Weapons are evil?

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Have you ever been with friends talking about First Person Shooter or Real Time Strategy games, and then have a few people around you stare at you as if they were trying to match your face to a wanted poster? Or ever talk about target practice at a shooting range or otherwise the non-lethal usage of firearms, only to have people start acting afraid? How do you (or how would you) react when people look at you suspiciously and start treating you like a criminal?

I own guns. I even went through a lengthy background check for my collector's federal firearms license (it's not required to own guns but it can simplify getting collectors pieces). I still get strange reactions from people when they find out I have guns partly due to my odd AS demeanor and sometimes because they are kind of scared of guns. There isn't time for me to stand around and try to convince everyone I meet that guns are cool so I just roll with it. Who knows? If California goes into Greek style financial meltdown maybe they will come to me for advice on what kind of gun to get.

Since we are the ones that are fine with guns, we are not the ones with the problem. Remember what Sigmund Freud had to say on the subject: "
A fear of weapons is a sign of ret*d sexual and emotional maturity".

Weapons themselves are only inanimated pieces of wood and iron. If there is something which is evil, it would be the user.

Cool avatar of the sniper of Stalingrad, btw.

Perhaps an analogy might be helpful. If some quite amiable individual told me he was fascinated with deadly poisons that could kill people in an instant. and in very minute quantities. He would assure me that, of course, he would never use it on people and he had fun killing insects and small animals with it. He might, with pride, show me bottles upon bottles of this horrid stuff in all its different varieties and how wonderful it was to know their chemistry and how to get it secretly even though much of it was forbidden by law but he was a very clever fellow and knew how to get around that. Even though he seemed quite civilized I would probably not accept an invitation to dinner at his place and might find some excuse or other not to see him very much if at all in the future,

Just about everyone I know knows I'm big into guns and shooting even though I don't talk about it very much or preach it. Word gets around anyway, I guess.
There are those that suffer from too much hollyweird that think I'm some kind of a fascist based on my special interest but oh well.
If just about any of them show a sincere interest I might offer to take them shooting and show them what it's all about and I have in a few cases. Introduce guns to someone correctly and they typically enjoy shooting even if only that one time and they come away from it a more well rounded individual.
Introducing them correctly being the key.

I won't take the time to concern myself with the feeble minded, though, that have no apparent sense of reason.
If anything I'm a little amused by their neurotic fears.


Case in point;