What kind of guns do you own?

[Helevitia]

I own:

Remington 870 Express pump shotgun - 12 Guage. Synthetic black stock. Used for hunting mostly.



Ruger Mini14 Ranch Rifle w/ a 3x9 scope attached - .223 Ammo. This gun is so much fun to shoot



Ruger 9mm handgun - P90 All black



The above picture is very close to my gun but not the actual model.

Dave

[az]

None. And proud of it

Though I must admit, sometimes I want to learn shooting. (no sarcasm!)

AZ

[SitFlyer]

None here either

[drslump]

My parents have a very old handgun (19th century perhaps) similar to the ones in the "pirates" movies, it's hanging at the living room.
It's bloody heavy by the way.


ciao,
ivan

[agallag]

This is the only gun I own:



It's the Texas 12-Shooter rubber band pistol available from http://www.backyardartillery.com/rbguns/

[Jon P. Inghram]

Don't have any right now, but I loved shooting my dads M-14, and then field stripping it. Wasn't much of a fan of his SKS though, wasn't nearly as fun to shoot. He also has this crazy .22 mag semi-auto pistol [edit] Couldn't remember the model, had to use Deja to find it: AMT Automag II [/edit] ... dang thing wouldn't even work right unless you used Winchester Super-X .22 mag ammo, normal .22 mags didn't have enough power to eject the casing.

[Dr Mordrid]

Modern

Ruger Deerfield .44 magnum semi-automatic rifle
Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic .22 cal. rifle
AR-15 .223 semi-automatic rifle (civilian version of the M-16)
AR-7 .22 take-down semi-automatic rifle (USAF survival packs & 007 in "From Russia With Love")
Remington 760 30-06 pump rifle (medium & big game)
Remington 700 300 magnum bolt action rifle (big game)
Remington 700 .223 bolt action rifle (long range varmit hunting ('chucks, coyotes etc.)
Marlin .22 magnum bolt action (larger small game)

Remington 1100 12ga. semi-automatic shotgun w/ interchangeable barrels & adjustable chokes (bird hunting)
Winchester 1400 12ga. semi-automatic shotgun w/interchangeable barrels & adjustable chokes
Ithaca Model 37 Deerslayer II 12g magnum pump rifled shotgun (for slugs w/big game in deep woods & swamps)
Savage Fox 20ga. double barreled shotgun (upland & small game)

Ruger Blackhawk .44 magnum revolver (Dirty Harry's gun; hunting big game)
Casull .454 magnum revolver (hunting big game)
Desert Eagle .50 semi-automatic (hunting big game)
Ruger Single Six .22LR/.22 Magnum revolver ("kit" gun...often carried by fishermen & campers)

Primitive (black powder)

Hawken .50 and .54 plains rifles (caplock; aka buffalo rifles: up to very big game)
Remington Zouave .58 musket (caplock; used by Union Army during Civil War)
Brown Bess .69 musket (flintlock; used by British Army during Revolutionary War)
Pennsylvania .32 & .40 rifles (flintlock; used by the colonials during Revolutionary War: small game)

Colt Walker .44 revolver (caplock; Texas War of Independence; almost as powerful as a .357 magnum)
Remington New Model Army .44 revolver (caplock; used by Union officers during Civil War)
Kentucky belt pistol .45 black powder (caplock)

and a few others....

Those Hawken's kick like a draught horse on acid when used with max loads

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

I believe there is no valid reason for anyone to own any kind of firearm in a civilised society (and I don't believe hunting is part of a civilised society either, except where it is essential to be the only way of providing meat for the table). The use of arms for waging war is an abuse of human rights - in fact it is not a human right, even if some may consider it an animal right. And I say this having performed active service in a conscripted military, and am ashamed to admit it. All human life is sacred. Thou shalt not kill (under any circumstances).

[runderwo]

Erm, ok... how about for defending yourself?

[Dr Mordrid]

You obviously don't know much about game management

Hunting here is used as both a recreational activity, and as a means of population control of a game species that otherwise would overpopulate. This would cause the entire heard to starve, which is not good for either the species involved.

I've seen this happen when hunting seasons don't take the required number of critters before a hard winter, and I'd rather not see it again. Starved animals laying dead all over the place, mostly young ones, and the remainder wasting away and in no condition to breed the next fall or winter over again.

An example would be whitetail deer.

Whitetail deer also reproduce like rabbits and often cause damage to farms, not to mention getting run over by motorists thousands of times a year in Michigan alone. This is dangerous since some males can run upwards of 200-300 lbs and the damage done by them to crops is very extensive. It also exascerbates the wintering over problem.

At one time wolves provided the population balancing factor in deer populations, but they don't mix well with human populations while the deer do. The other deer predator that does mix well with humans are coyotes, but they're small and don't take enough deer to matter.

As a result we have to harvest over 1 million deer in Michigan a year just to keep the population stable at 2 million plus, and there is no way you can do that without a hunting season.

As far as non-lethal means like birth control for females (does), I can just see how much it would cost to hire enough contract shooters to track down and hit all 1.3 million does (generally there is a 2:1 doe/buck ratio) with birth-control darts every year.

An added benefit is the hundreds of millions of USD spent by deer hunters during the various seasons. It's a huge portion of our travel business, in addition to all the grocers that process the meat.

Sorry to disagree, but any maniac sporting ill intent has a high risk of limited lifespan in my vicinity. This has happened to me on two occaisions. In one incident I made a citizens arrest of three young men breaking into a neighbors house. As it turned out the knew their 12 y/o daughter was home ill while the parents were at work and intended on raping her. In the other incident I came upon a situation where my father was being aimed at from behind by an armed intruder. Guess how that turned out?

WTF would you have done? Call the cops? What cops? In our small town (<1500) the town police station closed at 8:00 PM and the closest State Police station was over 20 miles away

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Brian Ellis
I believe there is no valid reason for anyone to own any kind of firearm in a civilised society (and I don't believe hunting is part of a civilised society either, except where it is essential to be the only way of providing meat for the table).

Doc already covered deer. What about mountain lions? They are someone numerous here, and <B>will</B> attack humans in the areas where population of one or the other is too high.

Thou shalt not kill (under any circumstances).

Where'd you get that idea? It sounds like you're trying to cite the Bible, but the translation you're looking for is "Thou Shalt Not Murder." That's what the Book says, if that's what you follow.

[Kruzin]

Originally posted by Brian Ellis
and I don't believe hunting is part of a civilised society either, except where it is essential to be the only way of providing meat for the table

What about for controlling wildlife population?
Here in the Colorado rockies, deer are plauged by chronic wasting disease. Why? Because of rampant over population. Too many animals for the land to support, and too many tree huggers forcing the state to issue fewer and fewer hunting licences.
There are so many deer that they are coming out of the mountains, and into poulated metropolitan areas, where they are feeding on peoples gardens, becoming traffic hazards on the highways, and dying miserable deaths from this disease.

While I do not currently own any firearms myself because I have two young children, I recognize the need for hunting to keep the animal population under control.
I have used and owned guns all my life, and look forward to the time my son is a little older, and taking him out hunting.
To deny that hunting is an essential part of wildlife management is shortsighted.

[edit]Doc beat me to the punch on the deer issues while I was typing this post [/edit]

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by Wombat
Where'd you get that idea? It sounds like you're trying to cite the Bible, but the translation you're looking for is "Thou Shalt Not Murder." That's what the Book says, if that's what you follow.

EXACTLY!!

That is maybe the most mis-quoted portion of the Bible. In point of fact there were not just 10 laws given to Moses but dozens, and one was the admonition against murder. In other portions, which some choose to conveniently ignore , it clearly states that killing another in defence of ones self, family or other citizens is absolutely permissible.

This has been codified into many legal systems for thousands of years.

Dr. Mordrid

[Novdid]

But something wrong isn't it...

Only times I have seen a "live" gun was in the military and on the sides of policemen.

Edit: Who uses a handgun for hunting??? Enlighten me.

[Brian Ellis]

I was brought up in a large Scottish city where cops were not armed and there was virtually no violent crime. Despite that, there were quarters with dire poverty (I've seen kids with no shoes on their feet in the snow, rummaging through dustbins in the hopes of finding a crust of bread). Does this appear to be a contradiction of terms?

Not in the least. Because cops were not corrupt. There were enough of them, on foot, doing the rounds of every quarter so that every street was patrolled every two or three hours, in irregular patterns. If they found any kid doing something wrong, they didn't bother arresting the, They took off their leather belt and skelped them, hard, on the backside (and when they got home and couldn't sit down, their parents would do the same, for emphasis). They would think twice or thrice before risking that again. Any adult caught in flagrans delicto was immediately handcuffed to the nearest railings while the cop phoned for help, which probably came two hours later, while the victim was at the mercy of the derision of passers-by. When they did appear in the stipendary magistrate's court they would be sentenced heavily to clink, with no comfort. There was no overcrowding of jails, because there was so little crime. Crime simply didn't pay. Kids and women could walk the streets at night, without danger. When did this end?

In the middle of the war and with the influx of loads of foreign soldiers of various nationalities, combined with a reduction of the number of policemen.

My point is that defence of oneself, one's property and others' property is unnecessary if the societal infrastructure is correctly managed. Even today, on this island, some people leave cars and houses unlocked, especially in rural areas. OK, there is more crime than there was in pre-war Edinburgh and most violent crime is based around drugs and pimping in the tourist resorts. But the police (some of which is corrupt) is merciless on some crimes: one ecstasy tablet or a few milligrams of marijuana for one's own use is rewarded with 3-6 months in an unpleasant jail. Anyone with a gram of heroin or crack will get several years. And few cops carry guns, except on special crimebusting occasions. It just isn't necessary. And the most crime-free nation in the world, Singapore, is even harsher, but corruption-free. Remember that 17 year-old American kid who was caned with a rattan stick for spraying a graffiti on a car? I bet he wouldn't do that again in Singapore and it probably put a lot of other kids off doing something similar!

A gun-free society is a real possibility and it would be no worse than with the sacred NRA credo of the right to use arms.

As for "sport" hunting, I'm against it because it upsets the natural balance. Again, this island is an example, but a bad one. 1/4 of the male population are hunters and the number of species, including essential predators, that have been annihilated to extinction is legion. The island isn't any the better for it. The human species is simply not intelligent enough to permit this kind of perversity. Only this year, 52 flamingos (a beautiful but inedible bird) died as a result of ingesting shot from clay pigeons shooting. And if I listed all the other inedible species, including some of the very few remaining Black Vultures (and other "protected" species), that are regularly killed by these so-called "sportsmen", the list would be too long. Why this level of firearms crime, when there is little other? Because the majority of the policemen are also hunters.

Arms breed violence.