Eye openers

Don't know if this belongs here.

I've seen threads on using guns in certain situations, but does anyone here have any interesting stories on why they bought their first SD/HD gun?

I'll go first. I own a Marlin 981T 22lr bolt-action rifle (tube-fed) which I use for target shooting. At the time when I got it using a gun for defense didn't really cross my mind, I just wanted one for sport.

One day while home alone doing chores I hear what sounds like boot steps in my house.:gah: I know no one is supposed to be in the house so I decide to check it out. I load my marlin, which by the way took to long for a gun which I know has limited man-stopping potential, and investigate. I turns out to be a cat that must have snuck in earlier that day and was looking for a way out.:o

After that, I started looking at some of the statistics out there and figured it would be wise to have one around, Lest the next cat be...
http://www.realradriding.com.au/imag...ne_gun_cat.gif

Boring to report - the guns came first and then their potential uses were ascribed!!!

I guess tho to be honest - altho it was a purchase way late in the collecting game - my 870 mag shottie was obtained as a very suitable HD gun!

Go - kitty - go LOL! :18:

I think this can well live in general gun discussion actually. :smilez:

around the house, but the actual thought of HD was not really a concern in the woodlands of Nothern Michingan. It wasn't until my move to the bigger cities in my later life that I changed my focus from long guns to pistols while actually thinking about SD/HD.

I became more serious about SD/HD after moving to FL...now it's my only focus...don't really hunt much (not against it, just don't have the access or the desire to hunt anymore).

I now consider my weapons, training, and practice directed at one thing...SD/HD. My thinking has evolved to plan for a SHTF scenario...not a lot of people do that today (that is, compared to the total population).

When I consider my evolution from no personal concerns to my constant 'condition yellow' atmosphere...I wonder why more people can't see what's happening to our society?

Stay armed...stay safe!

OMO

ret:comeandgetsome:

My first HD gun was, don't flame me, a Hipoint JHP .45. While that was before I had learned much about handguns, I still have it, it goes bang everytime and I shoot it more accurately than any other gun I have owned or rented. And if I needed to I could always club an intruder with it. It still rests in my bedroom.

While I was in the reserves and in school, I did a project where I dressed up like a bum, and "lived" on the streets for a week. (I did go home to sleep in the mornings) It amazed me what I saw, learned and how close all this was to home. It kind of shocked into reality that my hometown wasnt as nice as I had thought it was. I had been all over the world, I saw and did a lot of things. I never saw as much as I did in that week, pretty much in my own back yard. When I got out of school, I was hired by a local Police Dept., so I never really needed to do the whole ccw process. I certainly would have otherwise after my week of learning. It convinced me that there are evil people everywhere, and there are good people too.

I did get an A on my project, but got in to bit of trouble from the prof. because of the risk and danger involved. I can write a book one day about that week.

My family has always had firearms around the house and they were the family HD weapons against any wild animal or intruder.

My reason for buying a SD pistol for constant carry arose from an infamily dispute wherein one of my brothers threatend my life. I have carried since that day and always keep a loaded rifle at hand as well when home.

Yup, after working LE , I realized how much crime and bad there was , even in the small town I live in.

I chose to work LEO instead of grad school. I think I got a better education. Makes you look at everything a little bit differently.

I'd always had a 1911 and a few others around but never carried. When my wife was confined to a wheelchair for a while we had some shady types checking us out a little to closely. I then did my research and discovered scumbags like handicapped victims and it was time to get serious about a permit and defensive mindset.

With me it was a boring thing also, sort of. When I bought my first S&W 9 MM (It was like the 1911 design but it wasn't a 1911) I started thinking about it. It didn't make sense to have a pistol and not have it ready if I needed it.

Then I had a female friend that was being stalked where I had made a couple of runs to sit up with her.

It just was a natural progression.

My first gun was an Ithica 20 ga. shotgun. A friend of mine turned me on to grouse hunting when I lived in NH. My first handgun was a Ruger single six .357 magnum. That was as a result of a close, but not too close, encounter with a bear. I later changed to a Model 19 S&W .357.