How would you handle a close friend who is about to become a gun owner?

[ecstatic]

Poll question: How would you handle a close friend who is about to become a gun owner?

I fully support the 2nd Amendment. I would trust MY judgment with a gun, but I'm not so sure I trust anyone else to have one around me. Yet someone very very close to me is in the process of buying one... He is 26 years old and can be quite immature/irresponsible/crazy?

Would you allow a friend to carry a gun around you?

[ThomCat]

1. If I don't trust him with a gun

I'd tell him to leave it at home, or I wouldn't hang out with him.

[Pierre.Suave]

2. Your premise is a bit flawed

What makes you think that owning a gun implies carrying it around?

[JuniperLea]

3. You forgot a choice...

"Bogus questions; meaningless poll"

[cgrindley]

4. We could go to the range together

That'd be fun. I'm always looking for people to go to range.

[karlrschneider]

5. Why would you want to be a "close friend" to someone who

"can be quite immature/irresponsible/crazy"?

[ecstatic]

7. well most of the time he's the opposite

All it takes is one slip of judgment. I think there should be a higher age restriction when it comes to gun ownership.

[karlrschneider]

10. I see...he's schizophrenic too.

Tell him to get one of these:

[Clark2008]

6. I picked other

I wouldn't care if they packed around me, but I don't allow guns in my house because I have small children.

Even my husband who is a former Ranger and knows his way around a gun doesn't have one.

However, I'm perfectly OK with anyone who wants to own one, so I have a blend of choices one and two.

[Bicoastal]

8. I have a close friend who owns a gun.

In fact, he let me shoot it once, at his place in Texas. I was scared out of my mind just to be holding it--which I suspect is a result of my inexperience with firearms. He's a ex-pat Texan who likes to drink, lie, and shoot, but thankfully never all at once.

He can be quite crazy? Crazy how? Ray Jay crazy or OJ crazy?

[Hangingon]

9. Pretty dumb poll...

The gun owners I know are all responsible people. They deplore things like VT as much or more than others.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. No one is welcome in my house with a gun

Licensed, unlicensed, permit or no permit. I don't care. No guns in my house.

[demnan]

12. Other - Why?

I don't live in an area of hunting and it's not really a high crime area either, so I'd have to ask.

Hey, it's alright to have a gun but we should have laws that look at people's backgrounds, for christsake, we look at backgroups for people coding websites in Virginia more than we look at backgrounds of people having guns. It's insane.

[Hangingon]

15. We moved from Alexandria several years ago.

Do they allow hunting in Mason Neck NWR still?

[demnan]

16. I'm sorry

I have no idea!

[Hangingon]

17. It is a beautiful area.

There were a lot of deer which were a problem with the urban growth. I imagine the area has built up to the point that hunting wouold be problematic. Sure miss Virginia.

[demnan]

20. I live in Lake Ridge, Virginia

I have a small condo but this community is the nicest in Woodbridge, Virginia. It was established as an upscale area, but also had condos, such as my small one, set in a backdrop of woods, a meadow area (where the powerlines are) and wildlife. The Occoquan River is close by and there is a huge park there and a wildlife refuge. Deer stop at my bird feeder all the time. Also we have raccoons who are comical and bunnies, foxes and all sorts of wildlife. But I'm in the suburban D.C. area still. And my commute to Alexandria every day is still just under 30 miles.

I can't complain. I'm very lucky to live here.

[Hangingon]

22. I remember the area. Your are fortunate to live there.

Beautiful rural area and Alexandria too. Enjoy - nice to meet you.

[hyphenate]

13. During the six months that

my fundie ex-friend was getting to know the idiot in Kentucky (Xian prison guard who loves to "redeem" the prisoners) she was taking up more and more of his ways and unfortunately it didn't set off any warnings in my brain. One was that she actually went out and registered for a gun and took lessons, as well as pretty much ignoring any practical suggestions. As a result, the by-product of her personality was a rabid, gun-toting fundamentalist who had forgotten all she had ever known about science and evolution, eager to have Israel completely screw over the other countries in the middle east so that when Israel was dominant, the rapture would be right behind it.

This is a woman who was a teacher, who had a high IQ and who conveniently ignored everything that made sense.

I'm not trying to deride Xians or gunowners, but there is a certain mentality that is associated with fundies who aren't looking out for their own best interests, who are so involved with waging war and killing anyone who is in their way. We've seen it, we've lived through a large part of it, and there are a lot of people who are still unwilling to come to their senses. A large portion of them came out of the woodwork when the idiot in the white house got in, and it's the elimination of this regime that I hope will send them back into the hell in which they came.

It really doesn't matter how we perceive them--they're a threat to our country because of their fanaticism, and the one thing we can't do is take them too lightly.

On edit:

Sorry--I got carried away and forgot the original question! I would not want--ever--to have ANYONE around me with a gun unless it was someone in law enforcement. Even then, I would get seriously creeped out if they carried it with them when they weren't on the job. I hate guns and everything associated with them. My grandfather had a shotgun, but he actually hunted 50 years ago, but that was it. Guns might not always be dangerous, but if they're not around, there isn't the temptation to use them.

[Pierre.Suave]

14. well then

in that case, maybe we should license religious fundamentalists...

[hyphenate]

19. You know

That's not a bad idea, is it? :rofl:

[KoKo]

18. Yeah ....let everyone have guns...No RESTRICTIONS...I'm sick of Dems being Beholden

to the GUN PARTY. No Restrictions. Would that make Gun Advocates HAPPY?

You realize then, that everything that occurs with GUN THEME in America will be ON YOUR HEADS AND NOT OURS.

Free GUNS! I'm sick of the crap from gun owners thinking Dems are coming into their Bedroom Night Stand Drawers and dragging out their Pistols or breaking open their "Gun Cabinets."

Frankly, GUN ADVOCATES are lost to me as Dem....I'm sick of the issue. It only drags Dems down when those who advocated it use the issue to WHIP UP THEIR FUNDIES!

ENJOY YOUR GUNS...I don't give a damn what you do with them.

[ends_dont_justify]

21. other:

I already have friends who are gun owners. Anyone who is not fit to carry a gun around me is not around me, period, if I have a say.

Point in case...I don't have any friends I question the sanity of, at the very least, who I allow myself in a position to be harmed by them.