It's because of one person...

[J.R.@A&M]

My firearm and hunting education sort of follows the "It Takes A Village" model. Or maybe "It Takes a Deer Camp."

Dad taught basic safety and shooting, with .22's.

When it came time to "qualify" with the family .243, that task fell to a particular uncle. I am thinking of him because we got the news that he passed away today, at age 90.

My Dad, my uncle, and other elders at the deer camp were part of regular safety discussions. One gentlemen in particular always told a story about how he had to guard a dead hunter from the coyotes while his companions went to get the sheriff. This unfortunate deceased had been climbing a deer stand with a loaded 7mm magnum, which dropped, hit the ground, and fired a round up through that hunter's body, exiting out the top of his head. Mr. Bob was always fairly graphic in his telling of this story, which made a lasting impression on us boys.

A few years later, an elderly friend of my dad's, long gone now, called me up one day, to announce that he was bequeathing his deer rifle (a pre-64 model 70 Winchester, in .270) to me. I don't know what he saw in the goofy teenager that I was, but he seemed pleased to be doing this.

Dad had a good friend who was a hunting guide at the YO. Dad made a point that we boys learned everything we could from Mr. Terry about hunting, stalking, tracking, etc. As far as I know, Mr. Terry is still alive. I should go look him up and pay him a visit.

[Acronym Esq]

Who was the person who introduced you into guns and gun safety and instilled in you the second amendment and all that comes with it?

Y2K. My buddy and I worked in the tech industry and understood the potential problems from 12/31/99 and 9/17/04. We spent 1999 slowly preparing for 1-2 months of chaos including getting some pistols and learning how to use them. My family doesn't like guns, so I had no help from them. None of my friends had any direct experience either. Two major gun resources were Red's Indoor Range in Austin and the Yahoo Concealed group. After reading a book and an internet mailing list, it was incredibly surreal walking into a gun range, buying a pistol, and shooting it for the first time.

Acronym 3/20/2017 1:44 PM

[68Charger]

My older brother.

At first, I was not fond of firearms or anything of the such. My father had showed my older brother and I his Ruger Security Six when I was about 8. Showed us how it functioned and where it was located if we ever had to use it. There I found out the seriousness of a firearm and repercussions. However, it wasn't until later that my older brother took me to the shooting range to shoot his Kimber BP10. It was then I started to become more and more interested and eventually I became a 'gun nut'. Ever since then, years and a lot of money spent, I have nothing but love for firearms and the such.

Also, the Kimber made me into a 1911 fan boy.

[HadEmAll]

Nobody in my family. The Cub Scouts got me started. I don't know if they still do that but it was a one week camp as a Cub Scout.

Same here. Nobody in my family went shooting, though a couple of them owned shotguns and .22 rifles.

We had a Cub Scout outing where we each got to shoot 5 rounds out of some single-action .22 rifles. I loved it. Then one of the scout leaders took a little Browning .22 semi-auto rifle out of his vehicle and let another scout leader shoot it.

That little Browning .22 was the prettiest thing this 9 year old had ever seen, and I told myself then that I would own one someday.

I had to wait until I got out of the Navy some 14 years later, but a Browning .22 was the first (of many) firearms I bought myself.

I still have it, and still think it's one of the prettiest firearms ever made.

[warnmar10]

Barack Obama.

[Jusme]

Barack Obama.

[GeekwithaGun]

Barack Obama.