Any immigrants here? How/when did you get into firearms?

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10-06-15, 19:17
AnthonyCumia

Any immigrants here? How/when did you get into firearms?

When did you come over?

When did you starting enjoying the 2nd Amendment?

Did you have any negative views on gun ownership before you saw the light?
10-08-15, 11:48
Nocaster

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnthonyCumia

When did you come over?

When did you starting enjoying the 2nd Amendment?

Did you have any negative views on gun ownership before you saw the light?

I came to the US from Ukraine in 1993. I was 14. I was always interested in firearms, always had lots of toy guns, war movies, etc etc.

Being a kid in the 80s in the USSR, you did not get a ton of exposure to firearms, but there was some. There were lots of "gun ranges" with break action bb rifles and pistols, and I spent a lot of time at those. Also, at my school, which was like a k-12, except it was k-11, there was a gun range in the basement, not sure of the distance, but I think 25 meters. The school had a couple of AKs and some 22 rifles locked up in the "military preparedness" classroom and from time to time we were able to talk the perpetually drunk WWII vet military preparedness instructor to let us shoot at the range. This happened 2 or 3 times that I can recall.

In the United States, I got to shoot once when I was 18, visiting a friend in Ohio. We spent an afternoon shooting some kind of semi auto 22, and a small pistol that was either a 32 or 380. Maybe a Llama or something similar.

Then in undergrad I totally bought into liberal politics, and became anti gun, or rather anti civilian gun ownership.

It wasn't until I was 30 that my law school bud / best friend, who is a Texan, got me into shooting, and I was hooked again. First purchase was a g17, then a wasr, then an 870, then there was no stopping me. ....

That caused total confusion in lots of liberal type things I believed, and over the course of about a year, after lots of soul searching and reading I realized how misguided I was. Ultimately, it all just came down to collectivism versus individualism. Oppression, totalitarianism, and tyranny are not the only opposites of freedom. Dependence is too.

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10-10-15, 06:04
AnthonyCumia

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nocaster

I came to the US from Ukraine in 1993. I was 14. I was always interested in firearms, always had lots of toy guns, war movies, etc etc.

Being a kid in the 80s in the USSR, you did not get a ton of exposure to firearms, but there was some. There were lots of "gun ranges" with break action bb rifles and pistols, and I spent a lot of time at those. Also, at my school, which was like a k-12, except it was k-11, there was a gun range in the basement, not sure of the distance, but I think 25 meters. The school had a couple of AKs and some 22 rifles locked up in the "military preparedness" classroom and from time to time we were able to talk the perpetually drunk WWII vet military preparedness instructor to let us shoot at the range. This happened 2 or 3 times that I can recall.

In the United States, I got to shoot once when I was 18, visiting a friend in Ohio. We spent an afternoon shooting some kind of semi auto 22, and a small pistol that was either a 32 or 380. Maybe a Llama or something similar.

Then in undergrad I totally bought into liberal politics, and became anti gun, or rather anti civilian gun ownership.

It wasn't until I was 30 that my law school bud / best friend, who is a Texan, got me into shooting, and I was hooked again. First purchase was a g17, then a wasr, then an 870, then there was no stopping me. ....

That caused total confusion in lots of liberal type things I believed, and over the course of about a year, after lots of soul searching and reading I realized how misguided I was. Ultimately, it all just came down to collectivism versus individualism. Oppression, totalitarianism, and tyranny are not the only opposites of freedom. Dependence is too.

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Wow, in the USSR?

So did it more or less pick up speed, your red pilling?

Glad you escaped both the prison of the USSR and the mental prison of leftism.
10-27-15, 14:55
Nocaster

Late response..... yeah, that was in the USSR. I'm not positive whether I was shooting at the school range before or after USSR broke up. There really was no perceptible difference in life to me as a 10-12 year old. The school itself was old, and there was no change that I can remember. I think they took down the Lenin pictures and slogan banners such as "If you can't, we will teach you how to. If you won't, we will make you." I shit you not.

As to the red pilling, I went from being a statist leftist that owned guns, to being a leftist with guns that "refused to be a single issue voter", to being a single issue voter, more or less.

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10-27-15, 20:26
AnthonyCumia

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nocaster

Late response..... yeah, that was in the USSR. I'm not positive whether I was shooting at the school range before or after USSR broke up. There really was no perceptible difference in life to me as a 10-12 year old. The school itself was old, and there was no change that I can remember. I think they took down the Lenin pictures and slogan banners such as "If you can't, we will teach you how to. If you won't, we will make you." I shit you not.

As to the red pilling, I went from being a statist leftist that owned guns, to being a leftist with guns that "refused to be a single issue voter", to being a single issue voter, more or less.

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Could you really tell the difference in day to day life the week before and after the U.S.S.R fell part?
Holy shit....

I assume that single issue is firearm rights?
11-19-15, 03:36
Benito

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nocaster

I came to the US from Ukraine in 1993. I was 14. I was always interested in firearms, always had lots of toy guns, war movies, etc etc.

Being a kid in the 80s in the USSR, you did not get a ton of exposure to firearms, but there was some. There were lots of "gun ranges" with break action bb rifles and pistols, and I spent a lot of time at those. Also, at my school, which was like a k-12, except it was k-11, there was a gun range in the basement, not sure of the distance, but I think 25 meters. The school had a couple of AKs and some 22 rifles locked up in the "military preparedness" classroom and from time to time we were able to talk the perpetually drunk WWII vet military preparedness instructor to let us shoot at the range. This happened 2 or 3 times that I can recall.

In the United States, I got to shoot once when I was 18, visiting a friend in Ohio. We spent an afternoon shooting some kind of semi auto 22, and a small pistol that was either a 32 or 380. Maybe a Llama or something similar.

Then in undergrad I totally bought into liberal politics, and became anti gun, or rather anti civilian gun ownership.

It wasn't until I was 30 that my law school bud / best friend, who is a Texan, got me into shooting, and I was hooked again. First purchase was a g17, then a wasr, then an 870, then there was no stopping me. ....

That caused total confusion in lots of liberal type things I believed, and over the course of about a year, after lots of soul searching and reading I realized how misguided I was. Ultimately, it all just came down to collectivism versus individualism. Oppression, totalitarianism, and tyranny are not the only opposites of freedom. Dependence is too.

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It's eerie how closely this matches my experience.
Same thing, just different Commie country, slightly younger ages and different gun purchases.
11-19-15, 10:05
Nocaster

Yeah, the commies spread that "freedom" all over. Feel the bern?

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11-30-15, 13:44
PatrioticDisorder

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benito

It's eerie how closely this matches my experience.
Same thing, just different Commie country, slightly younger ages and different gun purchases.

Cuba?
11-30-15, 15:07
Arik

Came in 1988 from USSR a a kid.

Always had an interest in firearms dispite only ever owning toy guns as a kid. First purchase was when I was 18 and old enough to buy a rifle. Of course bought a Mosin!! Ww2 and Russia. ....duh! Followed shortly by a Marlin 22lr and a 12G pump. A little later got my first AK....around 00. Ban era Hungarian S2000 or something.

Turned 21 and got my first Handgun. Ruger P95. Followed by a bunch of other crap. DE .50, Taurus copy of a Beretta, another Taurus PT145, Tokarev. ..I guess the shit that you have to get out of your system when you turn 21.

My parents were never gun people (not to be confused with anti gun). When I showed my pops the rifles I had accumulated he was more worried that I'd accidentally hurt myself or someone else.

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