Opinion about weapons?

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Bill_B_NY said:
Some people are obsessed with guns. That’s not good. If guns are tools it’s like getting obsessed with your crescent wrench. We shouldn’t have a passionate love affair with inanimate objects.
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This is true. Guns are perfectly fine, but some people really do fetishize them in an unhealthy way.
 
I can agree some fetishize them but I do think people sometimes mistake interest or a hobby for fetishism. The ‘gun nuts’ I’ve known just tend to be interested in them like some people are interested in cars.
 
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StudentMI said:
I can agree some fetishize them but I do think people sometimes mistake interest or a hobby for fetishism. The ‘gun nuts’ I’ve known just tend to be interested in them like some people are interested in cars.
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Sure. It’s not all gun owners. I own guns.

But for some people (again, some) it’s like “gun owner” becomes the cornerstone of their identity and guns take on this outsized importance in their life. It’s fine to like shooting. It becomes weird if guns are what gives your life meaning and they’re all you want to talk about.

Or they take a reasonable interest in security and push it into paranoia. It’s one thing to say “I have a gun in my house just in case”, knowing that home invasions are pretty rare. It’s another to say “I’ve been hiding guns all over my house just in case a team of Spetnatz soldiers break in intent on killing me.” At some point, a prudent plan against a contingency becomes obsession and paranoia.
 
That’s true. It reminds me of the movie Dear Wendy about true gun nuts.
 
A hobby is important to have, and it’s good to be enthusiastic about it. I like the comparison of guns and cars. There’s a “car culture” and a “gun culture” in that way. Car collectors and restorers take a lot of pride in their work. The car represents a lot of things for them - romance, style, manliness, freedom, competency, creativity, skill. I can see that with cars. They are a means of freedom, adventure, travel, power. But I think it’s something for a good Catholic to question - “am I getting obsessed with this?”, and also “why is so much of my interest taken with cars?” What is the person getting out of it?

Collecting old things is a good hobby - history, stories, appreciation for the past, admiration for what people have built.

Applying all of that to guns … Collecting historic guns. Often it is from guys who were in combat situations. The gun was their “friend”, their means of safety, it really is a means of “freedom”. The gun gives power.

Those are the two things I think guns and cars have in common - Freedom and Power.
The gun makes the guy free, because he can shoot down any threat. Power, obviously.

Do guys overcompensate for their sense of inadequacy by getting trucks that are much bigger and more expensive than needed? It’s a common concern. I think the same is with guns. To appreciate a gun as a piece of equipment, well-constructed, precisely engineered - is a good thing. To see the gun as the means of having power and masculinity is a big problem as I see it. A lot of guys use guns for that purpose. It’s a substitute. In the same way, that driving fast only requires putting your foot down on the accelerator and no real virtue.

A rancher who depends on his rifle to keep predators away from the flock usually won’t have the obsession over the gun the way would-commandos often do.

At any rate, I don’t want to condemn others for a good hobby, which guns can be. I’m just pointing to a common tendency which we have to watch out for. We can do the same with fast cars, muscle building or electronics. It can easily become obsessive.
 
RuthAnne said:
Someone’s hobby is really nobody else’s business.
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No one should try to stop them as long as their hobby is legal, but we’re still allowed to have opinions about it.

If I found out some guys hobby was collecting his toenail clippings over the years, i wouldn’t want the state to try to stop him, but I would most certainly think he was weird.
 
ColoradoCatholic said:
Personally I think today people have been somewhat misled to think that being Christian means no fighting, even in defense, ever, period.
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A friend of a church minister was shot and killed by a gang of youths in Jamaica. After the funeral, the minister and some of the congregation prayed for these youths, and they asked, what can we do?

They decided to go unarmed and meet up with these gangs, saying how can we help you? But how do you reason with youngsters with guns; taking drugs and living in poverty? Over time these unarmed church goers started to make a difference, they built up relationships.

That was about twenty years ago, and it inspired another minister Les Isaacs to start up Street Pastors in London. There are now about twenty thousand volunteers, we go out unarmed, we carry no protective equipment and we don’t do self defence.

I can’t remember the number of times I have intervened in violent conflict over the last twelve years. I am always amazed that when I am out with ladies in their sixties and seventies, none of us have been hurt. I am always amazed about the peace that follows conflict.

We pray, and we have to continuously thank God for all the good outcomes.
 
Hahaha, spear goes stab.

-WingedHussar
 
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Hume said:
The lobby and manufacturers want these things as easily obtainable as possible, primarily using uncertainty and fear as a sales approach.
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Sorry. There is not need for selling when there is uncertainty and fear. The market demand is such that “selling” is not needed. Everything flies off the shelves.
 
Its all about intent. Each state has different laws when it comes to self defense. I know someone who shot another person in self defense (non fatal shot) and he is now facing time in prison. The law looks at it this way. If you have time to shoot someone in the leg you had time to either escape or make a kill shot. This is what my law book says (not in those exact words).
 
I know someone that made a non fatal shot in self defense and is now waiting to see if he is going to prison. Its all about intent.
 
Apache78 said:
I know someone who shot another person in self defense (non fatal shot) and he is now facing time in prison. The law looks at it this way. If you have time to shoot someone in the leg you had time to either escape or make a kill shot. This is what my law book says (not in those exact words).
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That’s bizarre. What state?
 
What of the Holy war by Catholics of the middle ages to liberate the Holy Land? What would we say of Richard the Lionhearted and Bohemond of Taranto…these were brave and noble men.
 
Yeah…good luck with that! Probably would be a fruitless endeavor after the left defunds them!!!
 
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I was talking about coyotes. We don’t have Grizzlies around here.
 
Hume said:
We do know it. Compared to the other countries in the first world, the US is the Wild West.
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Which proves that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens = less crime. Per-capita crime rates in the so-called “wild west” were quite low.
 
neophyte said:
Which proves that more guns…
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In practice, relatively widespread availability of guns sees guns in the hands of all sorts. And even the ordinarily law abiding appear to be at risk of rash acts when guns are close at hand. Reaching for a gun as a precautionary defensive act can so easily be mis-interpreted by others as a threatening act. And even what might have been an intentional threatening act (an angry voice or a raised hand) is now so easily converted to a raised gun prompting a comparable response. Much can and does go wrong when guns are normalized through their plentiful supply.
 
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