So I seem to have a tendency to give off the impression that I’m a huge gun-lover. There’s the earrings, the IDPA matches, the reloading-my-own-ammo, SCCC, the shootin’ hill in the mountains, and so on and so forth. You know what I just realized, though? I’m not that interested in them.
Oh, I’m very concerned with protecting my life and all that, and I’ll continue pursuing shooting as a hobby for as long as I’m alive, but I don’t like guns for their own sake. I don’t care about them because they’re guns–I care because they’re the best means of staying alive if I’m ever attacked.
…except maybe my mom’s pump-action shotgun. That one’s just kind of fun (the Saiga quickly loses its appeal once I can’t hold it up anymore after a few seconds).
And it’s been this way all along. Four years ago when my parents first started bringing the family into the gun culture, I didn’t hop in so much. Started getting more into knives, actually. To this day, they remain the only things I’ve bought at any gun show (the most recent being my super-special totally awesome Indiana Jones bowie knife with an 18″ blade!).
I know what Freud would say. Screw him.
Here’s the point, though: there’s no way in hell I’m going to stop doing any of the things mentioned up there in the first paragraph, because I care too much about my self-defense to do anything else. However, I’ll never know as much about guns as, say, every man around me, because I don’t care about them because of them–only because they are the absolute best things to use for protection should the need arise. Looking around, that seems to be the general attitude of many (most?) women who are into shooting, but I guess I sort of felt the need to clarify, and perhaps put at ease a girl or two who might come across this (out of, what, 2.5 readers?). There’s no need to care about every single little type of gun (if it makes it easier, polymers all suck. 
*) or be able to win when The B.I.L. (formerly B.I.L.T.B.) decides to play “What kind of gun is that?” during Reno 911: Miami (it was an Uzi…among many others, of course) or really any given movie/TV show, but simply caring enough about your own life and well-being to get into shooting and become practiced enough at it to effectively defend yourself in a bad situation is plenty sufficient, and a good deal more than many people do. Granted, it’s not as ideal as becoming essentially obsessed with it, but if you’re not interested, you’re not interested.
*That’s supposed to be a tongue-sticking-out-face, but for some reason, they made it just a smile. Oh well.
