I've always had a passive interest in firearms, and a few months back I finally caved in and bought an AK pattern rifle (one of those Serbian PAP rifles). Since then I've become convinced my life's purpose is to collect a near perfect replication of any and all Warsaw Pact armaments available to the general public.

So uhhh, anybody else here kinda like guns too? Post pics if you have any (or if you know how to do that... which I don't) and talk shit about those goofy AR rifles with the tacticooly junk all over em.

Edit: try and keep the hyperbolic political crossfire to a minimum, I wanna keep this thread alive long enough to see if anyone on here owns a nice AK with a classic wood finish

Kind of a creepy-sounding thread title. Did "Firearm Discussion Thread" not do it for you?

I fucking love them. My favourite is my AR-15 I bought last year. So much fun to shoot. I've got an order in with the CMP for a service grade M-1 Garand rifle, probably will end up being a early 50's model but I won't find out for a few months as the lead time is nuts right now.

I'm not really a gun guy, but I've enjoyed shooting the times I've done it. I always liked Lugers because they look like the blasters from Star Wars.

I dislike guns. I have never even seen one in the flesh, so to speak. I am thankful to live in Australia where guns are virutally impossible to obtain. I quite like being able to, you know, do stuff without the fear of another lunatic gunning people down for kicks. Of course, you could argue that in such a society, guns are neccesary for protection but I repeat that I am glad I do not live under such uncivilised conditions.

I can't understand why people need guns. I guess I can accept their use in agriculture, though I am a vegan so I think there is probably better ways to control pests (like stop fucking destroying habitat, etc.). I tend to think that people who hunt recreationally are fucked in the head. How is killing something fun? Incomprehensible to me. Go for it, do what you want, please stay away from me and my family

Was thinking the same, Gunshot Boy: Hey, come on! I'll show you where my dad keeps his gun.

I do. I got to shoot some really cool ones in the military. My personal favorite was a mounted 50 cal. The ammo we used could pierce some pretty thick steel, or make a head explode like a cantaloupe. The M60 was really loud. Liked that one too, but lost most of my hearing in my left ear using it. Young and stupid and never wore hearing protection. The guns laws where I live are one of the most strict in my country. So I do not own a gun. Not that I am not able to, just don't want to deal with the hassle.

I have a healthy interest in firearms and weapons like any red blooded American and I own two, but I don't have an obsessive childlike interest in them like a lot of people seem to have these days.

I grew up in the midwest so guns were fairly common - used to shoot shotguns and .308 rifles in the woods. Never went hunting though, and don't know much about them other than I loved shooting them at stuff and blowing shit up.

They aren't my favorite kind of killing device. For that I like to go with the lead pipe, candlestick or rope. All a lot more versatile with room for creativity for the skilled murderer.

but the point of guns is to be unskilled and pass that on to your children!

I'm glad that Missouri is pretty free in the firearms regard. Firing a gun without hearing protection...can't imagine it. Figured the military would have made you wear ear plugs during live fire training. I've got friends who would shoot with nothing on when we would get together in the country. They would go on how wearing muffs or plugs is pussy shit, then talk about the constant ringing in their ears.

I like them but I'm only really comfortable handling shotguns, and I don't shoot very often anymore, maybe a few times a year. Only held a pistol once...it was fun to shoot but I would not really consider owning one unless I had restraining orders against multiple unruly people who I didn't expect to follow them and the police advised me to keep one at home. I used to shoot rifles but that was 10+ years ago.

Target practice only, sporting clays or trap shooting. I dislike skeet.

I'm more into swords, maces and my johnson.
Romania isn't the kind of country where one expects to find tons of fellas packing heat. That shit is damn expensive.

About sums up my view. My friends are more into them so I'll occasionally shoot with them when we visit my friend's cabin up in northern WI; I can't shoot trap for shit but I'm a decent shot with pistols.

Having also grown up in a rural Midwest community, hunting and guns were rather popular around where I lived and the fact that neither I nor my family had interest in that (not even for any political/ethical reasons, we just...didn't care) was often met with great surprise.

I don't own any guns myself, but I've been to the shooting range a few times with a friend's brother, who works as a security officer for some rich asshole. Pretty chill guy, owns a couple of old school rifles and revolvers inherited from his dad. I'm not exactly a gun enthusiast, but I liked the experience well enough that I might buy one of my own at some point and go to the shooting range once in a while, y'know, as a hobby. Shouldn't be too hard, as from what the guy told me, a decent revolver isn't all that expensive here, and neither is ammo.

I have a lot of cautious respect for guns, and just plain respect for the people who handle them properly, as they're dangerous tools, and should be used with all the right precautions. Consequently, I have a strong dislike for manchildren who treat them as toys to drool over and fantasize about getting a chance to use them against another human being and get away with it. Those people are fucked in the head.

The CIA had/has a heart attack gun. It shoots ice with a sharp point. The ice is filled with something that will induce a heart attack.

Another favorite of mine was when I lived on a farm many, many years ago. I had a Remington 30-30. It was a beautiful gun and I used to make some great long distance shots with it. Sadly my Uncle sold it for coke.

As part of my job, I get to treat various types of pistols and rifles with acid every week or so to restore erased serial numbers. Depending on the quality of the metal, some get all rusty and ruined, while others surprisingly hold up quite well and remain pristine for a while. Can't say I'm crazy about guns, but they certainly sparked an appreciation for metallurgy, metallography, and metalworking for me. That, and some of the gun designs are cool to take apart piece by piece.

There seems to be hell of a lot of those people.

Most of my bad feeling about guns comes from the number of accidental deaths and school shootings. The justification for having them is always self-defence, but I don't see why you need a lethal weapon in your home for that. Why not a taser or something? At least if your 3 year old kid finds that in your bedside drawer he's not going to kill himself.

The lack of interest in non-lethal weapons only makes me suspect it's not actually about self-defence and more about the gun industry.

Can't work out how to post a pic on a message board, owns a gun. Yeah, that says it all for me.

I understand the sentiment, although I haven't been nearly as exposed to gun violence (much less demented things such as school shootings), so I can't say that I share it, and the kind of people I mentioned, while certainly present here, are definitely more of a rarity than in the USA. Honestly, I find American gun culture incredibly puzzling; it breeds a very peculiar form of paranoid, survivalist mindset, with a dash of the honestly bloodthirsty that's genuinely scary. I've never been part of an environment that produces people like that.

What do you base your view on that there are a lot of those people? People who are itching to kill someone I guess. Sure you get idiots online but its strange how it seems to be fair to characterize the gun owning community, if there really is such a thing, with a broad brush like that yet if you try to do the same in most other situations you are told that you can't hold everyone responsible for the actions of a few.

Personally I wouldn't want to trust my life to a taser. In some circumstances they can be quite effective, but if a couple criminals are in my house late at night I'd rather have a firearm. Hopefully its never something I have to experience either way.

I don't particularly care about them.

That's not what I've heard!

I have tons of redneck relatives with loads of guns, so I grew up around them. Shot all sorts of guns, including modern rifles/pistols/shotguns and lots of antiques as well. I used to be pretty into it when I was younger because, hey, 13 year old boys like shooting stuff. I also did a lot of shooting in Boy Scouts. I was pretty good at shooting sports but it's been a while since I've done any so who knows.

That said, my stance on 'em has shifted further left over the years. While they can certainly be fun, I basically don't see how the risks are worthwhile for such meager rewards. And yeah, hunting has gone from something I thought seemed totally cool, to kind of ambivalent about, to thinking it's pretty well fucked 99% of the time.

Huh, didn't really think this thing woulda taken off this quickly... I guess the thread title does sound kinda backwoods-y and creepy in hindsight.. I like it. I don't do any kind of hunting or sport shooting or crap like that, I've just really got into collecting old Cold War-era firearms (not like I can afford half the shit, I just like browsing gunbroker when I'm bored or hiding in the bathroom at work), I'm no ammo hoarder neither, I have like 20 rounds that we didn't get to shoot the last time I took my gun out to the range, and I keep that thing locked away in my room most of the time except to clean it occasionally. I really oughta figure out how to add a nicer finish on the wood, the lower handguard is really starting to get rough.


Funny, because you guys export a TON of cheap Soviet-replica firearms into the U.S. through some factory in Cugir. Been eyeing up some old school Tokarev pistols for a while that're made in Romania

I'd love to do some boar hunting this year. Going to look into it.

I don't understand how some Americans can just not own guns.

Do you think you being an idiot has anything to do with it? I would say there is a correlation there, but I don't know you (thank God).

Jus' sayin' is all y'all.

This leads me to a question; to the gun-owners, why do you have your firearms? What do you do with them?

I cannot fathom anyone feeling they need one . . . except in a society where everybody else has them.

I hate guns. I live in Ireland and guns are quite hard to get here. Farmers can get rifles/shotguns but they are hard to get, expensive and covered in a lot of red tape. I think the whole American mindset of 'but its my right to bear arms' is pretty stupid. That was important at the time of the war with the British, but isn't really relevant now as it just causes crime. My forefathers were expected to own and be trained in the use of swords for clan warfare. I don't feel the need or relevance of doing so in 2016.

ALso, the escalation. If you get into an argument somwhere where there are a lot of guns, you may well find yourself getting shot by someone who:
a) doesn't know any better
b) thinks they have the right to do so, because they don't know their rights
c) thinks it proves they are the big man

Where I live, if you get into an argument you might get a kicking, but that's it.

Yeah, where I live we settle arguments by repeated lowering of feet upon skull and maybe insertion of broken bottles into abdomen. Not that much better really...

Any society that allows both alcohol and guns to be legal is something potentially monstrous.

We have stores here in Missouri that are gas/liquor/gun stores all in one building. Its awesome.

To answer
1. I really enjoy firearms, shooting, cleaning, tinkering with the sights on my rifles, etc. Shooting on the range or on my buddies land is a lot of fun. I love how they are made and how they operate.
2. Use in self defence situations. Ultimately I'm responsible for my own safety and my property. Be it use of a concealed carry weapon or use of a rifle for defending my property in a Katrina/break down of social order event.
3. A free man/woman should be able to arm themselves as they see fit to see to their and their families safety, or just for the hell of it. I don't recognize the right of the state to disarm its populace.
4. Hunting, though that is just a plan for the future.

Some will say the odds of needing to use one is small, and therefore I don't see the point. Well the odds of my house burning down are pretty small but I have insurance. I'd rather cover all the bases as I only have one life. They don't make me invincible, but if I have 3-4 thugs in my house I'm not going to go down and challenge them to one on one combat. God made man and Samuel Colt made them equal and all that.

I'm indifferent to guns personally...never felt the need to get one and I don't have a particular interest in shooting one. Haven't done that at all yet and I don't really care whether I do or not.

However I do think there's something to be said for the attitude Americans have about guns, that is to say it's ludicrous and insane. I think lots of people get way too wound up in the 2nd amendment to the point where they don't think of guns as dangerous anymore, don't see them as weapons but as "tools," which is so stupid to me. I think a lot of people place this nebulous, amorphous idea of "rights" over even common sense gun laws. There needs to be level headed, common-sense gun laws that regulate who can get one, and we should make sure people who are crazy or have some kind of vendetta, have a harder time getting them. Like any laws concerning murder or crime in general it won't completely stop terrible things from happening, but we should do anything we can.

Not to mention the whole "good guy with a gun" argument - a sure sign someone was dropped on their head as a child, if they say that.

Grew up with guns and still go hunting multiple seasons a year. The best time of year is September-October, when it's time to camp and get up in the dark for a hunt. Even when you're unsuccessful, there's something really special about being alone in the mountains with my rifle and a bit of lunch when it's time to take a break. There are hundreds of millions of people who have never heard that kind of quiet.

It's also a great skill to pass down, teaches children about mortality, respect for the meat on the dinner table, and the seriousness of violence.

Well I've been in Texas all my life, so yes we have plenty of guns (got open carry this year actually although I have yet to see one exercise that right). I've never been into that kind of stuff; there's a handgun somewhere in my house I think. I've never shot it. But I've known plenty of people who enjoy the hobby, and I've never had any negative feelings towards guns.

The strong anti-gun/anti-gun culture sentiments always seemed silly to me. It's like calling all metalheads satanists or something.

I actually like the thread title because it gives people like me a place to voice their concerns about guns. I don't like them.



I tell you what's also great, is being alone in the mountains without a gun.



I'm not following your logic here. How is shooting a great skill to have? How many times have you needed to draw upon that skill?

Children do not need a gun to learn about mortality. The facts of life and the inevitability of death plus the deaths that children will see around them as older members of their families die provides much better teaching. Its like saying a hammer teaches children how to build a house.

Most gun owners do not use their weapons to provide meat for their family. Less than 20% of American gun owners use their gun for hunting.

To me, guns trivialise violence. Violence should be difficult to inflict; using a gun is not difficult if you have hands.

I'm not trying to pick on you; I respect your right to do what you want, and I am not judging you for this, but I am really glad I don't live in that sort of country. To an Australian like me, guns are alien and frightening. I think anything designed solely to kill other life forms should be seen as 'worst case scenario' only, not commonplace or even expected. They should be far from considered a 'right'. What about the rights of people to live without fear of being killed?

I don't see any reason why people need semi- or fully-automatic weapons for protection. You do not need an AR-15 to stop the hypothetical boogeyman unless he too has one. Vicious cycle.

Maybe you don't personally like guns, but statistics pretty much show gun control arguments and concerns to be unfounded (at least in the US).

The supposed "vicious cycle" doesn't happen in reality. The majority of gun homicides happen due to handguns (which most states already have laws about) according to FBI statistics. I don't know why people are so spooked about semi or automatic weapons (full auto is rarely used in crimes anyway as the above link would suggest). They don't mean anything particularly scary. Anyways, there is no established correlation between gun ownership and homicide rates. That fear is unfounded. There's some pro gun arguments that don't stand up to statistics either, but the idea that less guns = less crime is not supported. And the violent crime rate has been declining for decades as well. Guns are a nonissue.

I don't really buy that, as guns do facilitate violence. For instance, the kind of wacko that would go on a rampage would still do it even if fire arms weren't available to him, but he wouldn't be able to hurt as many people and it'd be much easier to stop him.

There is no evidence to support that. Gun ownership in the US has gone under some fluctuations, but you can see that about 42% of homes have a gun. And yet, crime has steadily decreased since the highs in the 90s which had similar gun ownership rates. No solid correlation between gun ownership and crime has been established; the study I posted in my last post is a nice meta-analysis of a lot of data from around the world and comes to the same conclusion.

Whackos and mass shootings are statistical anomalies. This study is mainly about correcting someone else, but you can look at the death rate and see that it is very, very low. You're probably much better off directing your attention at gang violence. According to an FBI report, Gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90 percent in several others, according to NGIC analysis. Guns are a red herring; it makes no sense to go after them if your goal is to reduce crime and death.

I'm not sure you need any more evidence than a real life one in Australia's experience:



http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=1502

Note the part about crime already being in decline but doubling its rate after the gun policy was brought in.