What made you a "firearms enthusiast"

[DN40SW]

I blame the Daisy BB gun I bought from Topps Department store in Speedway when I was 10.....Been hooked ever since.

 

[Expat]

Born to it as the family hunted. It was just what we did. Sort of like asking why I eat or read books.

 

[miguel]

Being assaulted at a stop sign by five guys (no, not the hamburger people...) while a passenger in a car.

Personally, I'd have run the ****ers in front of us over, but my friend was driving. Sissy...

 

[Ben Nelson]

Crime. About a quarter mile straight out my front door, a middle-age man was working in his yard and robbed at machete point. Five houses down, my buddy had his patio door kicked in while he was home. Both incidents happened about five years ago and in close succession.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Dad introduced me to shooting. He only had a Stevens 12 gauge double barrel (I still have it), but a friend of his gave me a Mossberg 410 bolt action and I learned to hunt squirrels with that. While in Boy Scouts, I earned my Rifle & Shotgun merit badge using an old Mossberg 44. I found one for 50 bucks in the Trader paper shortly after that and bought it myself (Dad went along with me). Shortly after that, I got an Ithaca Model 37 (75 bucks if I remember correctly). Both Mossbergs and the Ithaca were stolen when my house was broken into when I was living up in Lafayette (early 80's) and I never got back into shooting until about 2010. From there I was off to the races. Got my C&R license and proceeded to fill up a bunch of gun cabinets. I'm gonna need another one soon...

 

[Flyingbrian]

Guy from church invited me to shoot some clays after church one day been hooked every since

 

[Leadeye]

Grew up rural, but not in a family of gun enthusiasts. I enjoyed the outdoors and hunting, did a lot of reading, must have just come from there.

 

[Joniki]

I was born to it. I was cleaning guns before I was allowed to shoot them. I still have my first BB gun, 22, .410 and handgun I ever owned.

 

[Winamac]

The best I can remember is about 1966( I was 4 years old) I got a plastic M1 Garand rifle for Christmas that took little plastic bullets. It became my favorite toy. Then about five years later my cousin let me shoot his Daisy BB gun at a metal can and I hit the can. I was hooked after that. Wish I still had that little plastic Garand. My folks do have pictures of me unwrapping it though.

 

[Mgderf]

Firearms.

 

[Cynical]

Born into it. Hunted from my earliest memories with my dad and still do a little but we fish more now cause it's easier for him. Dad kept his ammo locked in a cabinet and after my brother and I shot up all we had, we decided to take the hinges off for easy access. We only took a little so he wouldn't notice but after a couple times we figured he would know anyway so it was guns blazing. We were so desperate we tried shooting clay pigeons with 00 buck. Dad tried to go squirrel hunting and there was nothing left. Instead of giving us a lashing we deserved he figured there worse things we could be doing besides shooting.He left it unlocked after we replaced it ALL with our allowance. Our first lesson in pay to play I guess. We got our first Mec 600 for Christmas that year, I still use some thirty years later.

 

[TheFireArmorer]

Grew up with BB and pellet guns. I always wanted a "real" gun. I finally bought myself one in college. I can blame my problem on a Daisy.

 

[sugarcreekbrass]

The Christmas Story and the Red Ryder!! Actually, I was born into a hunting family. All of the guns I have shot until the past few years have all been solely for hunting. The first gun I shot was my dad's Marlin Model 60. Shot my first squirrel with that gun. My first gun was my grandfather's single shot 16 gauge he gave me when I was 13.

 

[Old Prof]

Shot as a kid at my grandparents, who lived on the farm my father grew up on in Western Ky. from about age 17 to 55 I didn't shoot anything (grad school in Illinois, living in NJ made that easier to do.) When I moved to Indiana me, and my boys, got involved in scouting. I shot some at summer camp and made friends with people that shoot. Break-ins in the neighborhood while people were in the house motivate buying the first gun.

 

[raptrbreth]

USMC

 

[Mgderf]

Shot as a kid at my grandparents, who lived on the farm my father grew up on in Western Ky. from about age 17 to 55 I didn't shoot anything (grad school in Illinois, living in NJ made that easier to do.) When I moved to Indiana me, and my boys, got involved in scouting. I shot some at summer camp and made friends with people that shoot. Break-ins in the neighborhood while people were in the house motivate buying the first gun.

Holy crap man.
What on God's green earth would make you shoot at your grandparents?

 

[Thor]

Firearms, shows abut firearms, shooting firearms. My dad had a M1 Carbine that he kept hidden because Mom didn't want the kids to find it (and it was hidden well). I could field strip it by the time I was 9...and they never knew. It was a decade before I saw a manual and realized I'd learned to do it properly.

Outside of that, dad took me hunting and I had a .410 bolt action. We still tell silly stories about those times. Good times...Gun times...

 

[bloodandgutsmurphy]

I have a weird story. My dad used to work security and carried a Beretta 9mm. I asked him when he came home one day if I could see his gun or something like that, I was probably 7 at the time, he said no and that it was a toy. I became suspicious of what he said. I became curious about the ''toy'' on his hip. This incident along with watching action movies, playing video games, being around my dad's side of the family who are gun nthuiasts all lead to a hobby that I spend way too much money on.

 

[BogWalker]

I have a weird story. My dad used to work security and carried a Beretta 9mm. I asked him when he came home one day if I could see his gun or something like that, I was probably 7 at the time, he said no and that it was a toy. I became suspicious of what he said. I became curious about the ''toy'' on his hip. This incident along with watching action movies, playing video games, being around my dad's side of the family who are gun nthuiasts all lead to a hobby that I spend way too much money on.

Telling a kid a gun is a toy just kind of seems like asking for tragedy.

 

[BeDome]

"Born into it," seems to be the most common response.

I was sort of born into it, by the circuitous route of having fourteen uncles (including both sides of the family) and two grand fathers who all hunted. My mom hated hunting (did not find game tasty) and could not care less. My father had polio in 1926 and was paraplegic but loved to have access to the fresh game he grew up eating.

I was encouraged by my father to go hunting with my uncles and cousins from the age of six. At ten years of age, my grand father presented me with my own 22 carbine single shot and I just KNEW I could take anything with it, no matter how big and scary.

I just never stopped wanting more.

Now, I have only five old uncles left alive (one ancient Korean war Marine veteran, two Viet Nam era Army veterans and one retired law officer) and every one of their kids (my cousins, even the girls) is pretty good with a weapon and occasionally they still hunt or fish together.

Wish I lived closer.