Who was responsible for your ongoing interest in Firearms?

Who was responsible for your ongoing interest in Firearms?

  • Your Mother

    Votes: 10 2.3%

  • Your Father

    Votes: 176 40.9%

  • Both your Parents

    Votes: 27 6.3%

  • A Friend

    Votes: 44 10.2%

  • A Government Entity

    Votes: 31 7.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 142 33.0%
  • Total voters
    430
Scrapper

Scrapper

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I'm wondering if you (how many of us) got into guns due to your Parents introducing it to you when you were very young. Remember it can be anyone that inspired you.

For me.....my Father is the reason I have a very good interest and ongoing gumption to learn about firearms and safely handling them. The things he taught me will forever be en-grained in my mind.

Thanks Everyone who has posted and voted.:)
 
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My father grew up in rural Eastern North Carolina during the Great Depression. He was one of 8 kids and the family was poor. He worked when he could, chopping tobacco and took what little he made and bought .22's and shotgun shells. He turned that into squirrel, rabbits and other small game to feed the family. So, he grew up hunting for food and was a fine shot. He taught me to shoot and bought me a .22 rifle for Christmas when I was 10. My mother grew up in rural Georgia in a family of hunters, shooters and lawmen. She considered guns and shooting normal for any man to be doing. They were great parents and encouraged me to shoot and hunt.
 
I actually have to give my mom the credit. Her father was a minister during the depression and helped keep the family fed with a little Iver Johnson single barrel .410 (which I now have). He taught my mom to shoot with a Daisy BB gun which she used to teach me and my brother.
 
My father was always involved in bullseye shooting, went out to Camp Perry several times, was president and was on the executive and building committees of his gun club, and he'd take us to the range on Saturdays and let us shoot when he was finished. I recall helping at and doing some shooting at PPC matches.

He's still very involved with his shooting and gun club, and now at almost 80, shoots every day except Tuesdays when they go bowling.

Here he is, giving my son pointers.
 

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Mostly the culprit was TV, as my parents don't own guns. When I was about ten or so I asked me grandfather what I had to do to have a gun when I was older. He gave me the best advice I have ever received. He told me to stay away from trouble, alcohol, drugs, stealing, and people who do those things. He also told me to get a good job work hard and keep it.
At age 35 I have never been drunk, high or in trouble, and about the only friends I have are shooters too.
Sorry to give a long answer to a short question but I thought it pertinent.
Anyway It was my uncle who first took me shooting at age fifteen, but the truth is I was hooked by the Lone Ranger years earlier. John
 
The gentilman i moved next door to got me started. My dad and i hunted together, he was of the mind that one or maybe two gun's where enough. He now likes to come over and look around as he calls it.


one more thing, he has a very nice collection of browning A5's
 
My dad died Sept. '08. The guns in the backround of that B&W picture, minus one maybe, are in my safe now. As is his Redhawk. He got into guns and hunting on his own. Then he got me into guns and we'd go shooting all the time. He really encouraged it. When we'd go all night lantern cat fishing when I was a kid he was unarmed but my Single Six was always on me loaded.



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No one in my family had any interest in guns or hunting. My early exposure came from family friends and neighbors who were nice enough to tolerate a kid around. My Dad was a good sport though, and would take me out in the woods, let me shoot etc.
 
gjamison said:
one more thing, he has a very nice collection of browning A5's
Click to expand...

My Father hunted with one of those Auto 5's and I shot it as well. He gave me an Ithica Model 37 12g when I was 11 which is when I got my hunting license, although I was shooting and learning reloading many different kinds of Ammo (30-06, 30-30, 38 special, 45 auto, 12g shotgun) at around 7.
 
Not Dad, but he gets Honorable Mention.

Dad wasn't a shooter (but he didn't mind guns). Mom hated guns. One of my older brothers (when I was about 5 y/o) had a .22 lr rifle that he got caught mis-using (shooting at a swing set in the back yard), so that ceased firarms bieing in the house from that point until much later.

I think I was born fascinated with guns, and looked at the few that friends and relatives had or read all that I could about firearms. My Dad did buy a bb gun, that I was allowed supervised use of, when I was about 12 y/o.

At the age of 15 y/o my cousin was attending a Hunter Safety course, and needed another person to fill in the minimum enrollment needed for the course to be run. He contacted me. I asked Dad if it was OK for me to attend. He and Mom had a discussion, and Dad persuaded Mom that since we lived in Oregon, and guns were in about half the households, I should at least get some safety training just in case I handled someone elses gun. I not only got a 100% in the course, I was invited by the instructor to join his Explorer Post - which specialized in hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor activities. The passion and training really begins there.

Once in the Explorer Post, Dad bought "himself" a semi-auto .22 rifle (Mom couldn't object, too much, with Dad getting a gun for himself), but for my use - with the caveat that I had to go a year without any firearm mishaps before I could have one of my own. I made it the year plus. I don't think Dad fired a single round from that gun.

For my 17th birthday, Mom and Dad gave me a sporterized 03A3 Springfield.

So, Walt Labaugh, retired SF 1SG, Distinguished Rifle and Pistol, the Hunter Safety Instructor and Explorer Post Leader, gets the credit for the bulk, but it may not have happened if Dad hadn't been in my corner.
 
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IIRC,
Both my Mom and Dad were pretty handy with a sidearm or long gun.

My Daughter and SIL are both active shooters and are training their boys as well.
Our Son and his wife shoot (DIL is an outstanding shot) and are working with their sons shooting skills up on the high plains...

Ya gotta teach them boys to ride, rope, shoot and tell the truth.

Su Amigo,
Dave
 
My dad had an influence but to be honest I don't know who or what pushed me into the deep end.
 
I had guns in my genes. I can recall when I was 5 or 6 sneaking up to the attaic to play with the M-1 Carbine my old man brought back from WWII, my mother said when she was little she was lucky enough to know one of her great-grandmothers, said she had the reputation of being a good shot. Had my share of cap pistols. First proper introduction to firearms was in Boy Scout Camp when I was 13.
 
It was my mother, but completely inadvertently.

One night we were watching "The Man from UNCLE" and she said, "Look at that funny looking gun!"

She's regretted that comment for the last 40+ years...
 
Well I was lucky as everyone on both sides my family had guns and hunted. My mother would even hunt deer with dad. I belive I would have got into guns without the folks, but dad was a gunman too. No he didnt collect as heavy as me, but he always kept the basics, a handgun, 22 rifle, shotgun and several centerfire hunting rifles since he was young too.
 
My dad was in the army, but never did anything else with guns - my family was essentially gun free growing up. All except for my grandfather, who lived up in Louisville, KY. He had a bunch of rifles and a couple of handguns and I got to stay up there with him sometimes. He and I were close and I think he wanted me to have his guns when he died - that's what my grandmother said. So, I can say that my grandfather was the one who showed me his guns as a kid, and told me stories about hunting rabbits. I still have every one of those guns and each time I see one I think of him. My 13-year old son loves shooting them and I will pass them on to him some day.

B
 
I went with my father in the morning darkness to run a trap line before I was old enough to attend school. He also took me fishing and hunting and had me take a NRA safe hunting course at about age nine. My mother was always supportive of what we did and then last but not least the Marine Corp added the final polish to the equation.
 
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