Buying a Gun because you are afraid

I'm not sure how useful a strategy this is. Because most people aren't used to being around guns. I was always raised around guns so they are 2nd nature to me and most people in my family around my age. However, my 1st and 2nd wives didn't want firearms around the children, so my children weren't taught much about weapons like I was and all my cousins were.

So, a gun is sort of like a tool: nothing more.

So, sort of like a pick or a hoe or a rake or axe that you don't leave around for children to hurt themselves or each other with, that is somewhat how guns are too. They are tools to accomplish something: nothing more nothing less.

But, if like a car that you park on a hill and then forget to set the brake or put it in 1st gear or in Park it can get away and potentially kill  many many people and maybe destroy a house or two, one needs to think of guns in this way too.

I tend to think of motor vehicles as at least 10 times as dangerous as any gun like a rifle or a pistol, simply because they can kill a whole lot of people accidentally in a few seconds time.

Whereas with guns, any idiot can kill people too but it has to be pretty well thought out.

So, I guess what I'm saying is "Buying a gun because you are afraid might be like buying a Car because you are afraid of driving a car."

Because whatever you are afraid of and not familiar with is going to be dangerous in your hands.

And if you are afraid, buying a gun won't make you any safer especially if you are not comfortable around guns because you never had one before and don't even know how to shoot one.


Let me tell you a true story about me at age 8 to show you what I mean.

At 8 we were on vacation and my grandmother gave me my father's .22 rifle that he had hunted with as a boy. I was amazed to have my own rifle and bullets to keep in my room. It was an honor given to boys then who had demonstrated that they were level headed enough to be given a gun to protect their family and for hunting. And they knew we would be careful enough to be given this honor.

Remember this was 1956 not now.

And my grandmother was born in Texas likely in the 1870s or 1880s and grew up there.

We were going to visit my grandfather next who spent 6 months a year (spring, summer and fall) on his 2000 acre mining claim in Idaho because he was retired. And 6 months a year in Seattle with my grandmother while it was snowing a lot in Idaho.

So, after visiting my grand mother in Seattle because we lived in San Diego then, we drove over to visit my Grandfather on his mining claim that summer in Idaho.

When we got to Idaho to my grandfather's mining claim we got into his World War II MASH Army Dodge Power Wagon 4 wheel drive huge truck. It was lightly raining so I got on the front right fender and my 5 years older cousin got on the left fender of the truck as we drove over a 4 wheel drive road.

The problem with this was I was so amazed by the Colt Woodsman .22 automatic pistol that I had strapped to my waist from my Grandfather as we drove that I wasn't hanging on enough to the truck.

So, when Grandad didn't see a 10 inch high rock he drove over it with the right wheel. This threw me up in the air and as the truck slowed down I went down under the truck between the grill and the front bumper and under the truck and Grandad ran me over.

The point here is even though I survived I wasn't used to having a loaded Woodsman .22 pistol strapped on my hip and was too amazed by it all to be safe out there doing this.

So, Grandpa ran over my right leg which was black and blue for weeks after this with that huge truck but luckily because there was some mud it just pushed my leg down into the mud and didn't break my leg.

Later, I was put in the cab on my mother's lap and was very chagrined as a boy trying hard to be in a man's world. And then we got to where we were going to do target practice with various guns. So, my cousin had a German Luger pistol which is a 9 mm pistol famous in world War II and German officers wore this gun just like American officers often wore a Colt .45 Automatic pistol in Battle. Both had clips fed in through the base of the handle of the gun.

So, I shot my little Woodsman .22 great because there is really almost no kick to one of these. Then I wanted to shoot the German Lugar and be a man. However, at age 8 when I shot it I didn't expect such a heavy kick so the gun back hit me in the forehead as I shot and made my forehead bleed and almost knocked me out and took me to the ground. Then I wanted to shoot the 30 odd 6 M1 rifle from World War I which grandpa used to hunt bear with in Washington and Idaho when there were still grizzlies there before 1925. However, this was also a mistake for an 8 year old boy trying to prove himself. Even though I wasn't knocked down this time by the tremendous kick of a 30 odd 6 (which can shoot clean through a car engine block to stop a car or truck by the way or through 10 men on a battlefield all at the same time, I had a huge black and blue shoulder for about a month after that.

Even though I had a headache, a bloody forehead, a black and blue shoulder for some times I also felt more like living in my Dad's and Grandpa's world of men who used guns to hunt. So, I took my pain in stride like a man.

However, what I'm sharing here is if you don't know about guns properly, you are going to be injured if you choose the wrong one and even if you choose the right one you still might not be safe with one.

For example, if you weigh 100 pounds or less and are a woman you might want a low kick .22 magnum with a hollow point shell that likely would bring down anyone that accosted you. But, you still need training to be safe ongoing with something like this. But, a .22 that is not magnum or a hollow point or dum dum shell wouldn't be powerful enough to bring down someone necessarily in a dangerous situation.

Also, some people prefer a revolver over an automatic because you can leave one the chambers (under the hammer or firing pin) blank so you don't accidentally have a misfire and shoot yourself or someone else.

There is a danger when you own an automatic especially if you put a bullet in the chamber of accidentally setting off the firing pin and discharging a bullet.

Some revolvers you can completely pull out the revolving part if you want to so there is no danger of accidental discharge also as long as you can put the revolving part back in when you need it fast enough and put a bullet under the hammer firing pin when you need it there.

Also, this might be an advantage for a mother with children to keep the revolving part in a lock box separate from the gun which cannot then be used to fire anything without the revolver part in place.