I like guns. Sometimes that’s not the most popular thing to say these days, but as in many aspects of life, I feel it’s best to be honest from the start.
Some people don’t like guns, and that is OK. I think it is very interesting that gun sales have skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many folks out there who may never have considered buying a firearm are going to the gun store.
I say all this to bring up the point that for sportsmen – hunters, fishermen and those who engage in shooting sports – a firearm is a beloved tool that allows us to do what we love. We like to shoot, and we like to hunt. Now when I say a gun is a tool, it is, but to me it is not exactly like a shovel or a hammer. A reliable firearm that has been used for many years and possibly handed down to sons and daughters and grandchildren is often carried for more than its primary purpose.
As hunters, sometimes we take a certain gun to the field to remember those who came before us.
A young man holds a trail-worn .30-30 rifle in a deer stand and remembers the day his granddad gave it to him. A veteran duck hunter muses over the battered pump shotgun handed down from his father and wonders if it is time to bestow it to his son. These scenarios play out all over the hunting and shooting world.