Ha, I sorta see where you're coming from, Mapiva!

I don't see guns as a right or left thing at all- not on any level... (and although I'm a guy w/ many right leanings, I also have many left ones...)

During my 13 years in remote and wild Alaska? If one didn't keep a gun they'd be stupidly asking for trouble (and would deserve whatever they got!)

Today, being back home in central Illinois and living in a small college town (though "large" by rural midwestern standards) I have no need for a gun at all for anything- so of course don't have one.

But, I grew up just 30 minutes from here in a tiny (1000 people) farm town where we had guns for hunting and to protect livestock from wolves and coyotes- so then and there again- guns were absolutely a necessity, and I'm sure folks there living that lifestyle still have/need them today.

In today's world of thuggery and school shootings and other terrible tragedies many connect ownership of guns to a whacky Waco, Texas/NRA-extremist type of clan- but the truth is, for many folks in many areas guns are as necessary a part of the lifestyle as having a powerful 4-wheel drive truck to make it up hills and mountain-roads, or having a tractor when one has a 5-acre yard to mow.

The need to own a gun might seem remote and foreign to big city dwellers- but folks in rural areas cannot conceive of not owning a car, or not having ground with grass- or with riding on a bus or subway everyday, either.

Contemporary Obama (cool as he is!) can remark in a distantly unfamiliar way all he wants on how certain folks in certain places "cling to their guns", but he would do well to recall as he gets all "Lincolnesque" announcing his candidacy from the steps of Abe's old Illinois State Capital that Mr. Lincoln himself practically carried a rifle up under his big ole stove-pipe hat!

So, I guess it's all relative, my wonderful lefty sister! winks- kevin

Mapiva,

I hate guns, period. On the other hand my fiance (A New York Puerto Rican from the Bronx) loves guns, and is even thinking about doing a Gun Smithing program , to learn the trade.

For the life of my I don't get the whole gun thing. I understand hunting, and fishing and all that, but to own a gun for protection seems a little like the Wild Wild West and that seems kind of ancient and foreign to me.

:DOn the other hand non-lethal weapons like Pepper Spray, and electric shock guns seem OK and are what I'd prefer over a gun 100 to 1, but I do believe it is a personal preference. And as Kev so aptly pointed out not everyone who owns, carries or loves guns is some kind of a psycho, it's just different strokes for different folks, and that is why I can accept guns in my home PERIOD!

True...not everyone that has a gun is psyco. But what all the folks that are touting gun control need to remember ...the psyco's that are out there shooting people on a whim or to settle a score are not going to turn their guns over because someone wants them to.
Yes...I have guns and I know how to use them.I was taught very young how to use a gun but always to respect them too.And respect for human life.I live in a very rural area...7 miles from nearest town. On a gravel road with nothing but woods around me. We have all kind of varmits roaming these woods.It would be foolish not to own a weapon for protection here.Yes...there has been an occasion when I had to use a gun for my own protection. Once when I was thirteen...I was home alone and someone broke into our house. I thank God I had that shotgun ...the guy had a knife but when I pointed that shotgun at him he lost his nerve...no telling how different that night would have been otherwise.

We lived in the country and we had that shotgun.
Right after we got married Jon got me a 38 automatic. The 38 has come in handy on a couple of occasions. One example was a few years ago they rented an apartment here to a single woman. A few weeks after she moved in she moved a guy in with her. It was a very abusive relationship. The police was at their apartment alot. I mean like every few days. They took one of the guys friends out of the apartment one night from a drug overdose. The landlords were trying to get them evicted but it takes time to go through channels.

One night my little 87 year old neighbor whose apartment was next to theirs calls me at midnight saying someone was banging on her door and when ever she looked out her peep hole all she saw was a figure with its head down wearing a cap with a hood from a sweatshirt pulled up. She was scared to death. I told her to give me a minute and Id be right there to check. I got my coat and tucked my 38 into my pocket and as soon as that little twerp heard my door open he took down his hood and turned the cap around backwards and was all friendly. He goes hey whats up.. I go are you knocking on Ms Opal's door and he at first told me no then he said well yeah. He looked high. I said she just called me and she is about to call the cops. He mutters he wanted to borrow an "onion". I had warned her before not to open the door for them because they did drugs. Til this day I still think he was going to do bad things to her if he had gotten in there. He looked at me and smirked and says your awful brave to come look for her and I said listen you little creep..I have 38 good reasons in my pocket for why you do not scare me at all. He beat that girl he lived with and was a bully and at heart bullies are cowards. My Dad beat my Mom til I was big enough to get between them and stop it. I knew his type.
Landlord finally got them out. The day before the sheriff was supposed to set them out they moved finally. They destroyed the apartment and even busted the windows. Landlord had to replace everything from the fridge to the toilet and the bathtub. That guy didnt have enough guts to try anything on me while he was here but about a week after they left my two front tires got cut. Im sure it was him even though I couldnt prove it. That was the first and only time in 10 years my car had ever been vandalized. we heard a few months later and read in the paper that guy was in jail. He and a friend had broken into an outdoor shop here in town and stole a bunch of guns and stuff. He is in prison now.
We have a pretty good bunch up here now. It is only 6 apartments over a couple of businesses. One older lady who works at a bank here in town. A cop, carpenter, retired man and a young couple who are college kids. They had some drama a few months ago. Some woman had moved out and let someone take over her apartment and no one was paying the rent lol.
I feel much better having the 38. The businesses downstairs have been broken into before. I have a lot of respect for guns. My two brothers were not careful with a gun which is why Dad always had me hanging onto the guns in the home. I had that whole nightmare with that guy stalking me and people knew Mom and I and my little sister lived alone and Dad and my brother stayed next door. The man who was stalking me lived across the street from us. After Dad died and my brother left it was just me to take care of my Mom and sister for several years.

You had to picture this short, fat bald man laughing his butt off while encouraging me along :o I was being careful to make sure the shot didnt travel..was aimed downwards. Had to make sure and stay clear of the gas tanks lol. Mom used language to make a sailor blush when she saw those holes lol. I got up the next morning and couldnt move my arm. My shoulder was black from the bruise lol.