While I felt predisposed to liking firearms, and my family was open minded about them, she was not. When I met her she was downright scared of firearms and did not want them around at all. After facts, time, and positive exposure, she has gone from fear, to acceptance, and now enjoyment of firearms. I believe that, for the most part, this type of positive exposure can take most people to at least the acceptance level. I see anything less than acceptance as simply a lack of knowledge and exposure. I understand that bad exposure does occur. Those stories in the news always seem to happen to and around innocent people. However, I would simply ask those people to realize that it was not any firearm that committed any crime; it was but somebody wielding a tool. When a drunk driver hits and kills people, we take away their privilege to drive, but we do not try to ban cars on the roads for any sort of reason. Cars and guns are but tools people use for various reasons. Yes, some reasons can be bad, but not all are. As long as such an insanely large percentage of firearm owners commit no crimes using them, there is no reason to over-regulate the market and ownership. I honestly believe that all anyone who wishes such things needs is more positive exposure.

Link: http://www.theliberalgunclub.com/2012/0 ... -exposure/

Fear of the unknown is a safety mechanism. Its extreme for sure. I can't tell one snake from another so I go around all of them. It's not a stretch to understand why people with only third-hand accounts of guns are skittish.

Simmer down wrote:Fear of the unknown is a safety mechanism. Its extreme for sure. I can't tell one snake from another so I go around all of them. It's not a stretch to understand why people with only third-hand accounts of guns are skittish.

Fear of the unknown motivates many gun nuts too.

Zenmason wrote:

Simmer down wrote:Fear of the unknown is a safety mechanism. Its extreme for sure. I can't tell one snake from another so I go around all of them. It's not a stretch to understand why people with only third-hand accounts of guns are skittish.

Fear of the unknown motivates many gun nuts too.

Yeah, my fear of the future economic situation leads me to buy firearms. They're the only thing I know that ALWAYS goes up in value. </snark>

KVoimakas wrote:Yeah, my fear of the future economic situation leads me to buy firearms. They're the only thing I know that ALWAYS goes up in value. </snark>

This is related to an attitude that frightens your normal citizen about guns. One of my inspirations for rearming after coming back from Japan, was hearing about the nutjobs buying up all the ammo because we were electing our first black President. It occurred to me, that it shouldn't just be the freaks and wackjobs armed.

If we can support firearm ownership in a rational way in public discourse, we can win more people over.

Of course, in our own little club, we can be a little crazy.

Zenmason wrote:

KVoimakas wrote:Yeah, my fear of the future economic situation leads me to buy firearms. They're the only thing I know that ALWAYS goes up in value. </snark>

This is related to an attitude that frightens your normal citizen about guns. One of my inspirations for rearming after coming back from Japan, was hearing about the nutjobs buying up all the ammo because we were electing our first black President. It occurred to me, that it shouldn't just be the freaks and wackjobs armed.

If we can support firearm ownership in a rational way in public discourse, we can win more people over.

Of course, in our own little club, we can be a little crazy.

I agree with you and I think that we need to have a sober discussion about the negative and positive aspects of firearms. We should not romanticize them and we should not demonize them.

The problem is that "rational" has different meanings for different people. In your own post (and I am not doing this to be provocative) you say that KV's reason for acquiring firearms is related to an attitude that frightens "normal" citizens. You came back from living in a society where citizens are unarmed and have very different attitudes about fireams than Americans. Upon learning that people who do not share your political beliefs were purchasing quantities of firearms and ammunition, you decided to arm yourself...

I believe that that is a very similar reason to why KV acquires firearms. It seems that you both acquired them for personal defense in a situation where there may be danger both physically and economically. SO..... Where does the rational discussion begin?

I am only asking the question because we seem to all draw lines where we are comfortable, then we make assumptions about others who may have very similar beliefes than our own.

I have thought about why I own guns. I have struggled with the idea of whether I am contributing to a sense of fear, of competition, of antipathy with my fellow human being. I think that in a sense I am. The reality however is that there are people out there who do not care. They want and they will take; or they hate and they will try to destroy. So I skirt the line and I engage in the struggle. I own firearms for self defense and defense of my loved ones. I hope NEVER to have to use them in that capacity. I run from danger not because I am a coward, but because I don't want to have to hurt anyone. I know that I can because I have in the past, though never with a gun. It is a scary thought, but a realistic one. All I can do is try to be kind to people and treat them with respect while at the same time understanding that I can and will defend my life and those of the people I love whether by fleeing myself and helping them flee or by fighting and using any tool at my disposal to do so.

My reply was meant more tongue in cheek than anything else. I own firearms for multiple reasons.