoot makes one a fool. Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of that.

[Ishoutandscream2]

30. Grew up to respect them, not worship them

Same thing as mentioned above. And yes, it's true. Rifles would be mounted in some students' pickup trucks, right in the high school parking lot. No one made a big deal, and no one ever thought of shooting someone else. It was a different time.

By the way, I'm not a "gun nut". Even though I live in Texas, I own no guns and haven't shot one since I was a teenager. I never got into them.

[shrike3]

31. My experience exactly.

Everyone had a shotgun to protect livestock. Or, a gun to deer hunt. Guns were tools. Now they are, like you said, a fetish.

[48656c6c6f20]

32. I'm sure this won't turn into

A gun bukkake thread.