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Comment by WediBlino | Hacker News Reader

Guns are cool. You should give them a try, I recommend at an outdoor range too. America is one of the last countries with a liberal mindset (in the true definition) that allows private ownership to exist. Like driving fast, flying or diving, there are few pleasures in life that match firing guns outdoors.

I went to the army and spent many days at an outdoor range shooting at targets with an automatic rifle. I was a pretty solid shooter and earned some medals. Yet I fail to see where is the "cool" part. Shooting is just another skill you practice in order to kill.

Thank you for your opinion and service. I too served and was privileged be trained during relative peace time but also had the liberal budget thanks to the GWOT. Our country doesn’t really give out medals for just shooting, but my competence and appreciation in marksmanship is owed to the wonderful cadre I had teaching me, and their passion in marksmanship in addition to the weapon system.

I’m not going to deny your point on killing. That is one application of firearms, also a powerful one, but I don’t feel that’s a reason to absolutely prohibit them for the common folk. As we’re both on HN I’m sure you also don’t “get” why folks just love some things like I do.

For me it’s the history, appreciation of the engineering, and my now civilian hobbies of hunting and competition shooting. They are one of many things that bring me joy that I would hate to lose in my healthy years.

Military training will suck the fun out of pretty much anything. I've been on both sides and can honestly say I enjoy shooting a .22 with my kids way more than an automatic weapon in the Army.

And it doesn't have to be about killing. We play shooting like people play darts. Hit the target for fun.

This is so true. Non-military friends talk about going to the gun ranges in Vegas where they can shoot M249s for absurd prices. All I can think about when I hear these stories is being on a broiling hot range in Oklahoma in the middle of July and having to go through cases of 5.56 because we sure as heck aren't going to go through the hassle of trying to turn unused ammo back in.

I shot competitive trap for years, and it was pretty cool. Nobody died (except for lots of clay pigeons).

> Shooting is just another skill you practice in order to kill.

True if you are a solider. Not so for most other people.

> America is one of the last countries with a liberal mindset (in the true definition)

Honestly, please explain what the true definition of a liberal mindset is?

Classical liberals generally support equality, limited government power, civil liberties, democracy, and free markets. Today they're sometimes described as libertarians, whereas modern liberals have morphed into intolerant authoritarians.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/liberalism/Classical-libera...

Having movie guns (and other props) as a hobby isn't specifically American. I live in a country with very strict gun control laws, and I collect and build replica movie guns (and other prop replicas). I hate what guns are used for, but I love movies.

BTW. As a consequence of my hobby, I have begun finding the history of handguns interesting though. I have also started to appreciate the human-scale mechanical engineering and the design for usability and ergonomics. Gun designers don't mess about with the user interface when it is literally a matter of life and death.

> Gun designers don't mess about with the user interface

Oh, there were plenty of gun designers who did mess up the ergonomics big time - it's just that these are the guns you learn in the history of "why we don't do things like that anymore" class.

For example, many early SMGs were prone to feeding failures if the magazine was disturbed. At the same time, the magazine well is basically a natural forward vertical grip - and this was even more true on designs like MP40, where it's so far from the pistol grip. MP40 was supposed to be held with supporting hand gripping the handguard behind the magazine, but malfunctions induced by magwell grip were extremely common in practice.

The Second Amendment is a deeply ingrained part of American culture.

Yes, and it's gonna thrive regardless of your disapproval :)

Don't kinkshame.

No one likes gear.

I wish they would stop. Ammo prices have gotten out of hand.

This is a simple political cycle. Guns and ammo fly off the shelves during Democratic administrations, then gun shops go out of business during Republican administrations. This is purely a psychological phenomenon (many aspects of American gun ownership are), since e.g. Trump would be perfectly happy to take everyone's guns if he benefited somehow, while even a hypothetical 70% Democratic Congress would decline to limit gun ownership since the electoral effects would be disastrous.

I don't have any prejudice against guns, but probably less fascination than seen ITT. I have fired a single shot in the last six months, and the result is in my deep freeze.

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