Resources for New Gun Owners

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DaveT
Posts: 196
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:35 pm
Location: NE Ohio

Resources for New Gun Owners

Post by DaveT »

I think we're all aware that recent events have spiked interest in gun ownership among a large segment of people who have limited or no background owning, handling or shooting firearms.

So, that means lots of people are coming home with new packages, a sense of urgency, some amount of fear and trepidation, and a gap in their hands-on, practical knowledge that varies from small to the size of the Grand Canyon.

Another forum I read (Lightfighter .net) has created a "Resources for New Gun Owners" thread, which is the inspiration for this suggestion.

To get the ball rolling, here are some links that were either suggested on that other forum or that show some basics:

Claude Werner, aka The Tactical Professor, has a new Facebook page New Firearms Owner Information Page

Annette Evans, of The Race Street Range, has this: On Her Own

Lucky Gunner Firearm 101 Series. This guy is mild-mannered and calm - it's like a young Mr. Rogers explaining firearms. This is the kind of videos I think won't be threatening or overwhelming for people:

Revolver How to Use a Revolver

Semiautomatic pistol: How to Use a Semiautomatic Pistol: Part 1
and
How to Use a Semiautomatic Pistol: Part 2

AR-15: How to Use an AR-15


On a bunch of other sites I've seen some posts to the tune of "hey, just imagine the bargains on barely used guns and stashes of ammo in 10-12 months." Yard sales are nice, but I think all of us are much better served if we welcome these newcomers, don't talk down to them or belittle their questions no matter how "obvious" the answers are. If we help provide them with the information and best practices they need to be safe and, at a very basic level, functional, we may well solidly increase our ranks with responsible, motivated gun owners.

If we don't offer them a hand, there will probably be pockets of individual scary or tragic incidents - unintentional holes in walls or people, or people who started off being scared of pandemics and ended up being scared of guns - perhaps going from politically neutral on the issue of private gun ownership to vaguely against it.

I may be getting off track with all that. My suggestion is that OFCC creates a sticky - perhaps a sticky at the top of multiple pages, in case people new to any kind of firearm forum don't know where to look. And I'll suggest we list a lot of videos and websites with basic, reliable, as best as possible politically neutral and with a tone towards safety and reliability and away from tactical. As people gain confidence and skill, they'll be able to seek out a deeper dive into any of the shooting sports and/or training realms they may wish, but I'm thinking some people who never thought they'd own a firearm, and suddenly do...and may have been left picking a less-than-perfect firearm as they got their turn in line to a picked-over gun store shelf, are really looking for how to safely handle, load, unload, fire, clean and store what may be a totally alien object that suddenly lives in their house.
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