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If You Have More Than 10 Guns, Does That Make You a Gun Nut?
The Atlantic ^ | October 3, 2015 | James Fallows and others

Posted on 10/04/2015 2:05:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

In an item after the Oregon shootings, I quoted a reader from Florida saying that if you owned more than 10 guns yourself, you might be considered to have an “arsenal.” And just now on TV I heard the British father of the Oregon murderer asking why anyone, including his son, would want or need so many guns.

Yesterday I quoted a reader who said, on the contrary, ten or more guns could be a perfectly reasonable collection for perfectly non-threatening citizens to have.

On the “how much is enough” point, responses from two readers. First, on the similarities and differences between “gun nuts” and other types of nuts, a reader argues that there really is something different in how gun owners relate with the rest of us.

Your correspondent argues that you can own ten guns without being a "gun nut", then proceeds to list an inventory that he feels makes his case.

Let's try to approach on different collections. Suppose I owned ten motorcycles of different types. Perhaps a cafe racer, an enduro bike, a big touring bike, and so on. Would that make me a motorcycle nut? Probably. You're a runner (I think). Maybe you own ten or more pairs of running shoes. [JF note: Over the years, yes. And let’s not get into old computers, or types of beer.] I'm sure you can come up with a better list than I can, but I can imagine shoes for street running, dirt running, trail running, training, racing, and so on.

Does that make you a running shoe nut. Yup....

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: 2016election; 2ndamendment; banglist; election2016; guncontrol; newyork; secondamendment; trump
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To: Duckdog

My wife asked me one time why I needed so many firearms. I showed her my golf bag and explained that each club was for a specific purpose ... guns are the same.

Where I live, Montana, the average number of firearms per house that owns firearms is 27. And that is a 5 year old statistic. Lots of gun enthusiasts here. Firearms are a part of our culture and heritage. I’m below average, but I’m working on it.

I hear gunfire daily, from my range or my neighbors. It is the sound of freedom!


41 posted on 10/04/2015 3:04:57 PM PDT by Comment Not Approved (When bureaucrats outlaw hunting, outlaws will hunt bureaucrats.)
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To: FreedomStar3028
I’d say if you’re asking that question you’re definitely a nut. Why do you care what someone else owns?

Really, the question is just an announcement that they're about to vaguely redefine where a new PC line is to be drawn, so that they can smear the new term at their whim.

But for a rational response:
Zero guns is a bad idea
One gun is a bare minimum.
Four guns is the minimum for an appropriate starter collection. One handgun (carry), one rifle (distance and large game), one shotgun (birds and hall-sweeping), and one .22 for "plinking" (cheap target practice, or small game).
6-10 guns is a good collection for an amateur hobbyist who will grow the collection as his/her habit grows and his/her paycheck grows.
Anything above 20 firearms is probably where the line can be drawn between the starters and the true enthusiasts... as long as the term "nut" is playful and friendly, rather than the implied psychological issues that the Left is likely trying to apply.

(I wonder how many of the mass shooters legally owned more than 6 arms... I'm betting less than 4 percent. I'm also betting that no major media journalism major will ever look into that stat.)

42 posted on 10/04/2015 3:05:24 PM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: ThunderSleeps
Or, take another tack. At the time the 2nd Amendment was written, it was protecting (note, protecting not granting) our right to own exactly the same weapons as our military had at that point. So it could be construed as to protect our right to be armed equally as the military...

My favorite point to make, when a discussion goes down this path, is to remind everyone of the US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8 - Letters of Marque and Reprisal. The government, in its enumerated powers (not even the Bill of Rights), was granted permission to contract with privateers... people who owned their own BATTLESHIPS of the day! A Ship of the Line back then could easily be carrying over 300 cannon, and the Constitution acknowledged and accepted their existence in private hands of US citizens.

(They were mostly needed to combat the Barbary Coast Pirates, Muslims who were taking US and British ships and enslaving their crews around the Mediterranean. This is the reason for the lyric "to the shores of Tripoli" in the Marine Corps Hymn. Tripoli, Libya. Muslim slavery. The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

43 posted on 10/04/2015 3:14:03 PM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It takes more than 10? Then it’s off to the next gun show for me.


44 posted on 10/04/2015 3:17:07 PM PDT by gspurlock (http://www.backyardfence.wordpress.com)
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To: jonrick46

Barbronies?


45 posted on 10/04/2015 3:20:44 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

16th Century poem THE GUN NUT.

I am an upright citizen.
I can not stand the smell of powder even.
Yet I own all kinds of weapons,
Bringing me but few laudations,
Since I know not how to use them,
Just to see that rust does not suffuse them.


46 posted on 10/04/2015 3:22:37 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: DH

I guess I better see how many I have! Can I borrow a John boat and a strong magnet?


47 posted on 10/04/2015 3:27:03 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Boonie

Edumacated by liberal doctrines in our public skewls.


48 posted on 10/04/2015 3:34:01 PM PDT by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

LMAO! Good one.


49 posted on 10/04/2015 3:35:10 PM PDT by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I own exactly what I can afford to own, be it Houses, Boats, Guns, Cars or collectible Elvis Plates. The only thing I can't afford more than one of is Wives. One is more than enough, thank you. Last time I checked it was my Business, nobody Else's.
50 posted on 10/04/2015 3:38:35 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Missing Tagline. Reward for return.)
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To: all the best

Also, Freedom of Speech must only apply to the King’s English spoken at the time.

I don’t think the F word existed back then.

Oh yeah, no Porno either.


51 posted on 10/04/2015 3:43:20 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Missing Tagline. Reward for return.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

How about a collector who owns 1,000 guns? And who cares if some pantywaist leftie calls you a nut?


52 posted on 10/04/2015 3:46:49 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Boonie

That is the same idiotic argument made by “conservative” George Will. I have despised him ever since he said that years ago.


53 posted on 10/04/2015 3:48:20 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Sirius Lee

I have about 30 pens around the house and 80 rolls of toilet paper at any one time.

So what?


54 posted on 10/04/2015 3:57:42 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (This Hispanic wants a wall, the National Guard, and turrets guarding our border)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Is that more than 10 handguns or more than 10 long guns? Or is that the total of both? 😄
55 posted on 10/04/2015 3:58:56 PM PDT by Envisioning (4.13.15 - That awkward moment in history when 53 million racists became sexists...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well, I think my tagline says it all.


56 posted on 10/04/2015 3:59:06 PM PDT by gunsmithkat (There is no such thing as Too Many Guns)
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To: Boonie

“Can you believe some of these people??????”

Yepper, and I want newspapers to be sold on street corners by wayward poor waifs, No radio, No tv —Just like in the OLDEN DAYS ....funny how so called progressives seem RETRO when it suits their BS ideas...


57 posted on 10/04/2015 4:04:15 PM PDT by litehaus (A memory tooooo long)
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To: all the best

Yepper, and I want newspapers to be sold on street corners by wayward poor waifs, No radio, No tv —Just like in the OLDEN DAYS ....funny how so called progressives seem RETRO when it suits their BS ideas...


58 posted on 10/04/2015 4:08:02 PM PDT by litehaus (A memory tooooo long)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
10?

That's how many I pick out to take to the range on any given outing...

59 posted on 10/04/2015 4:08:08 PM PDT by grobdriver (Where is Wilson Blair when you need him?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The only gun nuts I know are holding scope mounts onto my quad rail. Get it? Got it? Good!


60 posted on 10/04/2015 4:09:31 PM PDT by Mobilemitter (We must learn to fin >-)> for ourselves.........)
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