How Attitudes Change

G

Geek-With-A-Gun

New member
My wife has really not been happy with me having a handgun. They scare her and she wants nothing to do with my handgun and really wishes I didn't have it at all.

Recently her father passed away and that left his house vacant in a not so great area of town. Fortunately he lived close by so we can keep our eye on it until the estate is settled and we can sell it.

A few nights ago one of my father in law's neighbors called and told us that he saw someone sneaking around the house. I told my wife that I would go check it out.

Much to my surprise, just before I left to go over there, she says to me:
Take your gun with you! I had already decided that there was no way I was going without it, but I sure was surprised when she told me to take it.

Attitudes change when situations change I guess.

It turns out that it was someone looking to steal the copper ground wires that the cable companies install to protect against lightning strikes. If the thief only knew that his house still has all copper plumbing under the house. Anyway, he was gone by the time I got there.
 
Not to sound rude or demeaning towards your spouse, but her attitude exemplifies that of the typical liberal.

"Guns are scary"
"Guns are bad"
"Guns are evil"
"Guns must go!"
.
.
.

Crash of breaking glass


"Oh My! I need a gun!"
 
It shows your Wife is concerned about your well-being, but I do understand your point.

Not sure whether this is the case in your situation, but it seems obits in the local paper can always bring various sorts of creeps out of the wood work. lThey are looking to prey upon the estate or remaining significant others to the deceased. They simply cross reference the deceased name to public records and start taking advantage.

As long as the house is empty, you may want to set-up a concealed camera particularly if "For Sale" signs go up in the near future.
 
Not to sound rude or demeaning towards your spouse, but her attitude exemplifies that of the typical liberal.
Click to expand...

Or, just someone who didn't grow up around guns liberal or not.

My wife didn't grow up around guns and the "loaded handgun" used to be a major sticking point with her. I can't say that she's getting her CCW any time soon, but she has, at times, changed her mind about both CCW and a home SD gun. If I'm traveling, she's got a loaded revolver handy. If we are going to a rougher area, she makes sure I'm carrying.

Sounds like your wife is pretty much in that same mind set. Guns are bad, unless you happen to need one, then they are pretty good. Seems an odd way to think but I gave trying to figure it out a long time ago.
 
People sometimes have unjustifiable...or justifiable fears. Depends on your point of view, I reckon.

Many full-grown adults are scared of tiny spiders, and can't explain why. I suppose a lack of knowledge about anything can cause fear, including guns.

Sounds like the OP's wife is concerned eough about his well-being to overcome her fears at least long enough to help him look after his well-being, and that's good.

I'm truly blessed in that respect. My wife grew up in Colorado, with guns, game meat, and country living having their affects on her thought process. She's very much pro-gun. She was actually a registered Democrat when we met, and has since become a staunch Republican in every way.

Perhaps living here on the Mexican border, and seeing for herself the reality of the world has educated her even more than her earlier influences.

We are all influenced by our surroundings, and the more we're exposed to, the more we learn.

Daryl
 
Not to sound rude or demeaning towards your spouse, but her attitude exemplifies that of the typical liberal.

"Guns are scary"
"Guns are bad"
"Guns are evil"
"Guns must go!"
Click to expand...

I understand your thinking, but she is far from liberal. One thing that shapes her attitude is that her brother took his own life with a gun. What she does not understand is that it was not the gun that killed him but where his mind was at the time he pulled the trigger. He was a sick man struggling with schizophrenia and ultimately the disease won.
 
My wife has gone through a similar progression. Her Dad is a cop, so the whole time she was growing up guns were just things that might be used to kill her Daddy. Then she married me (a farm boy from Idaho) and while she didn't love my guns she was ok with it.

Then I started her shooting my .22 and that got her over her fear of guns. Then we bought her a Bersa .380 for her to shoot and she got pretty good with it (she's a competitive girl). Finally 3 months ago our daughter was born, and where we live has a fair share of gang violence. That got my wife concerned about what she would do if someone came at her while she had our daughter. Last month she went and got her concealed carry permit and she regularly carries now.

So in the course of 3 years my wife went from totally terrified of guns, to carrying one on a daily basis. I couldn't be more proud :cool::)
 
My wife is a Liberial and is ok with me packing a gun. She carries one when on the road, but not around town. This is her choice and I don't push my beliefs on others.
I have always been very careful to be safe, and never grabbed or threatened to during an argument during 41 years of marriage. She is a damn good shot and would shoot if threatened. It's important to set a good example by deeds and words. Best, Lyle
 
My wife grew up with guns in the house. Her dad had a shotgun and a handgun in the house loaded. Her only first hand experience with them was one outing. He "taught" her how to shot by letting her take five shots with a .45acp and five shots with a 12ga shotgun. He did not give her hearing or eye protection. He just took her in the back yard with two loaded guns and told her to shoot.

Needless to say to this day she is scared. She doesn't want more than one rifle and one pistol in the house. She also wants me to buy a safe and lock them both away.

She has lightened up about it some since we had a kid. However, we still disagree about what to do with the guns my dad plans to leave me in his will.

My wife is definitely one of the guns are scary crowd untill there is a need. The other night weird sounds started coming across the baby monitor. Then she said "grab the rifle and go check on the baby." It was a monitor malfunction, but she was real happy to know the rifle was there when she was scared.
 
Yep, the wife wasn't too pleased that I wasn't going to part with my guns after we had kids. Her idea to keep the kids safe. She was even less pleased when I told her I was getting my CPL, but didn't say no.

As we stopped at a creepy little rest area on the way down to Florida to run the kids and hit the bathrooms she asked,"Did you bring a gun?" I answered "yes" and I heard her sigh and she looked relieved and then I said "two" and she looked tense again, but never said another word about it.

Things do change a persons outlook.

She had a bad experience being threatened by one before I met her. Her family were not hunters or gun owners at all. She doesn't love them but she doesn't hate them anymore either and she knows one day my sons will soon be learning to safely shoot and hunt.
 
My wife grew up in a house where a gun was kept in a closet and rarely, if ever, actually shot. After we married, I got her to go to a couple of range sessions and she seemed to be coming along. Then a family friend was shot and killed with his own gun by a drunk associate who pointed the "unloaded" gun at our friend and pulled the trigger. She got turned off guns and still doesn't like them. This is one area where we have strong disagreement and just move on to another subject.

Oh, she is otherwise to the right of Genghis Kahn on just about every other issue. So, it is not necessarily liberal vs. conservative.
 
Not to sound rude or demeaning towards your spouse, but her attitude exemplifies that of the typical liberal.

"Guns are scary"
"Guns are bad"
"Guns are evil"
"Guns must go!"
.
.
.

Crash of breaking glass


"Oh My! I need a gun!"
Click to expand...

I had a co-worker a few years ago that was like that. Then one night he got mugged and assaulted walking home from work. The very next day he was complaining about difficult it was to get a license to buy a gun or rifle (or even MACE/Pepper spray) around here.
 
it only took one incident,,,

For my gun-hating Kalifornia born ex-wife to want a gun.

It was all I could do to get her to not sleep on the couch when I put my old 1911 in the nightstand.

I worked out of town 5 days a week,,,
We had a nice apartment in an old "Federalist" building in downtown Sacramento.

One day our upstairs neighbor went nuts,,,
He had a piece of pipe and was trying to break in the front door,,,
My ex (who was a police dispatcher) was on the phone to 911 immediately.

In retrospect I remember trying to show her how to insert the magazine and rack the slide to make it shootable,,,
She would have no truck with ~a gun~ and wouldn't even hold it.

I have to admit chuckling a bit when I think of her on the phone,,,
Trying to describe the gun so the watch commander could tell her how to load it.

Anyways, that was the turning incident for her,,,
The next week we went out gun shopping,,,
Picked her up an SP-101 in .22 LR.

Dang but I miss that little gun! ;)

.
 
I had a former client call me this morning. He wants to know the number to the range were I took my CCH classes.

He was a staunch anti-gun advocate untill last week. He was pumping gas when a pan handler rode up on a bike. The guy asked for a couple of dollars, then he asked for a ride, then he pulled out a knife and demanded a ride across town.

Lucky for him the clerk saw what was happening. He anounced over the intercom that the cops were on their way. The panhandler slashed at my former client and cut his arm. Then he grabbed his bike and took off.

Up untill this incident the former client was literally a financial supporter of the Brady Campaign. He refused to work with me any longer when he learned I owned a rifle. He said that I was "dooming" my child to either a life of criminality or an early death.

It is amazing how quickly thirty stitches will change a person's mind. He told me this morning that I was right all along. Criminals aren't going to stop being criminals because of new laws or different laws. The law didn't stop his attacker or help the police get there any faster.

Now he wants to take the CCH class and a defensive pistol course. I sent him a link to the Gun Facts website and made sure he knows that the same place I took my CCH class teaches the NRA defense classes.
 
I started shooting with my dad when I was 3 or 4, I didn't like spiders then and I don't like them now. The only good spider is the one under you shoe that you just killed. Still like guns though :cool:
 
protection

My wife has never shot a gun however every time we go out she ask's if I am armed. Women want to be protected, but who will protect them when the men aren't around?
 
My wife never had much use for guns before we were first married, but I worked away a lot and wanted to be sure she could protect herself. I had an SP-101 that I taught her to shoot, and she was pleased with that for a long time. I never could get her to practice more or to take interest in learning anything new. Then one night we were watching TV and whatever it was that we were watching (probably the news) made me look over at her and say, "Now are you ready to get your concealed carry permit?" To my great surprise she said, "Yes, I think I do."

Since then she has chosen her pistol--a Ruger LCP--and learned not only to shoot it but to disassemble and clean it. She also tried every other gun I had ready at the next range day...a Ruger LCR, S&W 642, GP-100, and S&W M&P40. Of them all she likes shooting the M&P40 the best, and I think she's wanting to swap her LCP for my LCR.

It's a pleasant change of pace to have my wife as my new shooting buddy!
 
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