Bronze Supporter
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I grew up in California mostly in the 70 & 80s under largely female driven households. Father not in the home and grandfather died when I was 11. Though I had two uncles that were cops. Neither lived near me. We also had family friends in the FBI and military. We had a positive outlook towards people like that.
But I also had a lot of run ins with criminal elements with illegal guns. Even at a young age I was able to differentiate the two. In high school I wrote an anti gun paper because I was lazy and all the other topics were taken. But seeing how a gun was never going to be purchased by my mother or two older sisters the paper didn't have too much of an impact. The first time I shot a gun was a M-16 in the Air Force. Which as many know, the USAF only test for finger strength. Unless you are going to be a military police or other limited fields they could care less if you can hit a target. How about your chair maintenance skills, son?
Later when I was in a Mobility Unit (3rd Mob in Oklahoma) we did shoot more, but shooting came with cleaning not only our rifles but for some reason racks and racks of rifles. Shooting was always seen as a chore to me so I never thought much about it until much much later. When I joined the Air National guard back in Ca, there were a lot of cops in the unit and one or two would take me shooting hand guns. It was more for hanging out than shooting, for me. Of my friends that weren't cops, if they had a gun it was mainly shotguns that collected dust.
It wasn't until I moved to Oregon and later married with a family that I gave firearms any serious thought. I never had anything worth protecting in my mind prior to that. I always thought myself pretty invincible while I was single. As Al Bundy would say, let's rock! But now with a family and the nation becoming polarized, around 2010 I bought a shotgun and it's been a blur of 30 or more firearms either passed through my hands or kept on hand since.
But I also had a lot of run ins with criminal elements with illegal guns. Even at a young age I was able to differentiate the two. In high school I wrote an anti gun paper because I was lazy and all the other topics were taken. But seeing how a gun was never going to be purchased by my mother or two older sisters the paper didn't have too much of an impact. The first time I shot a gun was a M-16 in the Air Force. Which as many know, the USAF only test for finger strength. Unless you are going to be a military police or other limited fields they could care less if you can hit a target. How about your chair maintenance skills, son?
Later when I was in a Mobility Unit (3rd Mob in Oklahoma) we did shoot more, but shooting came with cleaning not only our rifles but for some reason racks and racks of rifles. Shooting was always seen as a chore to me so I never thought much about it until much much later. When I joined the Air National guard back in Ca, there were a lot of cops in the unit and one or two would take me shooting hand guns. It was more for hanging out than shooting, for me. Of my friends that weren't cops, if they had a gun it was mainly shotguns that collected dust.
It wasn't until I moved to Oregon and later married with a family that I gave firearms any serious thought. I never had anything worth protecting in my mind prior to that. I always thought myself pretty invincible while I was single. As Al Bundy would say, let's rock! But now with a family and the nation becoming polarized, around 2010 I bought a shotgun and it's been a blur of 30 or more firearms either passed through my hands or kept on hand since.