In this post I will attempt to examine the attitudes of shooters whose goals in their hobby are to improve their skills for times in which they might be useful versus those who shoot simply because it is fun and love to perpetuate that.

When I first got into guns, I have to admit there was a certain appeal of machismo in owning them.  I could hardly wait for my 18th birthday to buy that scary-looking shotgun I had been eyeing over at Oshman's, thinking how awesome it would be to shoot and show to my friends.  Of course, I was very conscientious of safety, reading all about the shotgun as well as rules of safe-handling well before I actually purchased it, but there was definitely a cool factor to unveiling it before awestruck comrades, and obviously more so to tearing up targets with it.  

A while later, I was pondering over what would be my next purchase.  I finally decided it would be a handgun, and after even more careful consideration, I set my heart on a 1911.  Initially, I thought about how awesome it would be to own a Desert Eagle in .50 AE, and how much more awesome it would be to bask in the jealous stares of onlookers at a gun range or amongst friends and acquaintances.  After a couple of years with the bad-ass shotgun, however, I realized I had entered a more serious mindset about firearms ownership and what would be to my best benefit.  The 1911 I pored over was not a particularly beautiful gun by any stretch of the imagination -- just a plain jane parkerized milspec that I figured would be extremely reliable and handy in a pinch.  After owning it for a couple of months, I came to realize the beauty of its simplicity and to this day it is my favorite piece, hands down.

Nevertheless, from time to time I still find myself thinking about how cool a purchase would be, or how it would wow people when they saw that I owned such a piece of equipment.  Thus was my initial attitude towards the AR-15.  I said to myself that it was nothing like an AK in terms of reliability, in ignorance I admit, but it "looked" more professional and hence it would have a greater cool factor.  As I grew used to it, I came to love it equally as much for its functionality as for its tendency to make people notice, and I still do.  

So this morning I caught myself wondering about that old Desert Eagle again and how it would basically serve no practical purpose, but it would simply be to make others "ooh" and "ahh", like a Lamborghini, basically.  The question that entered my mind was "How many gun owners are fans of sharp-looking equipment, and how many are dedicated to practicality?  How many are both?"  

So what kind of shooter are you?  Please feel free to elaborate.  Poll inbound...

My guns are boring.

While you are waiting, you should check out this thread in the general firearms discussion as it is along the same lines as this topic... but without the tactful introduction:


You Silly People  
www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=6&f=2&t=191046&page=1

I suppose I'd vote "both".

I have them for practical reasons but I can respect the "awesome" factor as well.

bump for the night folks