About 58 years, since Boy Scout camp. I always loved guns, but didn't have access to them until then since I lived in town and my father didn't shoot. I didn't own a gun until I was about 16, and bought my own.
My father grew up on a farm in the Texas panhandle when the country was overrun with jack rabbits and he learned how to shoot, for the bounty, but he would always rather play stick and ball games. After the Battle of the Bulge, he had had enough camping and shooting for a lifetime, and that was that. We had a baseball diamond in the back yard and a basketball goal over the garage door, but no guns, rods, or boats.
