I grew up around guns as well. My father bought his first gun right after (or possibly during) the Watts Riots. That was 1965. It was a 1911 style in .45 ACP. It was too much for me and my father. He traded it for one of the new “Wonder Nines” that was making the rounds. He bought a High Standard .22 Duramatic semi auto as well. While I liked shooting the 9, I took over that High Standard Duramatic. It was mine. I cherished that gun. I shot it, cleaned it and wiped off every fingerprint that got on it. It was not a true High Standard design and was their bottom line cheap entry level pistol. After a while my father traded it in and bought a real High Standard target pistol. We fought and battled over that pistol but my father always won. Around 1969 or 70 I got into 50 foot .22 bolt action single shot NRA competitions. A great NRA program for the kids that taught safety, and proper technique. And I competed and I qualified for Expert. I had all the medals and patches and I had a special jacket with all my hardware and patches hanging on it. That was around 1972 and I saved my allowance and bought the Anschutz that I still own to this day. I basically lost interest in pistols and competed with my rifle until I turned 18 and I bought my first pistol. So I have been around guns and shot regularly since 1965.
While I am not quite as biased as you are towards Democrats I understand completely where you are coming from. If you asked me 10 years ago we could always find common ground with out Democrat brothers. Even in the 2A arena. But not now things have changed a lot and I don’t see much in common anymore. BTW, they claim we have moved farther to the right as much as they have moved farther to the left. But I don’t see it.
Since you and I basically grew up in the same neighborhood perhaps a few years apart.
My first experience with a pistol was at the Long Beach CA police range.
Dad had bought a 45 ACP 1943 Rand Corp USA issue.
My older brothers shot after Dad did. My brother Dave got nailed in the forehead by the recoil.
( wasn't a very gun savy guy)
I nailed it. I was 8 yrs old at the time.
How many 8 year olds get to shoot a M1911A1 at the range these days?
The gun is in storage in Idaho, but I still own it.
EFF you HPD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As for the riots we lived through,
In my case we all went to Grandpa's house.
There was a rifle at every window.
Grandpa had a very complete
reloading set up in the garage.
There were probably thousands more homes
and families like ours
in the general area.
I used to ride my bicycle into Watts.
I lived that close.