FREAKED OUT by guns

I have never been afraid of guns but have always been well trained and fully experienced with them. They are tools to be used for good and, unfortunately, bad.

Other tools in my garage DO make me afraid. I have three table saws and several other saws. Out there with them is an ax. If you don't have SOME fear of those tools, you're flippin' crazy!

Flash
 
I was about 21 years old the first time I shot a gun. I rented a 38 special revolver at a range, fired about 100 rounds through it, and was done. I just needed to see what it was like. What I learned from that session was that a gun needs to be respected. I enjoyed shooting but wasn't ready to have one yet.

Years later I was at a Bass Pro Shops looking at camping stuff, went by the gun counter, and since my FOID card was expired, couldn't even touch a gun. Well I couldn't have that!! After renewing my card, I can honestly say I've become somewhat of a firearms enthusiast. I invite as many people to the range as I can, and am making believers of some of the "newbies".

Like others have said, some people are scared because they don't know enough about shooting and guns in general.
 
The first gun I saw was my best friends fathers handgun and I wasn't nervous, even though there were no adults in the house, because my friend did a check and made sure they were unloaded before handing them to me. Go figure kids that were taught to handle guns didnt shoot themselves or others. I was probably 16 at the time so we weren't little children, but still immature. I remember being moreso intrigued and interested than afraid. I did all the stuff they did in movies like spin the cylinder and flip it into the gun (which I know now can potentially damage the weapon, ooops)

My first time shooting was with that same friend and his father. They brought. E along to the range to shoot for my first time. I was more excited than afraid there. I remember pulling the trigger for the first time on a .357 4" Smith and it going kaboom and I couldn't pull the trigger again. I put the gun down and my legs couldn't stop shaking from adrenaline I was so jacked up lol. I was about 20 when I did that do so some might say I got into it later than usual.

Recently I went to the range for the second and third times the begining of this year to rent and try some guns. Now I own my own CZ-85B and love it. I was a little intimitidated when I got the gun back to the house for the firs time. Even knowing there was no ammo in the house didn't ease that. Now that I've had it for a few weeks and had time to handle it and got tithe range with it I feel confident handling it inside my house.
 
People generally fear things they don't understand. Once they know what a gun is all about and how to safely use the tool, they become less fearful. Just like anything else.

That said, like many on this forum, I grew up around guns and hunting. It was just something we did and no one thought anything of it. When I was young I went to the range with my dad and brother and even when I was too young or small to hunt, I was with them in the woods. I first got a BB gun when I was 8 or 9, then a year or so later I was given a 22. Then it was hunter safety course and a Browning A-bolt stainless stalker in .280 Remington. I still have that rifle and it's suffered some serious abuse over the last 15+ years.

I never really shot a lot of pistols until I was probably 18 or so. Around that time my dad and I each bought 1911's and began shooting those together quite a bit. Now I shoot more pistol than anything else.

Now I have my own kids and the oldest is 7. I started him shooting a BB gun about a year ago. He's graduated to shooting the same 22 I got when I was a kid. He wants to hunt and fish all the time, so soon he'll be off to a hunter's safety course and then we'll see what kind of rifle I can find that fits him well. I'm pretty excited to get him started. His grandfather's and uncles all hunt and they're dying to get him started.
 
I was freaked out. :eek: I never fired anything but airguns until I was 30. The first time I ever fired a gun was a 38 special during the gun show CCW course. I was really nervous. I could hear the guns booming from outside the range, and felt a little sick to my stomach. I had no idea what to expect.

When I finally fired the one shot, I said "that was it?", moved on down the line, and took my certificate.

Today, I have a wide range of handguns from 22 short mini revolver to a 480 Ruger. Hard to imagine that carrying or shooting is second nature to me now.
 
Hmm, first time I fired a gun...

Freaked out? No. Nervous? Yes. Angry 11B drill sergeants do that to you. :D

When I bought my first firearm, I had already done three Iraq tours, so safely keeping it in the house was old hat.
 
Short of a few days total in my 43 years stirrin' dust on this orb, I never been in a home without firearms...

I was 7 or so (1975 or so) when my dad knelt down so i could rest the barrel of the .410 on his shoulder so I could shoot an old rusty gas can in the Las Vegas desert...

By the end of 1976 I had shot grampa's .30-30 and grandma's .30-06 sporterized WWII bolt action... I think it was a 1903 springfield but could be wrong...

Been a shooter since the first shot and never was afraid of more than the possible flyin' back landing on my butt the first time I shot the single shot 12 gauge... But being properly trained and prepared by sincere, caring, responsible adults... that fear was baseless...

Brent
 
I was talking to someone I know and some how it came up that I have firearms.

I said I had a few in my room.
She said their not loaded are they
I replied one of them is
She said isn't that dangerous?
My response, wouldn't do me much good if it was no loaded.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 2
 
I learned to shoot at camp when I was about 8 years old. I wasn't freaked out then. Shooting and archery were my favorite activities.

I also don't recall being freaked out by the first gun I purchased. I liked that little .38, sold it many years ago, but it never caused me to "freak out". My uncle introduced me into shooting handguns when I was about 13. He had a Hi-Standard .22 and .22mag single action revolver that I would shoot a lot. He let me fire his .357 every now and then, and that was the first time I handled a gun with any significant recoil. Freaked-out? No.....fun? Yes.
 
Wasn't freaked out by the gun itself, but my first time shooting a pistol...I had a horrible grip on it and dropped the mag on the first shot....reloaded the mag for the second...and did it again:eek:

I think I have come a very long way:D
 
I've been around firearms all my life, I've shot pistols and rifles since I was 12. I moved into my own apartment at nineteen and at 21 bought my first pistol (Springfield XD Subcompact .40) and was honestly a little preturbed, not at having a firearm in the house but of having my OWN firearm... after taking my handgun carry class and getting my license I settled down alot and in the course of 3 months collected 4 guns.. What really relaxed my nerves was buying a large gun safe... (it was the thought of someone stealing one of my guns and me getting in trouble for what he/she did with it) Now I'm the proud owner of 14 firearms (Pistols, Machine pistols, folding carbines, bolt action rifles, Semi auto rifles) and shoot competition... Putting a gun on now is as second nature as grabbing my wallet before i leave the house, don't even think about it at all... but i remember those 3 months between my class and recieving my carry permit i was constantly "paranoid".
 
Personally, I am freaked out about people who are freaked out by guns
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^ +1 ^

Nothing more dangerous than people freaked out by what they don't understand.

I grew up in a hunting/fishing family, and they (guns) were always around, been shooting since I was five. I really don't remember much of my life before I was shooting.
 
I grew up around guns and have been shooting since I was 9. They have always been in my household and always will be. When I was in high school I was on the skeet team and got on the school bus with a 12 gauge and three boxes of shells in a duffle bag.I had to carry the shotgun to the office ,not because of some rule, but because it was too long to fit in my locker and I didnt want to carry it from class to class. Not once, did the idea of shooting someone ever enter my head . I just dont understand what has happend to people, common sense certainly isnt common anymore .............LOUD
 
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