General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDo you own any guns?
I am no longer a Star Member, and can not post a poll,
so I will post an informal thread instead.
I would appreciate it if a Star member would post a simple Poll:
1)I am a Democrat who owns a single gun
2)I am a Democrat who owns several guns
3)I am a Democrat who owns NO guns
I am a Liberal Democrat who owns several long guns, and a hand gun.
I maintain them, and shoot them at least twice a year on our rural property.
I keep them all loaded, readily accessible,
but out-of sight on a wall rack in the back hallway.
(We have no children or adolescents in our home.)
I have used them to protect ourselves, our property, our stock and our pets,
and will do so again if the need arises,
though I prefer to Live Trap & Relocate.
I am not a Gun Nut, though some here would label me as one.
In 11 years at DU, I have never visited the Gun Forum and have no desire to do so.
I am one of the many, many responsible Liberal Democrats who own guns,
and will continue to do so.
backwoodsbob
(6,001 posts)2
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Last edited Sun Dec 16, 2012, 07:05 PM - Edit history (1)
...being overly-optimistic, or is trolling to paint pro-gun control activists as extreme.
whistler162
(11,155 posts)ProgressiveProfessor
(22,144 posts)"blood on the hands of all gun owners" and other salacious memes are running rampant.
ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)I do not and have never owned a gun (but I'm a Democratic Socialist, not a Democrat).
bvar22
(39,909 posts)...here in Arkansas.
I have chosen to have a voice in the Democratic party here,
though on the issues, I am much more aligned with the Green Party, or Bernie Sanders.
a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)I do what I have to to ensure Republicans aren't elected. But my policies are more in line with Bernie Sanders' than anyone else.
And of course you don't have that option...it's Arkansas. I registered as nothing when I lived in Oklahoma.
Hepburn
(21,054 posts)Wish we had more of him in Congress.
Eric the Reddish
(106 posts)We own numerous rifles and handguns and have no intention of getting rid of them, but we do support things like all sales of firearms, including private sales, have to go through either an NICS background check or all sales go through an FFL dealer, no exceptions, safety classes before purchase and proficiency testing of the firearm.
There are other measures that we would support also.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)It should be at least as difficult to own guns as it is to own and operate an automobile.
axetogrind
(118 posts)I also think that all gun owners should have something like what IL has, a FOID card which proves that you have been vetted by LE and are eligible to own firearms. I also would like to see a bi-annual mandatory safety class for all owners and proving that you are proficient with the firearm, also, mandatory safe securing of all firearms in the home when not in use.
I consider myself and wife supporters of the 2A, but we're not extremists like some I've seen.
I also hate the fucking NRA and will never be a member.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)When I see those NRA stickers on the back windows of autos,
I view that driver with some contempt.
I disagree with some of your other measures.
"mandatory safe securing of all firearms in the home when not in use"
will mean different things to different people in different places.
...but that would be a good topic for another thread.
Arkansas Granny
(31,525 posts)ret5hd
(20,515 posts)MineralMan
(146,325 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)It IS a question spawned by extreme naivete, ignorance
or the desire to hi-jack this thread.
Thanks for sharing.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Bake
(21,977 posts)Guilty until proven otherwise.
Seriously, you're cracking me up.
Bake
Technically, I own two guns, but that second gun is strictly a wallhanger - it's my great-grandfather's shotgun.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)I am not a gun nut. I have used them to protect our stock and our pets, and have no problem with that.
"I am one of the many, many responsible Liberal Democrats who own guns,
and will continue to do so."
REC
I own a few guns. They are locked in a safe, bolted to the floor.
riverwalker
(8,694 posts)Had a 20 Ga. once, given by an old boyfriend for pheasant hunting, I sold it after we broke up. Now that I am a grandma and live alone, I would rather take my chances of being attacked by an intruder than risk my grandchildren finding a gun and getting hurt.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)I would take precautions.
However, if I had children playing on this property, I would also keep a shotgun readily accessible,
especially in the Summer months.
Rabies is at epidemic status in this area of Arkansas,
especially among skunks and raccoons,
and hungry and injured coyotes are not that uncommon.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)rollin74
(1,989 posts)Response to bvar22 (Original post)
slackmaster This message was self-deleted by its author.
Mr Peabody
(36 posts)truegrit44
(332 posts)live in the country with pets and livestock. I own 1 .22cal rifle that is kept loaded with bird shot for copperheads. I also own a .32 colt pistol that I have no ammo for as I've been to cheap to buy more.
We are retired live alone and have no children ever visiting us. They are kept out of site. I totally agree assault weapons should be banned and I am INCENSED with this crazy right to carry laws!
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)Neither my husband or I have ever fired a gun and don't plan on it. We feel as though we are the caretakers of this until someone in the next generation shows some interest.
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)Don't own a gun, never have.
Never have lived in a household where any member owned a gun
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)However at some point I intend to move to northern VT and at that time will probably buy a small rifle and take some lessons.
I have lived in a home with a handgun (the owner of the gun was LEO) with my children. I wasn't worried about. There was always a key lock on it and it was not loaded.
I am not anti-gun, but I am very pro-gun control.
peacebird
(14,195 posts)putitinD
(1,551 posts)Hepburn
(21,054 posts)Never have ~ never will.
sarisataka
(18,755 posts)I do not keep my guns in a safe but let's just say they are very secure and a burglar would walk past several times and never notice their storage.
I do carry, no one but my immediate family knows, and I have never come close to drawing. I have called 911 several time while observing, leading to two arrests.
I am a life long Democrat who remembers meeting HHH as a child and I treasure the two occasions I had to converse with the late Sen. Wellstone. In my first Presidential election I voted for Mondale and have been straight Dem since. I'll always take my chances on GC with a Dem. Prez over the recurring nightmare of a Repub.
former-republican
(2,163 posts)mike_c
(36,281 posts)eom
rDigital
(2,239 posts)customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)Had a handgun for personal protection from about 1981-1993. My second wife wanted me to give it up, and even after numerous Second Amendment speeches by both me and her father (who was already a Rush Limpballs fan at that point), she wouldn't budge, so I made the choice of her over it. We were going to live at my place in town, and the cops were way closer than at her folks' place way out in the country.
I never had occasion to want one until I moved to NY, but it's nearly impossible to get one here.
Spirochete
(5,264 posts)a rifle, a shotgun, and a handgun. I inherited them, though. I do need them - i get occasional infestations of mice. My house is full of holes, and I'm almost completely deaf...
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)I'm not.
Could you imagine if you pepper sprayed a rabid (or not) mad skunk?? That would definitely cause it to come right at you! And who would ever get close enough to a wild coyote to pepper spray it!!
I am not laughing at pepper spray but at using it against those two wild animals you mentioned. We have both here. Skunks are getting worse also.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)Sissyk
(12,665 posts)I was laughing at bvar, with bvar, because I too live where there are skunks and coyote and it struck me funny.
No problems here, kestrel
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)I live in an apartment in Los Angeles.
And the only rabid critters we see around these parts anymore are bats.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/1240173114
Your post #67 is a perfect data point supporting my thesis,
and has been added to my research.
Thank You!
CountAllVotes
(20,878 posts)I don't want evil things like guns in my household. Evil attracts evil.
always hated even the 'notion' of shooting 'things' at anyone or at anything for any reason, or even for no reason at all.
taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)never felt the need to.
hack89
(39,171 posts)Marinedem
(373 posts)I'm not sure about the 14th one.
My dad "Gave" it to me a few years back.
He keeps "borrowing" it for 1-2 year periods, though.
I am a Democrat.
I own several guns.
One is fully loaded in my home.
No children in my home.
I am not a gun nut.
I enjoy shooting guns with my hubby and friends about once a month.
LeftInTX
(25,515 posts)Used it to scare off some rats.
axetogrind
(118 posts)You'll put your eye out with that thing. LOL
Not a hunter anymore, but I still enjoy getting out in the country and shooting. 1 shotgun, 2 rifles, 2 hand guns
I don't feel the need to carry everywhere I go. But I like knowing I have the right to.
CANDO
(2,068 posts)A handgun, a rifle, and a shotgun. I hunt occasionally and target shoot ever so seldom with the handgun. Also not a gun nut. Never been to the DU gun forum. Do not have CC Permit, and don't want one.
2naSalit
(86,765 posts)Have never used the pistol for anything, haven't used the rifle in nearly ten years. Both are black powder/cap&ball, have been locked up for years.
I have been trained in care and use of many firearms but don't engage in their use much at all. The last two times I used a firearm, both were shotguns owned by someone else and I used them to 1) demonstrate the use of rubber bullets for the use of nonlethal wolf management techniques... 2) fire two rounds in to the air to haze wolves out of cattle... and it worked, just the sound was enough from half a mile away. And that was years ago as well.
I live in bear country, I carry pepper spray, never had to use it either.
I live way out in some pretty wild country and guns are owned and used by many here for a variety of reasons. I would sell mine but that would put them back into circulation. I'm an advocate for stricter gun regulations on sales and such, not a gun nut. Just because I know how to use them doesn't mean I like them much. And I'm a Democrat... I would like to have Sen. Sanders in multiplication where I live.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)A rifle for hunting deer, a shotgun for hunting ducks and geese, and a pistol for self-defense. I keep my rifle and shotgun at my mom's because she has the space to store then safely and she lives in a rural area close to where I usually hunt.
All three I inherited from my stepdad after he died. He was an avid hunter and a progressive. He voted for Nader in 2000 because he thought AL GORE was too moderate!
Kaleva
(36,328 posts)MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)And I have a dog in the house.
No need for guns.
Budgies Revenge
(216 posts)madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)ileus
(15,396 posts)Nevernose
(13,081 posts)And will be getting rid of all of them, every single one. All were inherited -- I've never actually purchased one -- but it seems like I have way more than ill ever need. Even though I live in a bad neighborhood, I've also got dogs, bars, and an alarm system, and don't feel particularly afraid to begin with.
My wife received a few guns in her divorce from her first husband (coincidentally, a racist-but-doesnt-know-hes-racist gun nut who is prolific on Yahoo message boards). There's a Glock and a 30.06. Broken into pieces, followed by a sledge hammer, and problem solved. Won't get stolen, won't get misused, won't tempt my depressive teenage child, won't tempt any adults on a drinking binge.
The ones I inherited from my dad are generally the same way. More hunting rifles and a few shotguns; I don't like hunting anyway.
There are a few pieces that are historically interesting, brought back from Europe by my grandfather; one of them is so rare that the gunsmith offered me 50 grand for it. I think maybe that they would make good additions to a museum, if I had the slightest idea where a museum was that would be interested in Nazi and American GI memorabilia.
This Newton thing is the last straw for me. I'm done. Over it. No fucking more.
rdking647
(5,113 posts)i own several guns,from handguns to an ar-15
Sirveri
(4,517 posts)I would like to actually have one more, not because I desire another firearm, but because I want to manufacture it myself as a test of my new machining skills.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)Guns make me nervous. I don't even ever want to touch one much less shoot one. I won't have them around me. THe only reason I ever feel the least bit edgy around our wonderful local police officers is solely because they have guns and I can see them strapped to them. I just get an irrational feeling about guns as if they're live thinking creatures all by themselves just because of they carnage they can and do accomplish in someone's hands and all they exist and were created to do. I can't look at one and not think it is nothing more than an instrument of death and get the same gut reaction to them as I would an electric chair. They creep me out.
However, I get it that there are those people that enjoy target shooting as a skilled sport the same way as I sometimes like doing archery, and I see no problem with that. I also see nothing wrong with someone wanting to own a gun responsibly for self/home protection as long as they have extensive training in both use and storage because of the violent greedy selfish society we live in.
Our gun worshiping culture is sicko, and what I wouldn't give to live somewhere where society isn't even interested in them much less has such gross easy access to them. There is something VERY wrong with a society that sees nothing wrong with a civilian amassing an entire arsenal with all the accessories as if they were a one person military unit of their own country within a country and with no one having any idea that they have this legal arsenal. It's utterly asinine that the head of our government has to spend the rest of their life being a virtual prisoner driven around in armored cars surrounded by a legion of armed security because the country they head has been legally allowed to own those very weapons they have to be so rigidly guarded against being used on them. That is some really fucked up irony there. It's fucked up that in order to have the freedom to own and use guns we have to increasingly imprison ourselves to try to be safe against them to the point where we have to lock up grade school children in their classrooms and have metal detectors and security guards in our schools, worry about getting shot to death by some random nutter when we go to the movies or walk down the street or have our cars stolen from us at a stop light by a thug with a gun or have our homes invaded by robbers with guns and that living in a home that has steel bars on the windows not to keep you in but to keep criminals out.
I also realize that we've slid so far into the dark side with our gun worshiping greedy selfish violent culture that's saturated with guns that it's going to be a long hard slog to ever get to a point where our society doesn't even care about guns much less care whether or not they're legal. This country has gotten so far behind most other civilized countries in every respect that we're practically neanderthals, and it's WAY past time we addressed all of it.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)I inherited them all and have never fired them. They're collecting dust in the closet.
Personally I haven't fired a weapon in 35 years.
I think there's still some ammo for them in a drawer. One of my neighbors borrows my rifle during deer season and makes me jerky. He also bow hunts, so he can get a deer with each.
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)They are HIS. I want nothing to do with them. Can you just assume because a "household" owns guns, everyone in that home is a gun owner, or shoots them?
LP2K12
(885 posts)A 9mm pistol and a rifle, which is considered an assault rifle, that fires .223.
Both passed down through my family.
Kali
(55,019 posts)two revolvers, a .22 and a .38. There are more guns in the house, everybody has a few. I am far from being a gun nut, though I can appreciate any finely crafted ANYTHING (wish I had prettier handles, especially for the .38)
I too live in a rural area and view them as tools.
I don't know what the answer is. Probably a mixture of local control and MUCH better mental health care.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)I have a modest collection, mostly antiques and replicas, and a few modern rifles and shotguns. The collection used to be bigger but I sold some off a few years ago and paid off my house with the proceeds.
I'm a fan of "cowboy guns" , single action revolvers and lever action rifles mostly. All my weapons are secure in a gun safe and nobody outside my household knows where it is.
All my guns are in excellent working condition and I try to put a few rounds through each of them from time to time but the ones that get the most use are my .22s. .22 LR is cheap and fun to shoot. I haven't hunted in years but I still love banging away at tin cans etc.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)I find their defensive use overrated - even when you're talking about a pistol, their potential for unintended destruction makes them too dangerous in a defensive situation, say if you're being mugged, or if you have an intruder in your house.
Look at what often happens when cops or soldiers use them - there's friendly fire incidents, there's innocents gunned down when a cop or soldier loses his cool. And these are the people with training!
If you know what you're doing, like say you take some of the saner advice of the gun crowd, like using a safe room if your home's invaded, you can minimize the unintended destruction and lessen the odds of shooting a family member in the face, or having a stray bullet penetrate three walls and hit the toddler next door. But most people don't do that.
If I ever got guns again, they'd be purely for recreational use - target shooting, shooting clay pigeons with my brother in law, that sort of thing.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)We have two little ones under 5 in the house. I drink. I sleepwalk with craaaazy consequences.
So lets put that together, a drunk sleepwalker with little kids in the house. Having a gun in my circumstances would be very irresponsible.
That said, I do have a firearms owner identification card. I trap shoot with my father and brother in law every once in a while. i feel like a moocher if I don't buy ammo.
riqster
(13,986 posts)The dog handles almost all of the home security situations, but the rifle is there if a coyote or other critter is too crazy to back off of a fight with our mutt.
ailsagirl
(22,898 posts)In the county I live (Marin), gun shows aren't even allowed
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)They give me the fucking creeps.