I grew up with Rifles Shot guns and hand guns in the home. They were used for hunting. When I was around 10 I joined the NRA and a friend of pop's paid a lifetime membership for me at 10. I took lessons from the NRA in how to shoot a rifle, which was a 22 rifle then. I have since abandoned the NRA and that membership. When I was 17 or 18 I bought a 12 gauge shot gun for $45 bucks. I still have that shot gun in the house.
However, Jeanne made me turn in the 32 6 shot pistol that I got which was handed down to me by grandma. Jeanne saw that I had it and said that she would leave if I didn't get rid of it. She is good at leaving I know now, but then I didn't want to take the chance so I turned it in to the Sheriff.
In the military I qualified as an expert with the M1 I missed being qualified as a marksman by 2 points, and I qualified with the Colt 45 hand gun also, which meant that if need be I could carry the 45 automatic also.
When I left California I knew that there were guns all around as many folk go out in hunting season to get a deer or something else. To me that's no different than going to the store and getting some hamburger. As almost all the game that is taken is dressed out and stored frozen in a locker somewhere, whether it's deer or duck or something else.
When I was in Alaska with my brother on a vacation, he showed me the Colt 45 that he had to protect himself from bears. He said that a 38 and a 357 magnum won't stop a bear but a 45 will, so he got the 45. We were out in the country and I asked him if he knew how to aim it and shoot it. He said no! so I drew on the ground a picture of what the sights should look like to line up a shot, how to hold the gun with the left elbow braced against the body and the left hand under the gun to support it and to squeeze all four fingers at the same time to squeeze off the shot. I said see that purple flower over there about 40 to 50 feet away. He said yes, I lined up the shot took aim braced the gun with my left hand and squeezed off a shot. The flower popped up about ten feet in the air as the shot hit the flower stem just below the flower. There that's how it's done. You want to try? He said no.
In rural Minnesota, I expect that it's more of the same; however, I would expect to see more rifles and shot guns in the homes here in Minnesota.
So you got guns where you are?
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Comments: 8
Sure, they're everywhere here in Connecticut, but I think more illegal ones than legal. Being that we're in an apartment, we're not allowed to have any...
Marilyn
No guns here, now, but I grew up with them on the farm, boy scouts, and YMCA camp where I was a counselor and supervised the rifle range, sometimes. I can't hit a target for anything, ha ha.
Unfortunately, they are not legal in Canada. When I was in Arizona, it was perfectly legal to wear a loaded sidearm on the street without a permit. I have owned many, from a 45 semi-automatic, to a 44 magnum buntline, to an aftomat kalashnikov. I am qualified in all of them (and more).
If guns ever become legal up here, I'm going to make your kevlar vest a part of every outfit. Imagine how much worse the drug-bust next door would have been if there was a gun in the mix. Thank God they're a little harder to obtain up here.
I thought Canada had a lot of hunting.
Glad to hear you took training. How did your brother miss out .... or did he know how but had not practiced with the 45?
I grew up in Maine with them, started shooting at about 5 or 6. They were a tool we were raised to use and all 3 of us got .22s of our own once we hit 10. I was no big hunter but loved to shoot and fired competively throughout junior and high school in both private and school shooting clubs.
Went into the Army and trained/used on everything from the various M16 versions up to the .50 Barents/.50 cal M2 HB machine gun, different foreign weapons (really liked the AK47/74s), various grenade and rocket launchers until my retirement.
Taught my son and wife to shoot. My son is now a soldier and working on systems totally new to me. Next visit of my granddaughters, I'll teach them too. They are 5 and 6 and old enoghto start learning. Every woman should know how to shoot.