ARFCOM is a truly addicting website. I joined this site, thought it was cool, and I never expected it to make this much of an impact on my internet surfing habits.

When I was 17, I had a strong Republican mentality and well made decisions of my political stance in comparison to my values. But I never became gun-savvy until I turned 18, but not because I could.

In June of 2004, a month after I turned 18, I bought my first EBR, and what a disease it is. BUT, I would not have bought that Bushmaster without the research of opinions and select facts through the ar15 section. I never knew what the assault weapon ban was until I decided I wanted an AR15. And ARFCOM was the plethora of knowledge, that educated me on the ban and about "federal-pound-you-in-the-ass prison" or "Club Fed".

I opened an account and was moderately active on browsing, but never posting much until I was ready to ship to Parris Island. When that fell through with medical complications, I kind of dropped off the radar of firearms, at this point, I had my neutered Bushmaster, Glock 23 and Savage .270. So naturally I forgot my previous user name and password, and it didn't help that I had changed my e-mail several times after, so retrieval was not possible.

Anyhoo, fast forward to February. My gun-savviness had been magnifying for almost a year, so had my time spent lurking ARFCOM. And I started my account again. My internet usage used to be, check my bank account, check my credit card, pay any bill. Browse through eBay, research guns that I can only dream of having the money to afford etc. My homepage used to be google.

Fuck that, google is now a search bar on my browser, my homepage in the GD, and ARFCOM accounts for 98% (estimate) of my internet time as a whole.

I guess what it boils down to is that this site has a lot of pull, influence and following and good people. I don't think some people appreciate the diversity of firearm owners here, but this is one hell of a site. To have over 80k active members is amazing. The amount of knowledge on this website is absolutely incredible (as well as some of the BS ). And of those 80k members, people are donating memberships for people left and right to ARFCOM, NRA, GOA etc, helping fellow members out in need, sending parts that they don't need for free etc. Makes you wonder.

Just goes to show you what good morals and a "Don't tread on me" attitude can do.