Efan, I live in Texas. I have to pull my gun out more often than you think. And there is a shotgun propped up next to my bed. A robber would be sorry to come in my house.
And old woman last week shot a robber in her house just like that. Saved her life because he had a knife and was on his way to her bedroom.
Texas must be a tough State to live in. in south Australia the doors are locked at the most.
I don't like it, but that's mainly because I go to school here. That's something for a different thread, though.
Just because people have them doesn't mean they use them or are given situations in which they must use them often. I have two .22 rifles, a .223 AR-15, a 12 gauge, an M14, and a .30-30 lever action rifle in the cabinet in my room just because I find them beautiful beautiful machines.. And because the safe is full. I also practice drill with the M14, but whatever. I'm surprised it still shoots perfectly with how much I've banged it up.
On account of my dad's renal problems, we haven't been able to go target shooting, but that's what all of them are used for, aside from the shotgun. I've bagged a few doves with that one.
For home defense, meh, there are a number of pistols stashed around the house in case of that; I can move about ten feet and have a fully loaded USP compact in my hand.
Hunting.. A friend owns land out on Oso Creek (South Texas). We go out and shoot a few pigs every so often, but I can't call that hunting. It's more of a slaughter. They ruin his crops and we end up using most of the pig, so at least some good comes out of it.
Wow...America is nothing like Europe. Hunting and so only during some seasons, and some types of animals. And you can't trophy hunt, only one week per year.
And having guns like that under your bed, illegal over hre. You gotta like hide them away where children and other people can't find them that easy.
Practice some shooting on the back yard? Boom jail.
