I grew up with a father that was in Law Enforcement. He was an avid gun collector and a serious reloader. Guns were an important part of our weekly lives when we would go target shooting with my brothers. By the age of 13 I had an assortment of firearms myself like an M1 carbine, SKS, 12ga 870, and a .22 Rifle. I was taught extremely strict gun handling and my father allowed me to handle any of his own firearms. It is better to allow a child to ask you to look at it, and remove it from the safe for them so that you can remove the mysticism from their minds and they can get familiar with it, so that they do not play with it behind your back and hurt themselves. Needless to say I had a pretty good upbringing in firearm safety.

Fast forward to today’s era. Everyone and their mothers are currently rushing out to buy firearms. Many of these people are probably first time gun owners and have little knowledge of how to treat a firearm or how to be responsible with them around their children. Even with my familiarity to firearms and years of experience I still have to work really hard to give my firearms the respect they deserve.

I am really worried that all of these first time owners will not show the same care and that we may start noticing a rise in gun-related deaths that could seriously hurt the public image of gun ownership. Most of us had fathers or close relatives teach us the fundamentals of firearm ownership, how do you suppose these people will learn? Hollywood lol, or will they have to learn the hard way? If you know someone inexperienced that just bought a firearm don’t be shy about showing them the ropes.

If you are talking about the EBR rush most seemed to be bought by ARFOCMer types that already own one and feel less then 8 ARs leaves them naked to the UN/zombie/rapist hordes.

There weren't too many noobs buying.  Most were paleo-fudds who recently became enlightened.

I know and out and out communist who bought a firearm and got his chl because he was afraid of what the new administration might try to ban.

Guess who he voted for.

I can see where you are coming from, but most people who have recently bought guns I think have aligned themselves with friends or family that are already familiar with guns and gun safety, and hopefully will extend their knowledge to new buyers.
However, this is coming from the side of veteran gun ownership, I'm hardly new to firearms.
So it is the responsibility of us the gun owners to teach newer gun owners the ways of safety to avoid such a dire prediction.

What makes you think the noobs wont seek out propper firearms training?  Most of them are probably nervous around guns and will gladly pay to be shown the right way.

YMMV

I understand what you are saying, but I don't think there is that much of a rise in "never owned a gun before" buying spree.  We've seen the EBR spike due to ban related issues, but those are going to people that have at least handled one before.  Besides, if you were to believe the anti gun stats, and the fact that there are MILLIONS of guns out there, you would expect millions of accidental deaths.

What you do hear and see is the MSM pouncing on EVERY accidental gun death like it is a daily occurance.  I purposely mention accidental, b/c the deaths due to crime or gang activity are different.  They are people who purposely and w/ malice pull the trigger on a gun to end someone's life.  They knew what they were doing.  It doesn't take teaching to realize that death will ensue w/ the pull of a trigger.

So, to answer your question, I'm not concerned.  The number of accidental deaths may increase, but only by marginal amounts.

I started a thread similar to this a while ago and got flamed to hell.

This is true, now that I think about it, where I shoot I have witnessed at least three people in the past couple months inquire about gun safety classes because they were totally illiterate to guns and wanted to get one.

This was what I was getting at. I have had several friends contact me for advice on getting their first gun. I've also introduced a good number of people to shooting. If you have spent any time around a gun counter you know there are a lot of these experts flying around that don’t have a clue, and that won’t listen to sound advice. Then there are the macho types that don’t want to look inexperienced. Maybe you know someone that needs some help but you don’t want to hurt your friendship by making him or her uncomfortable. There are a ton of threads here with surprised posters that can’t believe such and such bought a gun, I’m going to do my best to help anyone that is new. The other night I wrote a 4 page document for a friend that was trying to decide on his first Ar.

I'm of the opinion that many of these first time gun owners will never even shoot their gun. They have their pistol or rifle on the top shelf of their closet next to one box of ammunition where it will gather dust.

With only one magazine. And there's a 50/50 chance the ammo won't be the right caliber. And if it's a shotgun, all they'll have for it is birdshot, because it's the best thing for home defense evar. You don't even need to aim!

The reason you got flamed is because you proposed that the NRA (dammit you made me spell that again!) be in charge of who gets a firearm and who deosn't. Take a safety course and all this other crap and then have that institution decide whether or not you should be allowed to own a firearm. That is the reason that you got flamed, entirely different from what the OP here is stating....we have enough intrusion and .gov anal stretching now-days, we don't need anymore, your idea handed our rights over to an institution....think about it.

I thought about.

It's bullshit.

I saw on CNNBC the other day while they were talking about how mystified they were by S&W stock rising 56% last month.. they stated that 70% of the gun purchases since the election were by first time gun buyers.- where this figure came from I don't know, they didn't reference any research.. I know several people who voted for Obama who have since gone out and bought assault rifles... my ex-wife.. who voted for obama and has already become completely disillusioned.. after my discussion with her about the last assault weapons ban, went out and bought.. are you ready... sit down... wait for it... 16 stripped lowers.... no, that's not a misprint... 16. she said that she wanted to have the option in the future to build up some AR's and wanted to make sure that she had a lower in case our son wanted one when he got older....  I'm seriously thinking of re-proposing.... i swear she wasn't this smart or listened to me at alll when we were married.. now divorced.. I convince her that between Holder and Obama, the assault weapons ban is coming... and she actually listened... she is starting on high cap mags next week––- she made me promise that when she wants to start building them up I'd sit down with her and show her how... I think that it was the sexiest thing any woman has ever asked me.

... I hope your right. I also hope that they one day realize the error of their ways and decide to sell those nasty evil top shelf, never used, safe queens... I would be more than happy to sacrifice myself and help take it off their hands.

Not worried.  Yes, Ive seen a few Fudds at the Fun Shows that were buying guns (almost all handguns) that will probably never seek out training, BUT, I ran into these same people buying those little closet gun "safes", a trigger lock, a cable lock, etc.  They'll most likely have the gun buried so deep under locks and alarms that they'll never get to them anyway.

The libtard media and gun-grabbers will always be out there looking for the needle-in-a-haystack story and spinning it to suit their agenda.  Trying to reason with them or worrying about how they might react if a few more incidents occur is a waste of time.

If they really cared about facts, they would be hammering the gov'ment gun nazis for CAUSING the growth in gun sales.  You can reform, conform, regulate, legislate,restrict and worry all you want, but they'll ALWAYS find, twist or "create" another reason why the evil gun must go.

If anything, I think having more citizens owning firearms will help the public image, because more of the public will realize that guns don't sneak out of the house at night and go on a killing spree.  They'll SEE how safe (and hopefully fun) they really are, and see through all the bullshit.

It's easy for a non-gun owner to say "restrict 'em, they're icky".  If they're a new owner, however, they now have a dog in the hunt and they might just start getting a little defensive when somebody want's to restrict THEIR rights.

I was raised anti but was personally indifferent to guns for a long time. Even probably wondered why we need people killing guns anyhow. This is AK so hunting guns are part of life, even my antigun parents had one. When I first came around, mostly due to this inate hunger to play with gadgets, i bought every gun magazine, talked to every gun person, and visited every gun store in an effort to learn as much as I could.

I believe that most of the people that are just getting into guns now for rational reasons are entering the hobby in a similar manner. They were all raised like me that guns will go off unexpectedly and blow people in half etc., so they tend to have an inate fear and respect for firearms, though little knowledge about how they work or how to be safe with them. So they are eager to learn and readily take to safety lessons for the most part.

I have helped friends learn some. I drilled the 4 laws into them.  They are going gun shopping next week and have asked me to go with them.

Give people a chance and do not keep to yourself if you see someone needing help.

I see your point.

I used to be indifferent toward guns, then a little nervous around them when my husband started building his EBR collection... you know the type, "what do you need that for?" "is that legal?"

Had he never entered my life, and I had remained indifferent, I just don't see myself panic buying unless I had someone very close to me that I trusted well enough to teach me how to handle one.

And I can't speak for the rest of the country, just from personal experience.

My husband actually lent his younger sister a gun back when he thought he was enlightening her and guiding her away from Obama. When she blabbed that she'd voted for him after all, he came back for his gun and she gave it back without protest. He, on the other hand, has been on a buying spree, as has my BRD-afflicted brother-in-law

None of us have had anyone approach us about their sudden interest in guns because of how things are getting.

Well perhaps. Idiots buy guns just like cars and will cause accidents.

Car causes accident, evil lawnmower cuts off mans toe, scalpel saves man, etc etc crap.

A herd that thins itself, I'm good w/that.

We KNOW who's fault this is.

Here is an idea. If the government really wanted to help people and prevent gun deaths why don't they get off their asses and pay the NRA to produce an educational video on proper gun handling that would be made available free to all gun purchasers.

You kind of answered your own question.  The government ISN'T wanting to prevent gun deaths, necessarily.  They want to slowly, but surely, take guns out of the hands of civilians.  Still not a bad idea though.  If they can force trigger locks (actually, I consider them paperweights), they can force an instructional DVD w/ every purchase.

It's all in how you make your statement. The same opinion can either sound like a happy gunowner who is concerned about public safety or an elitist who is advocating gun control.

I decide I wanted my first AR before the messiah got elected. Not having anyone who was an EBR owner so I stumbled here and did my research. I hope other newbs are as fortunate  to find this site. If not if nothing else lets hope they can find good reference material if they don't know an EBR toting friend.

Pure

comic

gold............

OP- you are probably correct, based on the sharp rise in purchases. How large it will be depends on how many of the new purchases are

for future use of offspring

backup weapons stashed in a safe

purchases by those who have no idea what to do with them other than put them on the top shelf behind the manger set

intended for resale (i.e., "gouging")

etc., etc.

what i have seen is that the people who been gun owners for a long time are the ones buying. I am trying to put together my first ar but i have been taught about rifles since around 11 and am 22 now so i guess am a noob ?

First rule of firearms.. Do not point at it unless you want to put a hole in it

Should keep enough safe, let darwin sort out the rest.

Most ARFCOMers had their EBR's long before the election.

Or like most noobs and 5 minute enthusiasts the gun will be unloaded and gathering dust on a shelf or the back of the closet for the next 5 to 10 years.