Poll: Who else literally grew up with firearms?

[kevjitzoo]

I grew up around them, but was never taught how to use them. I started off shooting for fun because it was cool in my early 20s. Sold everything to go to college and got bit by the bug and took shooting a bit more seriously.

 

[Muskwa]

My father was a felon so no guns in the house, but grandpa had a handful that I remember shooting like an old 22lr marlin and 10/22, a 20g Maverick and a 9mm Ruger. From 14-26 I hunted every year at first with my uncle using his .270, but when I turned 18 my brother and I bought a 30-06 and a mosin nagant then I bought a .308 ruger that I was very successful with then spent a couple falls hunting with a 30-30.

 

[grumpychef]

I was shooting a red Ryder BB gun at 5 and a mossberg lever action 22 by 10. Still have that mossberg!

 

[grumpychef]

Always apart of my life

 

[SkylarLily]

I grew up in Texas and never saw a firearm besides open carrying on LEO, always wanted a gun and never really could afford it until a little after i could even own one. Was out of Cali when i wanted to pull the trigger on guns finally (((((

So glad they are part of my life now and its not new, scary, difficult to learn.

 

[Texmex247]

I was a suburban kid but also got my first 22 at 11 after accumulating 9 bb guns. Lol. First shotgun, a 12 ga at 12 years old. I was fortunate to have a best friend whose family owned an 800 acre ranch. I still remember camping out, just the 2 of us in the years well before cell phones to rabbit hunt and roam the country side. Never did have any gun related incidents and was taught early about responsible gun ownership.

God bless America!

 

[Kf338]

That's all I know.

 

[mwilliams45g]

I was born and raised on a small horse outfit outside of Moscow, ID. My biological dad was a writer for Field & Stream, owned a chain of gun shops in the region, and was a Marine sniper. Stepdad was a rancher, then a cop, then FBI, then Chief of Police.

I got my first .22 at age 10 and was let loose in the Idaho woods alone with my trusty firearm. By age 13, I was riding horseback 50 miles a day in the mountains with a .22 Ruger Single-Six on my hip, alone, and would camp out in the woods occasionally.

I don't remember ever not knowing about guns or having one handy.

Seems a lot of folks these days grew up without firearms and got into them later in life.

I admit to sometimes not understanding their perspectives or issues with firearms and being a bit insensitive about certain subjects with folks like that.

Just wondering who else here had a proper upbringing like me.

I grew up in Southern California around guns

 

[Crockett9]

I grew up in Southern California around guns

I grew up around guns too! When I was 14, we moved out to the country in W. Pa and I was given my first .22 rifle and allowed to wander the Pa woods at my leasure! We had a gun rack like affair in one of the spare bedrooms and it had my fathers shotgun, his deer rifle and my brother's shotgun and deer rifle in it and never locked up! Ammo in the bottom part and the firearms above. I was taught not to touch anything except my own .22 rifle. I became a pretty good groundhog hunter!

 

[1911Fanatic]

I didn't come into firearms until I was an adult and out of the military. I was medical in the USAF. Yes I was one of "them". Didn't really get interested in firearms until I needed one for self defense. Then I got into training with handguns and started shooting them recreationally. Eventually competing in bullseye, IDPA, and some private club pistol leagues.

 

[Idaho44]

Living in the country I grew up around them but never owned one until I was in my teens (Win 94 and single shot shotgun). Mil. service training with the garand and .30 carbine. Later in life got into revolvers, pistols, rifles, airsoft, pellet guns etc. Totally self educated except for the BS mil techniques.

 

[leicaman]

M1 and it's carbine are still so familiar and welcome. Gramps and Uncle John left them to other family members....not bitter but dang!

 

[D_H]

Grew up with them until I became an adult and drifted away from them because of adult responsibilities. Now it's time to welcome them back into my life. Only issue is those cheap guns I enjoyed as a kid are no longer that cheap.

 

[port2fort]

100% as a kid.
Nobody was really "obsessed" - just had them around like we had tools around.
Got a BB rifle at 5, pump 22lr at 10, semi auto 22lr at 18, P89 9mm at 21.

Then the habit started…

 

[plowman]

I was a semi suburban/rural kid. We'd sneak through the back streets of our neighborhood on our dirt bikes (all paranoid the cops would bust us... LOL) to the railroad tracks, then follow the tracks for miles to Powel Butte and go riding up there.... we'd run around with BB/pellet guns, and even 22's.

We never did any malicious stuff with the guns.... ever.

Must have been before the cop shop was at the base of pilot butte. Oops sorry, I got my buttes confused

 

[EastSideCoyote]

Lots of great stories in this thread.

The first gun I remember shooting is the Marlin .22 semi-auto I got for my 12th Christmas. Dad and older brother got one too. We lived in the San Fernando Valley then, so not a lot of legal and safe shooting opportunities. Some kids would go into the massive orange and walnut orchards and blast away . . . I was not one of those kids. Dad retired and bought a tackle shop at Crowley Lake in 1972, so we moved to the mountains. One of his retirement gifts was a 12 gauge pump shotgun that soon became mine. A couple of local adults took me deer hunting one year, and I was hooked on that for a while. Life intervened in all the fun and guns were less important for a while. When I was fishing commercially out of Bodega Bay we always had a boat gun, including my Marlin .22, but otherwise guns were not much use to me. That all changed when I went to a gun show in Santa Rosa and came away with a mini-14 and 1K rounds of ammo. Now, many years later, I have a few rifles, a few handguns, a couple air rifles, and I carry a S&W 9 Shield. The Marlin was a victim of rust at sea, and the tubular magazine was ejected overboard by accident. I deep-sixed it because we deemed it not trustworthy.

 

[JustJu]

I was born and raised on a small horse outfit outside of Moscow, ID. My biological dad was a writer for Field & Stream, owned a chain of gun shops in the region, and was a Marine sniper. Stepdad was a rancher, then a cop, then FBI, then Chief of Police.

I got my first .22 at age 10 and was let loose in the Idaho woods alone with my trusty firearm. By age 13, I was riding horseback 50 miles a day in the mountains with a .22 Ruger Single-Six on my hip, alone, and would camp out in the woods occasionally.

I don't remember ever not knowing about guns or having one handy.

Seems a lot of folks these days grew up without firearms and got into them later in life.

I admit to sometimes not understanding their perspectives or issues with firearms and being a bit insensitive about certain subjects with folks like that.

Just wondering who else here had a proper upbringing like me.

I grew up with guns … heck the teenagers even had rifles hanging in the back winof their trucks… been shooting since I was 4! I'm nearly 59 now.