Yeah, you're right about that. Most people who are not gun enthusiasts like us will buy the smallest, lightest, most concealable gun they can get. Poor people will buy whatever they can afford and with the price of ammo these days, what they can afford to shoot would be a 22lr. In other words, most people will practice with a 22lr or buy a 380 and practice once or twice a year with it, at the most.punkndisorderly wrote: I think the vast majority of people buy them and don't train with them at all. They may run a box of rounds through it once a year to make sure it still works, but that's about it. I hardly ever see people with the pocket 380's or snubbies at the range which consistantly surprises me given the number of them sold now.
I enjoy introducing people to shooting and guns. I think that the more people are familiar with guns, the less scarier they become. Once the "scary gun feeling" gets thrown out of the equation, people are more apt to think about guns in a logical manner. I hope that this would mean more people at the ballot boxes in our corner.
Over the years, I've introduced a lot of people to guns and here are some recent examples from this year;
1. A guy at work. I let him shoot my guns and he decided that he wants a shotgun for HD. He bought it two months ago and has not even tested it. He says that he's dry fired it so it should work and he's shot my shotgun so he knows how to shoot shotguns. He's a liberal, but I'm hoping that he'll vote pro gun at the ballot box due to my efforts.
2. The elderly mother of a girl I used to date more than a decade ago. She's a bit fuddle minded and it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks so I taught her to shoot my 22lr single action revolver. That way, even if she accidentally turned around during shooting practice to say something to me and accidentally muzzle me, I know that I probably won't get killed since you have to cock the hammer just before you pull the trigger in order for the gun to fire. It's funny how the Heritage 22lr revolver costs only $177 at Academy but it is my favorite gun. I prefer it to guns that cost over ten times as much. The trigger is light and crisp, the hammer is featherweight, the 6.5 inch barrel means the sight radius is long so it is very accurate, and the gun has zero recoil because it is extremely heavy but only fires 22lr. She also liked it, so she bought one for HD and practices regularly with it. I would prefer to use it for HD over my S&W J frame revolver which has a short sight radius, heavy hammer, heavy trigger, and modest recoil.
3. A girl at work. She got a little 380 pocket Sig and she carries it regularly. She practices with it a couple times a year. Those of you who think a 380 is bad..., she was carrying an antique Colt .25ACP pocket pistol. The thing was not safe because antique guns like that are not drop proof. If you dropped it, the thing would have an AD. I tried to talk her out of it, but she stubbornly persisted saying that if the gun was good enough for her Grandpa to carry it as his only CCW for over half a century, then it's good enough for her. Ugh.... Lucky for her, the firing pin broke on her antique gun and she got a little 380 Sig to replace it.
4. My wife. She was very anti-gun when we first got married, but she's warmed up a bit and got a CHL. She complained that I don't own any higher caliber handguns such as a .45. She appropriated my 9mm Glock 26 as her CCW. I've only seen her carry it once to rent a DVD from one of those Redbox machines at 1AM. She never practices with it stating, "It's a gun. You pull the trigger and it goes bang. You don't have to practice with it. You have to be a retard to miss a man sized target from a couple feet away. You go to the gun range to practice by shooting at targets 20 feet away. Nobody is going to try to rob or rape me from 20 feet away." She wants a .45 ACP Colt 100 year anniversary edition as a CCW. That crisp single action trigger and the fact that she never practices is a recipe for disaster so I'm going to let her keep my Glock 26 until she starts practicing regularly. I tell her that if she practices at least once a month for 3 months with me at the range, then I'll buy her the Colt centennial .45 acp 1911 for her to use as her CCW. She has not taken me up on my offer yet....
