Though I was taught to be a marksman by 8 or 10 years of age I haven't presently shot a gun in 25 or 30 years? Why?

 I see guns as a tool like a hoe or a rake or a shovel and if I have no use for those tools I just don't use them. The last time I think I shot something was maybe in the 1970s?

It was a Green Mojave Rattlesnake and it was going into a house in the desert with a lot of people inside. So, I ran and got my pistol and shot it because it is 9 times more poisonous than a regular rattlesnake so if someone is bit by one they likely would die before they got the right dose of anti-venom for a green mojave rattlesnake.

But, as you can see that was about 50 years ago now and so I haven't found a gun to be useful to me since then. Having guns around was normal in my family as my grandfather had been a hunter and used to own 40 hound dogs at one point for hunting animals and chasing them when my father was a child up until maybe 1930?

So, I was given a gun by age 8 by my Grandmother who was from Texas from a wealthy family there.

So, from my point of view guns are only a tool and not something to play with because that's how people die. 

Even hoes and rakes and shovels and ladders and axes are tools too, but unless you respect tools you can   die easily or become injured.

So, tools of all kinds should always be respected. When people don't respect tools whatever they are they get injured and sometimes die.