I am a southerner who grew up with and around guns. I own some still. My father gave me a .22 rifle when I was 9 and a single barrel .410 shotgun when I was 10.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We have a shotgun we inherited from my father-in-law, a paranoid Englishman living in Texas. I have a .22 Marlin rifle, similar to the one Annie Oakley had, and my husband has a .357 Magnum pistol. All those are locked up tight, of course. We have a couple of pellet guns that get more use than the real guns.
I grew up hunting with shotguns and rifles, and we had a gun in every corner of the living room. I'm not a gun advocate, but that's the way I grew up.
I grew up on a ranch with my father, so he educated us really early on about guns. We used to go target shooting all the time.
Yes, I grew up with guns. For my 16th birthday, in fact, I received a .357 instead of a car. But there was nothing playful about them; they were tools. My parents went through a back-to-the-land phase. Most of our vegetables and fruits came from our own garden.
I shoot the same rifle I've shot since I killed my first deer with it when I was nine.
I have always been fascinated with guns. I grew up in America, so, granted, it is part of our heritage, and it is written into the laws of how this country is run.
I grew up in Texas in a family that fished and hunted, so I've shot guns as a kid.
I got my first handgun license when I was 22.
I never feel particularly comfortable holding a gun, but when you're playing somebody who lived in the frontier southwest, guns are a part of their life. Anyone who lives on land has a gun.
I never saw a gun until I was 24. I didn't grow up in Mayberry; I grew up in Southern California.