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  • StevenC

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    Feb 25, 2009
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    We just got our very first gun in the house.
    I pulled it apart, gave it a straight from the factory once over...tried out all my new cleaning supplies on it...put it back together again.

    I had no interests in guns until a couple of months ago. I've had fun shooting rental guns a couple of times in those two months but that's about it.
    However, actually holding/working with my own new gun today (I haven't even fired it yet!) was a deeply satisfying/fulfilling experience. I was very much surprised by that!

    Have I turned into some kind of crazed gun owner, or is this normal?:)
     

    GM.Chief

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    Mar 16, 2009
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    I'm thinking it's pretty normal. While I had never owned a gun, I had gone out with my uncles to shoot a few times and I grew up in a pro-gun house. My wife on the other hand grew up in a very anti-gun house. I've been working on her for years to look into it and try it out. Well, a couple of months ago we went to a shop in Conroe, and started seriously looking to buy, even took a basic handgun safety class and she got to shoot a 1/2 box. She wasn't sold right away. However, we've been doing research (type of gun, safety, guns with kids in the house, etc.)for the last couple of months and in the last week we've purchased 5 guns (SA XD40 service, Glock 23, Ruger 10/22, Rem. 870 Express and a cricket 22). Long story short, when she got home from the store with her Glock and was busy taking it apart ( the guy at the store showed her how), carrying it in a holster, holding, and just checking it out. She has been talking about the same feeling as you...and even more so after she took it out to the range.
     

    SIG_Fiend

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    Feb 21, 2008
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    This is normal. Now, if you start talking to your gun, and possibly even naming it, you may want to consider professional help........at least that's what they told me before giving me this nice custom fitted white jacket. The jacket is a bit uncomfortable though, and I still don't get why the arms are tied across the chest and it opens from the back instead of the front. Must be a European designer thing I'm just not hip to. It's real hard using my tongue to try and type posts with this thing on. Man this keyboard tastes bad. Oh crap, here they come with the meds again! lol j/k
     

    GM.Chief

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    From what I've heard, the only problem with this "illness" is that it doesn't get better over time, it gets worse. Soon you'll develop a case of "evil black rifle syndome" and start finding people to let you "try" out their AR's, etc. But wait, there's more, shortly after that you'll want to start looking into the big boys...the class III's... I recommend we all get checked out by doctors soon before this spreads. And if you act now we'll throw in not 1, not 2, but 4 Sham-Wows (and that dork who sells 'em)!!! j/k

    It's been a week and I don't think my wife has come down from it yet. Of course if we listen to the media, we're all crazy for wanting guns in the first place. Speaking of which, has anyone seen my computer:1zhelp:...i know I left it here somewhere....

    As I was saying, in my last post, it's all perfectly normal.
     

    lonewolf23c

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    Oct 2, 2008
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    Idaho
    From what I've heard, the only problem with this "illness" is that it doesn't get better over time, it gets worse. Soon you'll develop a case of "evil black rifle syndome" and start finding people to let you "try" out their AR's, etc. But wait, there's more, shortly after that you'll want to start looking into the big boys...the class III's... I recommend we all get checked out by doctors soon before this spreads. And if you act now we'll throw in not 1, not 2, but 4 Sham-Wows (and that dork who sells 'em)!!! j/k

    It's been a week and I don't think my wife has come down from it yet. Of course if we listen to the media, we're all crazy for wanting guns in the first place. Speaking of which, has anyone seen my computer:1zhelp:...i know I left it here somewhere....

    As I was saying, in my last post, it's all perfectly normal.

    I agree. A few years ago the only gun that was in my house was a bb gun. I went out and did a lot of target shooting with a friend, and was starting to get really interested. Not long after that I was deployed to Iraq for 18 months. After I returned from a deployment to Iraq on leave for 14 days, I purchased my first gun a Glock 23c .40S&W. I started going to the range and doing a lot of target practice etc. About a month before I came home from deployment my friend died of a heart attack which left me (the new guy without any guns) wondering what to do next. Well, after a few months I took my gun out to the range again and started target shooting by myself, and soon after that I really got interested in guns more and more, which led me to my next purchase a Colt 1911 .45acp, then a Winchester Model 94 .30-30 Lever Action. Then came the fun of buying ammo, cleaning kits, etc. My problem now is between my truck payment, and my love of guns I don't have money for anything else. I spend a lot of my paycheck on ammo, and related items. I'm just starting to look into reloading, so I'm probably going to spend a bunch of money on reloading equipment pretty soon.

    I'm having a hard time finding my computer, its usually burried under the stack of gun catalogs, gun smithing books, etc.

    Well enough rambling. Basically what I was trying to say was once you get "Gun Fever" your wallet is gonna be a lot lighter, and that once full piggy bank is gonna be empty.
     

    GM.Chief

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    Basically what I was trying to say was once you get "Gun Fever" your wallet is gonna be a lot lighter, and that once full piggy bank is gonna be empty.

    There is a bright side though...you're wallet will be lighter and thinner, which will make it easier to conceal your gun...
     

    DCortez

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    Jan 28, 2009
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    Have I turned into some kind of crazed gun owner, or is this normal?:)

    The wife and I had a pretty good chuckle while gun shopping one night.

    While chit-chatting, we asked the salesman, who seemed very knowledgeable about a ton of guns, how many guns he had. He said he wasn't as bad as the other salesmen ... he only has 15 guns.

    We have since gone from one gun, to a lot more than one
     

    StevenC

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    Feb 25, 2009
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    This all sounds like good news AND bad news.

    It IS normal, but from now on it will eat all my money:)
     

    M. Sage

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    I don't think it's odd. At their essence, guns are power. In the hands of government, they're the power of tyranny. In the hands of the average person, they're the power of freedom.

    Buying a gun is a statement of individual power. It's reaffirming your sacred status as a free person. While you're armed, you hold your destiny in your hands. Disarmed, your destiny is at the mercy of those who are willing to use force on you to get what they want. Sitting there holding your gun, you're experiencing liberty of a scale that most of the world will never know. Heck, even many other Americans can't know the feeling of walking into a gun store, handing over money and walking back out with a firearm the same day.

    I believe that every law-abiding (and I'm not talking about idiotic laws that only serve to control) and sane person in the world should be armed.

    I think this blogger said it best:

    Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it. In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
    When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
    There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
    Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.
    When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation…and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
     

    navyguy

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    Oct 22, 2008
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    So, what did you get? Will you be getting a CHL? Even if you don't plan on carrying 24/7, it's good to have one. Elimiates some of the checking required for when you buy the rest of your guns ;)
     

    DCortez

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    I don't think it's odd. At their essence, guns are power. In the hands of government, they're the power of tyranny. In the hands of the average person, they're the power of freedom.

    Buying a gun is a statement of individual power. It's reaffirming your sacred status as a free person. While you're armed, you hold your destiny in your hands. Disarmed, your destiny is at the mercy of those who are willing to use force on you to get what they want. Sitting there holding your gun, you're experiencing liberty of a scale that most of the world will never know. Heck, even many other Americans can't know the feeling of walking into a gun store, handing over money and walking back out with a firearm the same day.

    I believe that every law-abiding (and I'm not talking about idiotic laws that only serve to control) and sane person in the world should be armed.

    +1
     

    okie556

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    Feb 12, 2009
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    There is a bright side though...you're wallet will be lighter and thinner, which will make it easier to conceal your gun...
    Speaking of thinner wallets...........I need to make my wife a list of what I really paid for all my guns. In case something happened to me, I wouldn't want her to sell one of my ARs for $500.00 and think she came out ok!!
     

    40Arpent

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    Speaking of thinner wallets...........I need to make my wife a list of what I really paid for all my guns. In case something happened to me, I wouldn't want her to sell one of my ARs for $500.00 and think she came out ok!!

    Just have her PM me in the event of your demise, and I'll make sure everything is handled properly.


     

    okie556

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    Feb 12, 2009
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    Just have her PM me in the event of your demise, and I'll make sure everything is handled properly.


    Oh never mind.............my son just reminded me that the guns should be part of his inheritance. He wanted to know how I was feeling today. (LOL)
     

    DCortez

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    Jan 28, 2009
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    Oh never mind.............my son just reminded me that the guns should be part of his inheritance. He wanted to know how I was feeling today. (LOL)

    I'm not to the point of selling guns I don't plan to keep or pass down. Call me crazy, but I love every gun I've bought so far.
     

    Texas1911

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    It's like driving your parents car a few times, and then you get your own. It might not be as nice, but it's yours to take care of and improve. It just makes it that much more fun.
     

    boycan

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    Mar 6, 2009
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    Speaking of thinner wallets...........I need to make my wife a list of what I really paid for all my guns. In case something happened to me, I wouldn't want her to sell one of my ARs for $500.00 and think she came out ok!!

    Why don't you just give her the gun and point it at your head!
     

    StevenC

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    Feb 25, 2009
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    That's some great verbage by the blogger. Think we could make it fit on a bumper sticker?

    We (as strictly speaking my wife and I are currently sharing it) got a P226 22LR as our 'starter' gun:) Next up will be a non-pea-shooter version of the P226.

    Yes, we really like the P226!
     

    Shorts

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    StevenC, congrats on the new gun! You are totally normal. Like the rest of us perfectly normal gun owners



    Speaking of thinner wallets...........I need to make my wife a list of what I really paid for all my guns. In case something happened to me, I wouldn't want her to sell one of my ARs for $500.00 and think she came out ok!!


    That's assuming you don't drive her to leaving you then selling your stuff for fun. Not only does she knkow the price you paid, but selling it for $500 might actually bring her GREAT satisfaction
     
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