So what got you into firearms?

[LoDie]

So what did it?

How old were you?

I wanted the means to protect myself and my family

My first gun was a .22 and I was 11

[Cheetah]

Family tradition. Decent plot of land in the midwest that's kind of a family retreat, so we'd pile all the aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. in for hunting season from long before I was born. I always used to tell everyone the first gun I shot was a 30-06 when I was five, but my dad heard me telling a buddy the story once (knocked on my ass, dad caught the rifle, I hit the dirt) and couldn't believe it. Apparently I'd been shooting a lever action .22 for a couple of years by that point, I just don't remember it at all. Was never allowed to have a BB gun, because dad's take was that it's a toy and opens the door for bad habits. Learned years later that mentality was the product of countless BB/pellet wars with his brothers and friends when they were kids, which ended with a neighbor kid taking a BB to the eye and a trip to the ER.

Hunted my entire life, picked up competition with NRA Jr. Rifle Club when I was a kiddo, fell out of it due to lack of funds after my first go at state (41st place, which I was pretty proud of for only having participated less than half the season and against several hundred shooters) when I/my folks couldn't afford to buy me my own equipment and the club's loaners had higher demand than supply. The rest is pretty much history. Now I get my kicks by introducing others to shooting, mostly.

[Achilles11B]

I wish I had a cool stories like the rest of the guys here. I was about 28 and getting ready to separate from the Army after 8 years and I always loved range days so I figured I should pick up a rifle. I was stationed in El Paso, TX when I decided to stick a LaRue upper on a CMMG lower and use it as a general purpose carbine, because research wasn't quite my strong suit just yet. I have to agree with Cheetah, I have a blast taking non-shooter friends to the range.

[misanthropist]

I did a little bit of shooting with .22s when I was a kid, but I didn't take it very seriously.

But one day my dad, who rarely spoke at all, said to me, not trying to be pithy but just in an offhand manner in response to a comment from me about liking guns:

"You'll probably never need a gun in your entire life. But if what you need is a gun, nothing else will do."

Changed my life.

[cutter_spc]

For me, the answer to the question seems to be birth. I have been into "guns" for as long as I can remember and didn't have any in the house growing up. My parents weren't anti-gun, just wasn't their thing. Mom couldn't keep me away form the toy guns when shopping. Later, when I started school, my treat for bringing home good grades was a trip to the gun store so I could look and dream, and if I was real lucky maybe a gun show! When I was 10 they allowed me to get my first 22 rifle with my summer lawn mowing money I had saved, and made me wait a week before they got me some ammo, how cruel! I'm 43 now, so I don't think we can blame my addiction on video games, lol.

[mack7.62]

I suck at golf.

[Meta-Prometheus]

Like many others it seems my first exposure to guns was pretty early on. I guess I must have been around 10 or so. Couple years later, hunter's safety and deer hunting. Years passed without even thinking about guns until I was 24 or so. At that time I met some really good people when I was working in Casper Wyoming. Started buying guns, taking classes, etc. Ever since then I can't shake guns. I've owned many different guns figuring out what I like, what I thought I liked, what I definitely don't like and so on. I'm always learning more and more about the firearms world and it continues to amaze me.

[chiefkeff]

my dad for sure. we have been camping and hunting since i can remember

[prdubi]

My Uncle Luciano Caruso, he was married to one of my moms cousin. Pure Italian, born in Naples, NYPD police armory, Army Reserve and gun show seller and SOT machine gun FFL holder since 1978.


So I was surrounded by guns since I was a kid growing up in the 80's and 90's

my father today


And my dad ain't some poser, he shot at and killed commies and russian soldiers during the 1956 Hungarian revolution, he barely escaped with his life.

here he is holding the Hungarian flag outside the gutted secret police headquarters.

Guess who trained my dad?? My grandfather....


and guess who trained my grandfather??

his father and his 3 cousins who worked in a gun shop and armory for the Royal Hungarian army during the 30's and 40's



I can go further and further...but guns and things that go boom runs in my family.

Service to god, country, and army.

[rdtompki]

Dad was in Normandy just after D-day. He survived, barely, gave me a BB gun when I was 10 or so. Graduated to a 22 bolt action which I shot competitively until a freshman in college. Five decades later my wife and I started down the slippery gun ownership slope: shotguns for HD, Handguns for HD and the full-Monte embrace of steel challenge competition with our 9mm 1911s. Our downfall has culminated in the acquisition of two ARs sneaking in under the wire of a trio of Orwellian legislation which may well be signed by Gov. Brown. Yes, we're in California which provides all the very fortunate free-state residents a glimpse into our potential collective future.