BennyBlown2v
Plinker
Well my mom has been worried about bears and other large critters out in the woods when she's staying up at this cabin (15x20ft shack basically) her boyfriend built on some property he has in some Pennsylvania mountains. The particular area has had a huge increase in black bear population over the last few years, enough so that they have had to open up bear season and sell more licenses I guess. So Mom drove her and myself (with AshyLarry and Paul tagging along for the fun of it) up to the gun shop and picked out a REALLY nice Franchi 20ga semi-auto (I think it's a 48al, I forget).
Little background on mom though... she's been anti-gun since as long as I can remember, one of those people who automatically associates guns with ignorance, violence, and criminals. Odd part is her dad and two of her three brothers were in the military, and the other one owns a gun store! Even after realizing guns weren't the devil incarnate Mom had still been apprehensive about owning, or even operating a firearm until she herself came to the conclusion that it might be the safer and more logical thing to do when vacationing in the wilderness (i.e. bear country LOL). I think a lot of it has to do with the war stories that scared her as a kid, and the scare tactics (Great read and discussion in the "Scare Tactics" thread, thanks Pami!) which didn't do anything except terrify her and make her more paranoid to do everyday activities with the chance of getting mugged or robbed.
Anyway, it's great - she's been uncharacteristically excited about buying a gun, and now that she has she can't wait to learn the ropes, and start shooting. She's also expressed an interested in target and skeet shooting (her Franchi is the PERFECT gun for that). I'm excited for her that she's finally come around after 53 years, and is even talking about taking a class or two with me and buying a hand gun
...and I'm excited I get to try out her new shotty soon 
Little background on mom though... she's been anti-gun since as long as I can remember, one of those people who automatically associates guns with ignorance, violence, and criminals. Odd part is her dad and two of her three brothers were in the military, and the other one owns a gun store! Even after realizing guns weren't the devil incarnate Mom had still been apprehensive about owning, or even operating a firearm until she herself came to the conclusion that it might be the safer and more logical thing to do when vacationing in the wilderness (i.e. bear country LOL). I think a lot of it has to do with the war stories that scared her as a kid, and the scare tactics (Great read and discussion in the "Scare Tactics" thread, thanks Pami!) which didn't do anything except terrify her and make her more paranoid to do everyday activities with the chance of getting mugged or robbed.
Anyway, it's great - she's been uncharacteristically excited about buying a gun, and now that she has she can't wait to learn the ropes, and start shooting. She's also expressed an interested in target and skeet shooting (her Franchi is the PERFECT gun for that). I'm excited for her that she's finally come around after 53 years, and is even talking about taking a class or two with me and buying a hand gun
...and I'm excited I get to try out her new shotty soon 
