Have not taken the time to really introduce myself yet. I'm from the Frederick area (Woodsboro) and work as an IT Consultant/Sr Network Engineer. I have pretty much always been into firearms (mostly just reading about military stuff from time to time, not actually shooting), but ended up getting the bug after finally getting around to going to the range with one of my friends this past year and shooting his Smith and Wesson Model 65 .357.
It mostly took me so long to purchase my first firearm because I was in a long term relationship with someone and she did not care for them too much. Plus she had a son and he was extremely addicted to games like BF2, COD, etc (shoot em up games), so I did not feel comfortable having firearms in the house; especially with me being a newbie and not feeling confident enough about firearms myself yet.
Now that we're finally not together anymore (which has actually been a great relief, but it's been tough because I was really close with her son), I'm starting my collection and getting more familiar with them. So now when I finally meet someone and start my own family, I'll have more experience with firearms and feel comfortable enough to have them around my own children and teach them proper safety, etc.
My personal opinion is that the earlier you get children exposed; hopefully the less fascinated and curious they will be about them. Plus if they ever get into a situation while they're young and one of their friends is playing around with a firearm, hopefully my child will tell an adult first since they won’t be as interested due to already being exposed to firearms. Then if need be and if an adult is not immediately around, they will also hopefully have the knowledge to be able to safely check if the firearm is loaded and then unload it themselves.
Heck, if I feel my child would know enough about unloading a firearm, it may actually be better for them just to unload it first before finding an adult, in case the adult may not know exactly how to properly unload the firearm. Honestly, I would have been one of those adults falling into that category before I recently started getting into firearms
Sorry, been trying to get into the habit of using the word firearms as much as I can instead of guns or weapons because I think that people not familiar with them or who are not crazy about them, sometimes find the words guns and weapons more negative.
Anyway, I'm really happy I came across this site and everyone here seems like a really great group of people. I like how people say what's on their minds and express their opinions, and you can have a good debate without the really bad bashing and name calling I have seen on some other sites. Once I get more experience, I'm looking forward to contributing more and actually having something more worth contributing
Once I feel I have enough experience, I'm also looking forward to getting involved in the events like the open holster event, the march I was reading about in the Montgomery County area, etc. I feel that learning from you guys and reading your opinions will help me form my own opinions so I can talk more intelligently about firearms and our rights if I'm approached by someone on the street with questions, etc. I’m also going to start reading in forums from the other point of view about CCW, etc so I can prepare myself with possible questions and issues they may bring up against CCW, etc. Sorry, you’ll probably find I tend to use “etc” a lot
Another thing I’m looking forward to is possibly looking into competing at some of the local ranges. However, that all depends on how well I end up doing when practicing
Well, sorry for the really long post. Just wanted to try to give some background in case I ever post something that you may question, you may have a better idea where I’m coming from. As you can see, I have a tendency to ramble sometimes. When it gets annoying, just tell me to shut up and get to the point
Look forward to hopefully running into some of you at Hap Baker since that’s where I’ll probably be going mostly. Primarily because it seems like most of the other places I’ve seen around me, you have to know someone to get into the club.
Hey Dan, here’s one closer to my 50. Since it was so long, maybe I should have broken this down into multiple posts, but that would be cheating
It mostly took me so long to purchase my first firearm because I was in a long term relationship with someone and she did not care for them too much. Plus she had a son and he was extremely addicted to games like BF2, COD, etc (shoot em up games), so I did not feel comfortable having firearms in the house; especially with me being a newbie and not feeling confident enough about firearms myself yet.
Now that we're finally not together anymore (which has actually been a great relief, but it's been tough because I was really close with her son), I'm starting my collection and getting more familiar with them. So now when I finally meet someone and start my own family, I'll have more experience with firearms and feel comfortable enough to have them around my own children and teach them proper safety, etc.
My personal opinion is that the earlier you get children exposed; hopefully the less fascinated and curious they will be about them. Plus if they ever get into a situation while they're young and one of their friends is playing around with a firearm, hopefully my child will tell an adult first since they won’t be as interested due to already being exposed to firearms. Then if need be and if an adult is not immediately around, they will also hopefully have the knowledge to be able to safely check if the firearm is loaded and then unload it themselves.
Heck, if I feel my child would know enough about unloading a firearm, it may actually be better for them just to unload it first before finding an adult, in case the adult may not know exactly how to properly unload the firearm. Honestly, I would have been one of those adults falling into that category before I recently started getting into firearms
Sorry, been trying to get into the habit of using the word firearms as much as I can instead of guns or weapons because I think that people not familiar with them or who are not crazy about them, sometimes find the words guns and weapons more negative.
Anyway, I'm really happy I came across this site and everyone here seems like a really great group of people. I like how people say what's on their minds and express their opinions, and you can have a good debate without the really bad bashing and name calling I have seen on some other sites. Once I get more experience, I'm looking forward to contributing more and actually having something more worth contributing
Once I feel I have enough experience, I'm also looking forward to getting involved in the events like the open holster event, the march I was reading about in the Montgomery County area, etc. I feel that learning from you guys and reading your opinions will help me form my own opinions so I can talk more intelligently about firearms and our rights if I'm approached by someone on the street with questions, etc. I’m also going to start reading in forums from the other point of view about CCW, etc so I can prepare myself with possible questions and issues they may bring up against CCW, etc. Sorry, you’ll probably find I tend to use “etc” a lot
Another thing I’m looking forward to is possibly looking into competing at some of the local ranges. However, that all depends on how well I end up doing when practicing
Well, sorry for the really long post. Just wanted to try to give some background in case I ever post something that you may question, you may have a better idea where I’m coming from. As you can see, I have a tendency to ramble sometimes. When it gets annoying, just tell me to shut up and get to the point
Look forward to hopefully running into some of you at Hap Baker since that’s where I’ll probably be going mostly. Primarily because it seems like most of the other places I’ve seen around me, you have to know someone to get into the club.
Hey Dan, here’s one closer to my 50. Since it was so long, maybe I should have broken this down into multiple posts, but that would be cheating
(inside joke you will get before long around here).
welcome!
