Did you grow up with firearms, or introduced later in life?

[Servant68]

Just thought it would be interesting to see where folks are coming from in their experience or sub-culture of firearms.

I grew up in Northern Idaho the son of a big game hunter and owner of a gun store. When my parents divorced, my mom married a cop.

My uncles were all log truck drivers and avid outdoorsmen. I grew up on the edge of town on a small horse ranch. I got my first BB gun at age 6 and my first .22 at age 10. I would routinely wander in the mountains of Idaho alone for hours at age 12. By 14, I was riding my horse 15-20 miles into the mountains and spending the night alone with nothing more than a .22 pistol and a Buck knife for protection.

Grew up with a gun on my hip, then went into the military. Got out and did some time in law enforcement as well. So I have been pretty much raised on firearms...

 

[ChavaK]

No experience with guns until my mid-50's. Jews as a rule aren't into hunting or firearms.
Did my first competition at age 61.
Now I am hooked on both!

 

[Servant68]

Jews as a rule aren't into hunting or firearms.

I just absolutely don't understand that. And the fact that most here in the US support the Democratic party is also a major brain teaser for me.

I love listening to Dennis Prager on the radio and he has touched on that phenomenon every now and then.

 

[ChavaK]

I just absolutely don't understand that. And the fact that most here in the US support the Democratic party is also a major brain teaser for me.

I love listening to Dennis Prager on the radio and he has touched on that phenomenon every now and then.

Well, observant Jews won't eat meat that hasn't been slaughtered in a kosher manner, so that eliminates hunting.
Non-religious Jews generally come from urban areas and hunting isn't big there, although of course there are exceptions.
Again, there is a difference between religious and secular Jews when it comes to guns. Most observant Jews I know support the second amendment, and most secular Jews are liberal and follow the liberal mindset when it comes to guns. Of course that is a generalization, but true over all. I don't get it either. Orthodoxy is growing while secular Jews are starting to fade away. I think in another generation or two, you will see a large growth in Jews who are conservative in their political views.

I love Prager too.

 

[Darkhorse]

I grew up with guns also, mostly from my mom's influence. She was a country girl who was given a .32 revolver by her boyfriend, and accumulated several other guns as the years went by. After her first marriage came apart, she worked all hours as a nurse in Dallas to support her 3 kids. She carried a .38 when she needed to, and the cops told her "You shoot 'em and we'll haul them off" (this was in the 1940s). Fortunately she never had to, but there were some close calls.

When I was growing up, she kept her pistols loaded and locked in a bedroom drawer, but the long guns were always out in the open. Although they were unloaded, ammunition was always nearby. I got a BB gun at age 6 and a 22/410 over-and-under when I was 11. My older brothers were also into guns (and had several), but not my sister. We all learned to shoot them, clean them, and be careful with them.

My kids were also raised around guns, but I did it a little differently. When they were little, I never had ammunition out where the kids could reach it, but my wife and I kept our pistols with us all the time, rather than locked in a drawer. When the kids were older and learned how to shoot, I started keeping a loaded pump shotgun where they could reach it. Still do.

 

[com7fy8]

When I was a kid, I should not have had my BB gun; I was not nice and kind, and not supervised well. And I can see now how, if I carried, I likely could mis-read people and hurt someone for no real reason. So, it is good for me to just pray and be good with people

But I can see that there are other people who have a real upbringing and they know what they are doing.

 

[GeorgeJ]

Shot them as a kid, shot them during my 20 year military service, just keeping the tradition going....

Mostly competition shooting nowadays, but I still hunt during deer season.

 

[Rigatoni]

When I was younger, I enjoyed playing games on the Nintendo 64 which featured both practical and sci-fi weapons; some of these games included Perfect Dark, GoldenEye and Turok 1, 2, & 3. Ever since, I have been a major fan of firearms. I once even got in trouble for drawing pictures of guns in school (I can see why I would get in trouble for that, but it was purely innocent at the time). =/ As kids, my friends and I would pretend we were like secret agents, etc. during recess and our free time, and would use our imagination to role-play / reenact scenes from movies and games; I could see a stick or debris on the ground and always imagine it being some sort of weapon. Later on, my friends and I started getting into nerf guns and laser tag fights lol.

My first job was doing field work and acting as a referee at a local gun range, where i learned the procedures and regulations for competitive shooting, as well as gun safety. My father also got me into shooting trap sometime around high school, and I got into riflery on my own since then.

 

[Big Drew]

My dad was in the Army, specifically CID, so we always had guns in the house. My first was a Daisy BB gun that he bought me when I was 7 or 8. First time to shoot a real firearm, I was probably around 12. He always had mostly handguns, so that is what I've always shot. My grandfather had a 20 gauge shotgun and a 22 rifle that I learned to shoot around the same time.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

My parents didn't like guns, and if you go back and read some of my old CF stuff, I was very anti-gun at one point in my life (hard to believe now). I've gone back and read some of those things and was embarrassed at the things I used to say back then lol.

I didn't really get into them until about 8 years ago...a couple of co-workers were into them and talked me into going to the range with them after work...and it was one of those things where one trip and I was hooked. It wasn't two weeks later that I was buying my first two guns: a Smith & Wesson Sigma 40, and a Ruger 10-22.

Now, I have over a dozen and still love shooting. (although I don't have the Sigma 40 anymore...it really was a lousy gun in retrospect lol...I do still have the ruger 10-22, and feel that the 10-22 should be a staple for anyone who enjoys guns...they're cheap, reliable, and tons of aftermarket stuff available for them)

 

[98cwitr]

Shot my first gun with my dad, a Browning .22 short when I was 5. Grand Dad had a lot of shotguns and I got to shoot those off and on over the years. Got my first deer rifle at 13, Savage .243 Winchester. Upgraded a few years later to a Remington Model 7 .308 Win.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Shot my first gun with my dad, a Browning .22 short when I was 5. Grand Dad had a lot of shotguns and I got to shoot those off and on over the years. Got my first deer rifle at 13, Savage .243 Winchester. Upgraded a few years later to a Remington Model 7 .308 Win.

I do miss my .308...ended up selling it a few years back to a licensed gun dealer in the area.

SOCOM II | Best M1A™ Rifle | Competition Guns for Sale

The one range in my area that let me shoot it sold their business to a person who made it a "pistols only" range

...and since I live in a condo complex, I don't have any property to shoot it on so I wasn't getting any use out of it anymore. Luckily for me, I sold it during the "Obama's going to take everyone's guns away panic" so even with it being used, I got almost the MSRP of what I paid for it new a few years prior. That was during the crazy time when gun stores will selling DPMS AR's for almost $2k lol...

A buddy of mine who's into guns just bought a house that's on 4.5 acres with a wooded backdrop, so now that I have a place where I could take something like that on a regular basis, I'm half-tempted to buy another 308

 

[Shane R]

Dad had guns, as did his father before him, and his grandfather. They were rural folk who partially supplied the table through hunting. And they were not too distant from the original 'rednecks' (if you know the history of that name - you know the general area I speak of).

 

[Left]

Introduced later in life.

 

[Flicka2017]

Just thought it would be interesting to see where folks are coming from in their experience or sub-culture of firearms.

I grew up in Northern Idaho the son of a big game hunter and owner of a gun store. When my parents divorced, my mom married a cop.

My uncles were all log truck drivers and avid outdoorsmen. I grew up on the edge of town on a small horse ranch. I got my first BB gun at age 6 and my first .22 at age 10. I would routinely wander in the mountains of Idaho alone for hours at age 12. By 14, I was riding my horse 15-20 miles into the mountains and spending the night alone with nothing more than a .22 pistol and a Buck knife for protection.

Grew up with a gun on my hip, then went into the military. Got out and did some time in law enforcement as well. So I have been pretty much raised on firearms...

I don't have a whole lot of experience with them. I've shot a few shot guns in my lifetime. Am a pretty good shot too, especially for a girl lol. I grew up with them around as my dad is an avid hunter. I honestly felt very safe knowing there was a firearm in the house when I was growing up. Anyway, I am fascinated with firearms.

 

[sylverpiano]

There have always been firearms in my house. My Poppa is a retired U.S.M.C Gunnery Sergeant. He taught me to shoot when I was a teenager. I am a pistol shooter, and I habitually shoot three days a week. Lately I have been on the mend from a badly broken ankle and have not been keeping in practice.

 

[Tallguy88]

I grew up with guns. My grandfather was an amateur gun dealer. Fully licensed, but he didn't have a store. He just acted as a middleman for people at his factory who wanted to order guns out of a catalogue (pre internet, of course).

He's the one who first let me handle real guns. First took me shooting. First took me hunting. Taught me basic gun safety. Etc.

I still have two of his guns, one he gave me the other I claimed from his estate.

 

[Servant68]

I still have two of his guns, one he gave me the other I claimed from his estate.

It's funny, my grandfather only had three guns for most of his life; a shotgun, a rifle, and a .22 rifle. All were Remingtons. I now have the .22 rifle and the shotgun in my possession. All were purchased in the `30's.

 

[Servant68]

There have always been firearms in my house. My Poppa is a retired U.S.M.C Gunnery Sergeant. He taught me to shoot when I was a teenager. I am a pistol shooter, and I habitually shoot three days a week. Lately I have been on the mend from a badly broken ankle and have not been keeping in practice.

My dad was a USMC sniper from the Vietnam era...

Three days a weeks is pretty intense; I shoot maybe three times a month if I'm lucky. And my dad lives 15 miles away in the country and has his own range.

 

[sylverpiano]

It is intense, I know. The people in OBOB know me and my situation, but you and I have just met. I am female, four feet nine inches tall and I weigh about eighty five pounds. I was a victim of a brutal sexual assault twenty years ago. This will not happen again.

Pretty often, based on my appearance, I get rather condescending comments from men at the range. "You are an awfully small girl to be shooting that big gun, aren't you?" and the like. When I was drinking I won quite a few bottles of Jameson's over these comments. Now I shoot for checks written to support a local Women's Shelter.

My Poppa did three tours in Vietnam. He was not primarily a sniper. He and his wife currently live in Tel Aviv, but he belongs to the same gun club I do. When he lived here, he and I would go to the range together. He has a Weatherby rifle that he custom tuned and equipped with the finest optics available. He likes to shoot poker chips at 600 yards.

His gun safe sits next to mine. Israel frowns upon people bringing in firearms