A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by honorentheos »

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:47 pm
And then you had to clean the firearm. God I hated everything about that. Lame.

- Doc
This. When someone who loves firearms finds out I was in the military for a bit, they get excited to talk about their "guns". Then they get to feel disappointed that I not only don't own any anymore but really couldn't care less about them. In the very few instances where I've had to try and explain why, the best I can offer is familiarity breeds contempt...especially when you have to live with and care for the things. The shine of firing something that really pops goes away and then you are stuck with a tool that requires way too much attention for the hassle.

I don't really regret losing my adolescent interest in them, either. I DO regret the Army ruining backpacking for me, though. I used to love a good week+ ultralight trip until the Army took the shine out of it and I can only see it as a week I could have spent sleeping in a bed...the Army made a car camper out of me to my shame.
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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by Jersey Girl »

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:47 pm
Chap wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:18 pm
Like I said, guns are dull things. You squeeze the trigger, they go bang, and metal comes out of the other end very fast. There's lots of different sorts, but basically they all do that. So what?
I’ve always had a similar feeling about weapons and firearms.

When I was around 12, my buddy brought his nunchucks and throwing stars to my house, because ninjas were the crap at the time, and he showed me how to twirl the ‘chuks around a bit. So I twirled them around a bit, and that was about as far as my desire went with regard to to twirling them around a bit and fantasizing about whacking an opponent on the head. We threw the stars a bit, too. We threw them at trees, my house, at some more trees, at the ground, my house a bit more, and the trees just in case they didn’t get the message.

And that was that.

While in service I shot all sorts of stuff. I even bought a couple of guns, though an AR-15 was almost purchased because I was shooting my service M4 quite bit and it had all the cool crap people spaz over, I thought I’d need to have for some vague reason. The urge to buy a rifle quickly passed because my buddies had their own AR-15s and I could fire them and not have to worry about cleaning them.

To be honest, I always had either a ‘this is a pain in the ass and I’d rather be doing something else’ feeling or just ‘meh’. No matter how many times I pointed a firearm at something and pulled the trigger I couldn’t find it interesting. You aim, pull the trigger (or press a button), an explosion happens, and then a projectile went that a way.

And then you had to clean the firearm. God I hated everything about that. Lame.

- Doc

Some people find it relaxing to shoot targets, clean their weapons, tinker with them and such.
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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by Doctor CamNC4Me »

honorentheos wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:02 pm
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:47 pm
And then you had to clean the firearm. God I hated everything about that. Lame.

- Doc
This. When someone who loves firearms finds out I was in the military for a bit, they get excited to talk about their "guns". Then they get to feel disappointed that I not only don't own any anymore but really couldn't care less about them. In the very few instances where I've had to try and explain why, the best I can offer is familiarity breeds contempt...especially when you have to live with and care for the things. The shine of firing something that really pops goes away and then you are stuck with a tool that requires way too much attention for the hassle.

I don't really regret losing my adolescent interest in them, either. I DO regret the Army ruining backpacking for me, though. I used to love a good week+ ultralight trip until the Army took the shine out of it and I can only see it as a week I could have spent sleeping in a bed...the Army made a car camper out of me to my shame.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Yep. Your words are mine.

Ref backpacking, I dunno. I don’t know why I do it. I know there are backpackers that say they love backpacking, but I didn’t know one dude that said he loved rucking. Someone is lying.

- Doc
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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by honorentheos »

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:20 pm
Ref backpacking, I dunno. I don’t know why I do it. I know there are backpackers that say they love backpacking, but I didn’t know one dude that said he loved rucking. Someone is lying.

- Doc
Yeah, backpacking is a strange thing. I have very fond memories of backpacking with friends as well as with the church scouting. Our ward had decided that it was more character building to encourage us to plan backpacking trips for our summer camps two out of every three years, and only go to a paid scout camp every third year. The hiking years were much more fun and memorable than the ones spent earning merit badges and doing dumb skits. And it encouraged us to plan our own hikes minus scout leaders, too. That carried over into my early twenties but sometime during my years of service I found it kinda sucked. Then eventually I came to not really enjoy the hiking and preferred to hike in, camp, and hike out. Then eventually dropped the hiking part all together. Cots and portable stoves when fire restrictions were in place made camping seem just fine without the need to carry everything in. Clean water brought in rather than filtered, boiled, or tasting of iodine? Priceless.

But maybe it's all nostalgia anyway. I have one particular trip in mind up into the Wind River Mountains with a couple of friends, hiking and fishing and sleeping some of the best nights sleep of my life with a tarp and sleeping bag. And yet, I remember the incomparable joy of the first shower after getting home...and maybe I was lying to myself even back then about how much I liked to hike. Don't know.
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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by Some Schmo »

honorentheos wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:59 am
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:20 pm
Ref backpacking, I dunno. I don’t know why I do it. I know there are backpackers that say they love backpacking, but I didn’t know one dude that said he loved rucking. Someone is lying.

- Doc
Yeah, backpacking is a strange thing. I have very fond memories of backpacking with friends as well as with the church scouting. Our ward had decided that it was more character building to encourage us to plan backpacking trips for our summer camps two out of every three years, and only go to a paid scout camp every third year. The hiking years were much more fun and memorable than the ones spent earning merit badges and doing dumb skits. And it encouraged us to plan our own hikes minus scout leaders, too. That carried over into my early twenties but sometime during my years of service I found it kinda sucked. Then eventually I came to not really enjoy the hiking and preferred to hike in, camp, and hike out. Then eventually dropped the hiking part all together. Cots and portable stoves when fire restrictions were in place made camping seem just fine without the need to carry everything in. Clean water brought in rather than filtered, boiled, or tasting of iodine? Priceless.

But maybe it's all nostalgia anyway. I have one particular trip in mind up into the Wind River Mountains with a couple of friends, hiking and fishing and sleeping some of the best nights sleep of my life with a tarp and sleeping bag. And yet, I remember the incomparable joy of the first shower after getting home...and maybe I was lying to myself even back then about how much I liked to hike. Don't know.
I can't count the number of things that used to thrill me but now seem mundane. Going to a theme park. Riding a motorcycle. Swinging a bat. Flying. Building models/any kind of construction set. Board games. Card games. Video games. Restaurants. Just to name a few.

And certainly, pitching a tent and sleeping on the ground is nowhere near as fun as it used to be. I like the campfire and beers part of camping, but I prefer sleeping in beds these days. Don't even get me started on hiking. I like my walks on sidewalks.

Weirdly, I still get a thrill out of reading (of course, what I like to read has changed), playing musical instruments, any kind of public speaking gig and watching NFL football.
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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by Some Schmo »

Oh yeah, and guns. Didn't even think of them, but then, I've never really been thrilled by firing a gun. Seems like cheating to me.

A real man uses a bow, arrows, and his own wits.
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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by Doctor CamNC4Me »

Some Schmo wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:33 am
I can't count the number of things that used to thrill me but now seem mundane. Going to a theme park. Riding a motorcycle. Swinging a bat. Flying. Building models/any kind of construction set. Board games. Card games. Video games. Restaurants. Just to name a few.
Image

Also

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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by honorentheos »

Some Schmo wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:33 am
I can't count the number of things that used to thrill me but now seem mundane. Going to a theme park. Riding a motorcycle. Swinging a bat. Flying. Building models/any kind of construction set. Board games. Card games. Video games. Restaurants. Just to name a few.

And certainly, pitching a tent and sleeping on the ground is nowhere near as fun as it used to be. I like the campfire and beers part of camping, but I prefer sleeping in beds these days. Don't even get me started on hiking. I like my walks on sidewalks.

Weirdly, I still get a thrill out of reading (of course, what I like to read has changed), playing musical instruments, any kind of public speaking gig and watching NFL football.
I can relate. Well, reading never gets old though I do find too much internet "F"s with my concentration so I have to self-regulate. I know when I've spent too much time online when I catch myself spinning off on mental tangents while reading and it's time to take an internet Sabbath.

The unexpected one for me, in a way, is the renaissance playing RPGs has gone through for me since starting to DM for my daughter and her friends a year ago. Until last fall I hadn't played in well over a decade, maybe almost two decades. But once I got back into it, I spend a lot of time working on the campaign, painting minis, making maps, etc. I listen to podcasts to learn new things or get ideas, and have embraced the nerdiness of it. Again, don't know if it's a midlife crisis thing, a way to cope with the social constraints of the pandemic, or what. But it led to my connecting with a neighbor who it turns out plays so we've been working out plans for a neighborhood game, too. Nerds.
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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by Gunnar »

When I was in the Air Force, I was required to periodically qualify on handling and firing an M16 rifle. I didn't mind that so much, but the only thing I really enjoyed about it was the small ego boost I got from qualifying for the Air Force marksmanship medal every time I did. Apparently that is one of the few things I am a real natural at.
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Re: A PROGRESSIVE NIGHTMARE! SMALL TOWN IN GEORGIA REQUIRED EVERYONE TO OWN A GUN

Post by Physics Guy »

Shooting accurately is an interesting challenge. I'm inconsistent; I have good days and bad days. On good days I'm quite a good shot and on bad days not. I don't shoot often enough to figure out what the pattern is.

My dad had a collection of historical rifles, from breech loaders up to WW2. He said he lost interest once a weapon showed more metal than wood. For a while he also had a couple of light machine guns—not submachine guns but what today would be squad or platoon automatic weapons. It was interesting to see the different designs as they evolved over time and as they differed from country to country. Over the years we fired most of the pieces. Cleaning a weapon for the first time was actually kind of interesting but it does get old fast.

Firearms can be interesting, all right, the way golf and antique cars can be interesting. Some people like them more than others do. What I don't understand at all, though, is the right-wing American obsession with guns as somehow symbolic of freedom and masculinity or whatever it is. As long as that weird enthusiasm doesn't get slack on firearms safety, including secure storage of weapons and ammunition, I guess it won't do much harm; but as an enthusiasm I still find it creepily fetishistic.

Hunting for food, varmint control, and target shooting all seem like legitimate uses for firearms to me. Defending one's family from armed attackers seems like a specifically American problem, though, at least among wealthy nations. Nobody in other countries seems to worry much about it. So the argument that citizens need to be heavily armed to defend themselves seems naïve. Somehow other countries all manage to maintain a reasonable level of law and order without letting everyone walk around armed to the teeth.

From a global perspective, American firearms management policy looks kind of like the primitive infrastructure that you sometimes find in developing countries: an ancient and outrageously inefficient solution that the society is too poor to upgrade. Obviously the United States is not poor in money, but I think it is Third-World poor in some less tangible forms of social capital, and we see the effects in American gun laws.
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