I appreciated a post that launched another thread (I am just a simple gun owner):

It got me to thinking. Let's list as many reasons as we can about why we like guns.

andrews1958 hit on three of them right off.

Steve.

One more reason I like guns is because it's such a challenge to shoot them accurately, especially handguns.

Guns "talk" to us, especially older ones. Like old hand tools,
they feel like nothing else. Even newer guns just have a feeling like they belong in your hands. There's nothing else quite like them, except really good flyrods or a baseball glove you've used
a long time.

I started out really young, thanks to my granfather who was a rifle loony. Here's my list of why:

1. As a youngster, I dreamed of hunting big animals of Africa and Alaska.

2. Worked on (and still work on) becoming proficient and skillful as a marksman and hunter.

3. Security, knowing I can protect my family if the need arrises.

My grandfather was an engineer by trade-gunsmithing was his hobby. I grew up sitting on a stool watching him inlet stocks, turn barrels on a lathe, and rust bluing metal. Guns remind me of my grandfather. Can't handle a bolt action rifle without wondering what he would think of it; I miss him.

I remember many family Christmas days out back with the grandparents, parents, aunts & uncles, brothers, cousins & all of the wives, husbands, girlfriends & boyfriends of everyone having a really good time. Everyone brings their .22's to the Christmas get-together (usually a new one will show up in a wrapped box too) and we all have a good time. LOTS of girlfriends handled their first firearm at those get-togethers & were taught safety & responsibility from the get-go. Several family members that were the founders of that tradition aren't with us now & we always lay their rifles out on the table with the others as though they were. Seems like everybody will walk by & look them over or rub the stocks at some point remembering family members past. It's one of those things that brings us all together. Looking forward to tomorrow!!!

I realize there are some things in this life that I have no control over.

With a gun in my hands I feel like I have a measure of control--even if it is only a small measure.

I will not give up that feeling.

I'm not trying to argue intellectualy here--it is my emotional response. If Anti-Gun fanatics want to argue emotionally--so can I.

I like that loading for and shooting guns is a personal skill. Each reload I make is based on a recipe and just as my wife really enjoys tweaking recipes this way and that, so do I get a certain satisfaction from tweaking powder charge, seating depth, bumping back a shoulder, partial neck sizing, etc. to perfect a load to the limits of my knowledge and ability.

The personal skill required to wring the best from a gun is also a source of enjoyment and personal satisfaction. Knowing that putting all my shots in a tidy little group is all up to me is both nerve wracking and challenging and when it all comes together is a satisfying reward.

I'm pretty simple....I like anything that goes BANG!!

I like to eat dove, quail, pheasant, turkey, deer, elk and buffalo. Certain tools allow me to eat those. The tools are called guns.

They are my best friends and i love nothing in this world better, except maybe my family or i love them as much. If i didn't have my guns life would be so boring i would just as soon be dead