Pro-gun heart to heart

[XUSNORDY]

Well the time has come. The wife and I are going to the American Legion Saturday night for a gun raffle. It takes me a very long time to gain trust in a sitter, or anybody who nears my kids for that matter. Our normal sitter, who had gained my trust, has decided to no longer be a sitter. Bring in my neice from Baltimore....

As some may remember, recently there was a kid who shot and killed his family in Baltimore. That kid was a classmate of my neice's younger sister. Both already thought my hunting and plethora of firearms was just "terrible"....and what I did in the Military was so "not needed, why do we have to have war!"...not to mention my brother (Balt. County PD) would once in awhile stop by in uniform "oh my gawd Uncle David you have a gun in our house...ewwwwwww! Mom! Uncle David brought his gun inside!"...you get the picture.

So, I'm having a heart to heart with her Saturday about firearms ownership. Not trying to convert her, just want to show her some common sense and reasoning...not just that it's a "right" to have them. I think that approach really turns some people off and infuriates heated debate with others. So...

My plan is to show her this forum and some selected threads from some of you. Also, and this is fantastic I think.....Michele turned me on to the "Women and Guns Magazine"...I think that may be a great ice breaker, or ace up my sleeve.

She's a freshman in college now, and feeling very independent and "can do anything better now"....I'm hoping to have her try target shooting this summer with my daughter. I think once she tries it, gets over the "fear"...she may feel differently. If not....I still love her.

Wish me luck.

[God's Country]

Best of luck. Unfortunately some people realize guns are there for us peasants to protect ourselves a bit too late.

[XUSNORDY]

Best of luck. Unfortunately some people realize guns are there for us peasants to protect ourselves a bit too late.

Actually, I don't own any for the sole purpose of protection. I have my competition guns, hunting guns, and a few collectibles. I do own a few (1911, BHP, Security-Six) that could fit that bill if need be, and in fact have a couple times. But my approach in the discussion will not be "its my right"...or..."I have to have them to protect myself". Instead, I'll approach with the other reasons for ownership, which is pretty much what mine are for anyway.

[God's Country]

Instead, I'll approach with the other reasons for ownership, which is pretty much what mine are for anyway.

Regardless of the path we gun owners take it all starts with responsible ownership.

[Michele]

I will make the same suggestion here in this thread that I did in another thread.

When speaking with a woman about firearms you must speak to her on her level. A female level. Women think differently than men do.

When we hear about gun involved horror stories, these incidents are usually committed by a man. When a woman commits a "gun crime" its usually a "crime of passion". Women in a curious way understand that, because, women think allot with their hearts.

I would, to start a dialog with your niece, step into female shoes for a while, walk around in them, then have "the talk".

I also recommend Cornered Cat. This site is geared for women, but, its a must read for any man that wants to introduce firearms to a woman.
www.corneredcat.com is an excellent site for women about firearms. Its written in a more female slanted language. Women are more receptive when something is 'just for them', its a whole lot easier to digest.

GOOD LUCK!

[XUSNORDY]

I will make the same suggestion here in this thread that I did in another thread.

When speaking with a woman about firearms you must speak to her on her level. A female level. Women think differently than men do.

When we hear about gun involved horror stories, these incidents are usually committed by a man. When a woman commits a "gun crime" its usually a "crime of passion". Women in a curious way understand that, because, women think allot with their hearts.

I would, to start a dialog with your niece, step into female shoes for a while, walk around in them, then have "the talk".

I also recommend Cornered Cat. This site is geared for women, but, its a must read for any man that wants to introduce firearms to a woman.
www.corneredcat.com is an excellent site for women about firearms. Its written in a more female slanted language. Women are more receptive when something is 'just for them', its a whole lot easier to digest.

GOOD LUCK!

Thanks. My wife will also speak with her. She respects my wife for being a female LEO. So I think that will help as well. We are really trying stay away from the "crimes" and "Bad" gun stuff and focus mostly on the "positive" stuff like sporting/recreational/competitive useage of firearms. She only knows one world of firearms...the crime/media/guns are bad world. Time to mintroduce her to the other side....like all the shooting sports, even the college level shooting and Olympic shooting.

I have a feeling once she see's a more positive side of firearms, not just the "guns are only for killing/bad things happen according to media" side, she will come around a bit.

[XUSNORDY]

Had my talk......went way TOO easy!....I was trying to think of a way to bring the topic up for almost a hour or so when my 3 year old of all people takes her (my neice) by the hand and brings to her my gun cabinet and says "my rifle for big bucks, shoots the deer"...I explained to her he keeps his BB gun with my guns. Her reply was "why? it's not even a real gun"...(light bulb turns on...BINGO!)...my reply was "it is to him, and keeping it secured is one of the ways I'm teaching responsible ownership to him. It just sort of rolled from there. I retrieved the cabinet key from it's "secret" place, and opened the cabinet. She seemed impressed with that "small" peice of security measure. I removed my sons BB gun, and he showed it to her with great pride. She was pretending to be interested for his sake and played along nicely.....then he handed it to her...and said "no pointing!"....I explained the house rules to my neice...again, she seemed impressed. Then she asked..."how do you hold this thing anyway?"...suddenly a very quick lesson on shouldering, sight alignment and sight picture broke out. I asked her if her college had a rifle team. She didn't know. Then she asked me what the difference between the BB gun and a real gun was....so, the closest thing to the BB gun I had was a Win '94 30-30....I asked her if she wanted to hold it...."sure"....She asked a ton of questions, it was great. My PC was up and running in the den as I was checking college lacrosse scores. I showed her some sites, and she seemed interested in the rifle team pictures on the Navy sports page. It showed several female shooters. I showed her targets from my oldest daughter...she was amazed. "what did she use to do that?"....now it was time to hit the heavy stuff. I brought out my daughters favorite AR15....she was fine until I showed her how the mag was inserted. Sudenly with a 30rd mag the gun looked evil to her..."My gawd, it looks like those guns on the news"....okay a step back. We recovered...I showed her the differences, and oddly enough when I removed the 30rounder and plugged in a 10rounder she was fine (weird, huh?). So, time for the next step....which I figured would be the gas on the fire....I showed her the Woman and Guns picture that Michele posted...she looked at it with a bit of interest, and asked "what is that she's holding? is it heavy?"....this was a good lead in to opening the safe and introducing handguns. I took out the Browning HP with a immediate "can that go off?"...I assured her that no gun in my house was loaded. I thought that was going to spark something as well, such as the recent shooting by her sister's classmate. It didn't. She held it, I formed her into a basic weaver stance, and again a quick basic shooting fundamentals talk. These were the very first firearms she has ever held.

Surprisingly, she did not bring up any negative stuff. She said stuff like "Everybody should lock guns up like you do"...."Why do you have so many"..."aren't you afraid of (my son) ever getting a hold of them"....all her questions were sincerely answered, without a argument or debate. It wasn't at all like I thought it would be. Not the way I planned, but I think she left with a very positive look at firearms ownership.

She agreed to give it a try this summer when my oldest daughter is home. Both handgun and rifle. I can't wait.

The real kicker....my brother in law called me to say thanks on the way I handled it, and was surprised she didn't start a anti-gun debate or hand out Hillary for President bumper stickers (I think he was somewhat joking). Then he said "maybe now I can tell your sister and your neices about that 22 rifle of mine that's been in the closet for over 20 years"....I didn't even know about that!

I think it's time for "family" range time! (I'm working on it!)