I am a (relatively new) gun owner. I come from a liberal family and have an extremely liberal mindset. That being said, I grew up North of the Twin Cities in MN, so hunting and fishing were something familiar to me. I was never anti gun, but I saw no need for one while living in the city. I felt comfortable with the rule of law.
When I was younger, I lived in a townhouse with four other dudes. It was just a party pit, you know? One of these fellows was a gun nut and engaged in an extreme amount of irresponsible behavior. Drinking with it loaded in his waistband, while playing cards for nontrivial money, and young girls he had invited (they were minors) in the house and drinking too. I moved out of there SO FAST. The defining incident that formed my main reason for not getting guns was when I was going down the block with him to pick up some smokes and fast food. A crack head ran up to our car (he was driving) and asked for money. The guy was gross and fucked up but not being violent, and had almost no way to hurt us inside the car. This person immediately grabbed the gun.
One of my main reasons for not getting a gun is that when you have one, you bypass de-escalation and less lethal means of resolution. Because why the heck wouldn't you grab the "situation solver"? While I wasn't against that morally, living in a big city with lots of unruly behavior ... it seemed like a good way to end up killing a guy and in jail.
The other belief I held was simply that if I had guns, trouble would somehow find me. I am not a troublesome fellow. I work a web design job. I garden. I play with my dogs. I post pictures of my smoked brisket for the 12 friends I know on instagram. I want to remain this way.
And while I still know it was the right move to arm myself, my fears have come true. Somehow, trouble found me. I made it 43 years on this planet without needing a home defense weapon but two weeks after I bought my first handgun, my dogs woke me up at 3:30 am to a man trying to get in my back door. Fuck that. What an adrenaline dump.
...
I am not sure if my beliefs have changed or just been put on hold. It's just that my personal safety alarm is screaming much louder these days. It drowns out all other concerns. I am still insulated from the violence on the news but I think about what's coming almost constantly. My job and position at work gives me a certain view into commercial and economic trends. I don't expect to be paying my mortgage in 2 years, or buying groceries from a supermarket and all that. I've stopped spending money on anything that isn't in the category of home defense or survivability prep. T