"Mainstream" firearm owners

Gender: male
Age: 36
Race: white
physical build: 6'2", 185-- athletic & fit.
religion: no
education: yes
politics: I believe in minimal government, and that what government we have should serve the People.
Types of firearms owned/specific purpose: 3 handguns. My firearms are for carry, home defense, defense of freedom, and recreation.

What I feel does not fit the stereotype: I'm articulate, patient, considerate, understanding, and tolerant.
 
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White male, almost 79, gettin' decrepit. Pretty good track record as a professional engineer.

Been a shooter/hunter since 1940. Kinda got into the habit.

I did the gun show table thing for about thirty years. Never got a bad check from any customer--which oughta say something about the sorta people who go to gun shows.
 
I admit that in most photos I see the guys look pretty scroungy, and red neckish. Camos and tattoos don't help either.

Jerry
 
This sounds like a dating website! Lol!

45, White, College Educated, working blue collar but a business owner, a few pistols, a deer rifle an AR and a couple of shotguns and .22's. I shoot for fun, competition, teach my kids, hunt (some), and carry daily.

Politically Libertarian, agnostic, no military or LE, play music (metal), surf, don't drink or drug, semi fit.
 
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White male. 25 years old. Center-Left Libertarian. College educated. Former Marine.

I'm into semi autos and milsurps.

My girlfriend is only with me because of my dog and my PS-90. She told me so...
 
White male going on 76, widowed for seventeen years. Kept getting married till I got it right, found the love of my life on the third try, and never looked for another one after she died. Retired five years. Master's degree. Agnostic, but if I were anything religious it probably be would be one of the Native American religions that believe everything--animals, plants, water, stone, even an occasional Kardashian--has a spirit under one Great Spirit,.

Lifelong Democrat, but have voted for some Republicans over the years. I've grown increasingly cynical about politics since Watergate but believe voting is not a privilege but an obligation. Definitely believe in the sanctity of the First and Second Amendments. Pretty centrist views generally, but liberal on some issues and conservative on others. What I'm not is agreeable to being categorized. Pigeonholes are little prisons.

I've hunted since I was a kid but haven't been able to for some time due to physical problems. Never made enough money (working in state-funded mental health) to own a lot of guns at any one time and now am down to only four: a .38 Special J-frame EDC I've carried daily for almost thirteen years, a Model 10-5 as my house gun, an ancient Stevens 12 gauge side-by-side and a Marlin 39A.

I got my concealed carry license soon after Kentucky became a shall-issue state, never carried before it was legal. I pocket-carry the J-frame with the old +P FBI load; and since I'm a little old man with gray hair and a short white beard, and walk with a cane, nobody figures me to be armed. That's fine with me.

I have a long-held motto: God deliver me from humorless devotees of any cause. I'm mistrustful of the ones Tom Servo calls the doctrinaire type, whether pro- or anti-gun. Dedicated conspiracy theorists alternately amuse and sadden me. Mostly amuse. But if you can't laugh at yourself, I don't trust you.
 
"...but if I were anything religious it probably be would be one of the Native American religions that believe everything--animals, plants, water, stone, even an occasional Kardashian--has a spirit..."
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shouldazagged,

With all due respect to my father-in-law-to-be, you are probably my favorite living person over 70. That was gold, sir.


to all other participants, with a special nod to the OP:
This is my favorite TFL topic in quite awhile, which I think is actually saying a lot.
 
I definitely don't fit the stereotype.

American/Hispanic/Latino
38
Married father of five
Born and raised in Chicago, in the Suburbs now
Conservative, NRA, ISRA member
BSA Scoutmaster
I enjoy all things outdoors, am a political junkie, and the only sport I like is Boxing.
I like guns for home protection, and for punching paper at the range, though I'd love to shoot tin cans, bowling pins, metal targets, etc., out in the country someday. I've never hunted.

I've been told I look like a cross between these two guys: (minus the dogs and the mustache)
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I see all types of people at the local gun shops and ranges. Young women, older women with their husbands, guys with basketball jerseys and droopy pants, guys in suits, of all sizes and colors. The only type I rarely see are the ones from the anti-gun propaganda pushers.
 

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The average American firearm owner is pretty much just the average American.

The average TFL member isn't necessarily the same as the average firearm owner since a small minority of firearm owners are members here or any other internet forum.
 
Sport45 said:
The average American firearm owner is pretty much just the average American.

The average TFL member isn't necessarily the same as the average firearm owner since a small minority of firearm owners are members here or any other internet forum.
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Bingo.

uploadfromtaptalk1370428407049.jpg



Ike
 
What has to scare the gun grabbers are the demographic changes in the shooting community. A larger and larger percentage of new shooters are coming from very non-traditional places...women, and especially minority women, are among the fastest-growing segments of gun owners. Also, seniors and other adults who didn't grow up around guns are another demographic that is coming into the gun culture as the economy teeters.

The gun grabbers are losing their base and the scare tactics no longer work when the public increasingly has training and experience with guns. They see through the lies and the ignorance of politicos.
 
I must agree that the demographic is changing. Seems everytime I go to the range lately I see families, Mom and Dad teaching their kids to shoot. Also seeing more women of all ages. I think it is awesome!
 
What has to scare the gun grabbers are the demographic changes in the shooting community.
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Many of them are stating that the demographic isn't changing. In my State, Ceasefire Oregon put up a blog post saying that "people who are keeping track" know that the gun buying frenzy was almost entirely existing buyers, rather than new ones. I found this amusing, for 2 reasons: 1) I was operating an LGS for a group during the frenzy, and 2) I am aware that Ceasefire Oregon does not actually have a mechanism through which they can keep track of who is or is not buying firearms.

If I had to guess, I'd say that about 40% of the people I saw during the frenzy were first time buyers. Part of this may have had to do with where I was working, but I would not be surprised to hear that things were similar, elsewhere.
 
Me: half Japanese, half euro mutt ;)
- born and raised in Japan (dad is a military vet)
- fiscal conservative, social liberal
- 41, married with 2 month old child
- college educated
- currently only own 2 rifles. A browning a-bolt and a Winchester 9422. I plan to gradually increase my collection to include shotguns, handguns and more rifles.
- wife hates guns but lets me have them because she knows I enjoy them.

So no, I don't represent the mainstream gun owner, mainly because of the criticisms I get being an evil liberal :)
 
This sounds like a dating website! Lol!
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It does, doesn't it. *gigglesnort*


Even in the much smaller sample size of internet going enthusisist only, we still have a range of diversity showing up.

I think the biggest shock to the anti's would be the amount of those of us who are very liberal on social matters. It seems to me that people who are "into" guns seem to have less in commen in terms of political agendas then others who tend to feel very strongly on a single issue. We have a wide range of thought on stuff like economics, religion, LBGTT issues, Womens issues and abortion.

So much for the sterotypes...
 
66 white retired government attorney, Vietnam vet, married, two married daughters, three grandchildren under 5, non-smoker (for about 30 years), ran 5K, 10k, 20K and half marathons and competed in a few triathlons some years ago, no straight ticket voting, carry permit, carry concealed, left-eye dominant, shoot long guns and compound bows left-handed, shoot handguns right-handed, hunter (elk, bear, mule deer, whitetail, coyote, prairie dogs, waterfowl, upland birds), Fort Knox safe, bow hunter, tree stands, fishing, boats, canoe, Quetico, lakes, Mississippi River, dogs (Labs and Lab crosses), suburban home next to a creek, whitetails within two feet of house on occasion (seriously) (also fox, ducks, geese, groundhogs in the yard and buck fights behind my shed), car racing fan (esp. NASCAR) -- whew. :)
 
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bluelizzard said:
Anyway, I want to see how many of us actually fit the sterotype image. I doubt it will be the majority. Think of this as a mini data gathering operation to demonstraight how entirely off the anti gun lobby is.
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You do realize that you're gathering data from gun owners who are literate enough and enthusiastic enough to participate in an internet forum, which has about 7,000 active members out of over 100,000,000 gun owners in the US? That means that less than 7 out of every 100,000 gun owners are participating on this forum.

Kind of like compiling data on the "typical" weight and figure of the US female based on the Miss USA contestants.

The enthusiastic shooters who post on internet forums are not your stereotype gun owner. I come into contact with a lot of gun owners thru my job and interests. Unfortunately, whether I like it or not, it seems to me that the majority of gun owners are uncomfortably closer to the stereotype than I would prefer.
 
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I think the biggest shock to the anti's would be the amount of those of us who are very liberal on social matters. It seems to me that people who are "into" guns seem to have less in commen in terms of political agendas then others who tend to feel very strongly on a single issue. We have a wide range of thought on stuff like economics, religion, LBGTT issues, Womens issues and abortion.
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I work with a bunch of anti-gun liberals and they fit their own stereotypes. I get irked when other liberals assume we all share the same world-views, likewise with conservatives. I'm stating the obvious but stereotypes only exist to fit into another person's view point
 
I fit the stereotype pretty well actually

White Male, 23
Raised in rural GA (Floyd Co)
Hunter
Military
Baptist
Libertarian

I mostly own evil black guns-
Springfield M1A Scout
Romanian AK74 clone (SAR2)
Mossberg 590A1
Colt 1911
Glock 23

Who cares if I fit a stereotype? It doesn't give the antis anymore grounds to trod on the constitution or my way of life. And not to toot my own horn but I'm no slouch in the classroom either my SAT score was a 2020, my ASVAB a 97, and my lowest grade on a college English essay was a 93. People from rural areas aren't dumb by default, neither are any of us here at TFL or the gun community at large. In fact some of the most logical, educated, and common sense arguments I have ever heard have been in opposition to gun control right here on TFL.
 
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