Like Many Other DUers, I Have Relatives Who Are Right-Wingers

[MineralMan]

Some of them are also 2nd Amendment Fanatics.

A couple of weeks ago, one of them posted a photo of some new AR-15 clone or another that he had just acquired. It's one of several almost identical ones that he owns.

I asked him, "How many of those can you shoot at the same time?" Crickets.

For some, accumulating firearms is akin to hoarding. The answer to my question is: "Just one." And since you can shoot just one at a time, there is no use for owning several. They are all quite similar and work the same way. Having more than one is hopelessly redundant.

And that's why my relative didn't answer my question.

Very many people who own such military-style rifles own multiple ones. However, they still can only fire one of them at a time. It's incredibly stupid - like owning a huge 4WD pickup you never drive off the asphalt, and that has a rigid cover over the bed that never gets opened. There is no point to either thing.

[CrispyQ]

1. Gun hoarders.

"Sorry we can't afford to send you to college, kids."

[MineralMan]

7. Indeed! LOL!

[CrispyQ]

13. The photo was taken by a European photographer who travelled around the USA

taking photos of people with their guns. This woman was very artistic with her display.

on edit: https://petapixel.com/2022/05/24/ameriguns-photo-series-reveals-the-unique-culture-of-guns-in-the-usa/

[MineralMan]

16. Fascinating!

The star of rifles thing is spectacular, isn't it? The boots, too...

[Brainfodder]

41. A $20 per gun yearly tax feels pretty rad about now for some reason, I can't put my trigger on it?

That's a weird OCD habit right dar?

RR at their house would be a blast?

[Moostache]

2. If they are all loaded, they are threat multipliers

The lack of reload time should be considered when determining whether or not they are stable enough to own such arsenals.

[MineralMan]

8. Not really. If you are in a fixed location,

you can have several magazines nearby. It really takes less time to change magazines than it does to pick up another rifle. With the typical 30-round magazines for an AR-15, you can have ample firepower at hand with only one rifle.

If you are taking your guns to a remote location, it is easier to carry additional loaded magazines with you than two rifles, it seems to me.

Properly maintained AR-15s with good quality ammo and magazines are very good protection against jamming and misfires as well.

[ProfessorGAC]

39. Also,...

...with a semi-automatic, it would take MINUTES of continuous fire to overheat the barrel.
So, simply replacing the mag would be far more efficient, and more cost effective.

[uponit7771]

3. K&R, I can understand shotguns for sport shooting but not PGRs (pistol grip rifles) !!!

[MineralMan]

9. Well, depends what sort of "sport" shooting you're doing, really.

Still, you would have no real need for multiple weapons.

[CrispyQ]

4. We have television shows showing interventions of hoarders

& discussing their condition like a mental illness, but not with people who hoard guns.

[MineralMan]

11. Yeah, well, gun hoarders don't really want a crew

documenting their hoard.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. Well, I'm no fan of guns, but ...

The base models may be nearly identical, but people kit them out differently, using different attachments (scope vs. laser sight, that type of thing).

Different brands may have different compatible attachments, different weight/balances, different feel when shooting, different ranges, differing accuracy levels, etc. Even when their looks/style are outwardly very similar.

One could make the same argument about, say, acoustic guitars. If you own one, well, that's enough, you can play guitar. But many, many people who own 1 acoustic guitar ... own other ones, often, many other ones.

Why? Cause they don't sound the same, feel the same, play the same, etc. Also, people get more money and decide to upgrade from the cheap one they bought years ago, or inherited, or whatever ... to something nicer.

If you buy legitimately identical guns that seems silly, but I can think of reasons one might. Maybe it's your absolute favorite and you see it's on closeout so you buy a spare in case the first gets lost or stolen, that type of thing.

[kcr]

10. Yes, those awful mass guitar murders

All those lives lost. Totally the same argument!

[MineralMan]

12. Hmm...that sounds like a good excuse, rather than a reason.

I don't know about guitars, since I'm not a guitar player. I was an oboist. I had just one oboe, which I chose because I liked playing a particular one. I also had an English horn. I didn't like my particular English horn that much, but they're really expensive, so I made do with the one I had when I needed it.

Oboes cost between $5,000 and $10,000 for decent instruments. There are some oboists who own more than one, I suppose, but most have just one, which they maintain in excellent condition and ready to play. You could take a spare oboe to a performance, I suppose, but I don't know any oboist who does that. Typically, they have a double case that holds one oboe and one English horn. One does carry spare reeds, though, which you could think of as ammunition. Reeds, which oboists pretty much all make for themselves, are finicky and subject to failure, so it's wise to have a few on hand. But, you need only one instrument, and can play only one at a time.

[ProfessorGAC]

40. I've Got 13 Guitars

6 acoustic, 7 electric. But, a guitar is set up the way the owner wants it, meaning the various instruments feel pretty much the same, on purpose.
It's the difference in tone that makes having a selection valuable.
Somehow i doubt there's a huge difference in the sound of multiple guns at similar caliber.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

43. To me this is good reason to make guns really friggin expensive

That $5K-10K price tag is all the difference, vs. assault weapons at $500-$2000.

Make AK's cost 'Oboe' kind of money and people will think twice about just how much they need 'dupes'.

[MineralMan]

46. Excellent Idea!

[Ocelot II]

38. Collecting guitars isn't quite the same as collecting guns, though.

It's true that, as with guns, you can play only one guitar at a time - so why would you need more than one? Maybe because different guitars work better with certain kinds of music. Segovia's guitar probably wouldn't have been the same as the one used by John Williams or Julian Bream or Chet Atkins or (electrically) Prince or Eric Clapton. If you play different kinds of music you'd want different guitars to play it on. I know a professional trumpeter, retired from a major symphony orchestra, who owns nine trumpets. That's because the one he uses for Bach's 2nd Brandenburg Concerto is not, and couldn't be, the same one he uses to play Hovhaness' Prayer of St. Gregory. It's also true that not all guns are the same, but all of them do just one thing: they kill. Maybe animals, maybe people. An AR-15 was designed for the specific purpose of killing a lot of people in a short period of time, not for hunting animals. If you hunt different kinds of animals you would want different kinds of guns that would be most effective for bagging your prey - ducks, pheasants, deer, elk, bears, elephants, etc. But if you want to kill a lot of people - or fantasize about killing a lot of people - and an AR-15 is the best, most effective way to do that, why do you need more than one?

[Hugh_Lebowski]

44. Again, I'm no gun fan in any way, I've never owned one, but I know people who do

And they insist, to a person, that they have them cause they enjoy shooting in general, not that they have them for shooting humans, specifically.

But maybe I shouldn't be so gullible in this regard

[Ocelot II]

6. But just think how *manly* you'd look if you carried an AR-15, finger on the trigger,

and wore another one slung over your shoulder, with a 9-mm handgun tucked into your belt and another strapped to your ankle, the next time you picked up a prescription at Walgreens or thumped the cantaloupes at Cub Foods? The other men would shrink from you in fear and admiration and the ladies would swoon!

Right?

[MineralMan]

15. I don't know. I have a full beard, which is ample evidence

of my maleness I would think. Now that I'm almost 77 years old, though, nobody shrinks from me in fear, nor do the ladies swoon any longer. More's the pity.

[Ocelot II]

45. But the combination of the beard *and* all those guns! OMG!

[milestogo]

14. Its an idol.

[Amishman]

17. BiL is a huge collector

Pretty sure he has over 200 guns at this point.

He has multiples of quite a few. For his historical stuff, he keeps extras around for trades, or a lower condition one to shoot to keep a more pristine one from getting wear.

For some of the modern stuff the example is less obvious. I know at one point we came over and he was cleaning up from shooting before we arrived. I helped him, and handled a AR-15 type rifle. It was shockingly heavy and I said something about it. He told me that one was for bench shooting and the extra weight was intentional. When we were in his gun room, he handed me a similar looking rifle and it weighed far less.

[MineralMan]

18. Yes. Well, my question for your BiL would be the same.

He likes to have multiple firearms. He can still shoot only one at a time, though.

He doesn't NEED more than one. He just WANTS more than one.

Me? I'd rather read a book than clean firearms, frankly.

[Qutzupalotl]

19. I once saw Rambo shoot two machine guns at once.

I guess it was painful to hold them like that because he was hollering.

Highly accurate, though.

[MineralMan]

21. Point and shoot. Works for cameras, but not so well

with firearms, I think.

[maxsolomon]

20. Collecting is a hobby.

I have one: records. I can only play one at a time.

I know a guy who collects pocket knives. My Dad collects Mud Men figurines.

At some point (3 firearms?) it becomes like that - the arsenals aren't for self-defense.

Crimo's arsenal was about making himself powerful.

[MineralMan]

22. Well, I think he's going to have a lifetime to contemplate

his power or lack of same.

I also have a small collection of mud men figures. Once I got all seven of the Immortals, though, I stopped collecting those. They're on display in my corner cabinet.

[RobinA]

23. I Don't Think

you understand the mindset. They are preparing for war. President [insert Democratic president here] will first make all guns and ammo illegal. They will then come get everyone's guns and ammo. At this point they must be fought off using the stockpiled guns and ammo. I didn't say it made sense.

I have a family member who reported at July 4th that when Biden got elected he went out an bought some insane amount of ammunition. That's for when he can't get ammo (made illegal by Biden) and has to fight off the government. How they think they are going to fight off the US military with any currently available-to-the-public weaponry I'm not sure, but that's what they think. I'm not even sure what they think the government is going to do once they have everybody's weaponry, it all gets very vague when I ask those questions.

[MineralMan]

24. Oh, I understand the mindset just fine.

A guy has to have an excuse for buying all of that expensive crap. Nutso stuff.

[Wounded Bear]

25. They all think they are Burt Gummer...

[MineralMan]

26. I had to look that up.

You're right, of course.

[Wounded Bear]

30. Right down to the "I'm the good guy with a gun(s) who's gonna save the world"...

from all the monsters and zombies and Skynet, etc.

[MineralMan]

31. I never saw any of those movies.

I'm not a fan of that type of thing, so I had never heard of that character. I should probably watch one of them sometime.

[Wounded Bear]

36. If you're talking about Burt Gummer, he's in Tremors...

there were several of those and he was in most. Decent popcorn movies that should be approached with tongue in cheek, if you know what I mean. They are borderline spoofs of the whole monster/alien genre.

Skynet is from Terminator, of course.

[MineralMan]

37. Yeah, I learned that when I looked up the name.

I've just never been into that type of movie.

[mainer]

27. As investments in the resale market?

Every time a Democrat gets elected, the price of firearms and ammo skyrockets because they think we're coming to take their guns. The resale market is very active.

[MineralMan]

28. Hmm...maybe.

I don't see them selling their guns very often, though. Instead, they buy more.

[slightlv]

29. It's a sickness...

an addiction, IMNSHO.

[MineralMan]

32. Well, it's more a symptom of something than an illness itself.

Looking at my own relatives who are gun nuts, it all makes sense, based on other things about them.

I own a couple of firearms myself, but I can't remember the last time I fired one. I know that stuff, but don't have whatever disorder it is that turns people into fanatics. Not at all.

I have one nephew in law, though, who is a gun porn addict. I recently unfriended him on Facebook for insulting my wife in a reply to one of her posts after the Uvalde shooting. Before I did that, though, I told him why I was doing it. He had apparently forgotten that she uses her birth name, rather than my last name. He offered a lame excuse as an apology. Not accepted. You simply don't get to call her an "idiot." Nope.

[slightlv]

35. You know, MineralMan, of course,

that there's an addictive personality type that opens itself up to all ranges of behaviors. From thrill seeking to self destructive (and I'd classify calling your wife an "idiot" a very self-destructive behavior!) From the many posts of yours I've read here, I have a lot of respect for you... and I sure wouldn't want to get on your bad side!

[Midnight Writer]

33. The way it was explained to me here on DU is this...

Guns are tools. You need particular tools in different situations. Like a wrench. You may need a variety of wrenches to complete a job, because each wrench fills a different need.

Guns are tools designed to kill. So I reckon you need 20 different guns if you want to be fully prepared to kill in 20 different situations.

The right tool for the right job.

[MineralMan]

34. Well, I have lots and lots of wrenches.

None of them could be used as deadly weapons, though. Well, maybe my biggest pipe wrench...but I'd have to dig it out, since I haven't used it in years.

Firearms were invented, from the very beginning as tools for killing. Some claim their guns are only for sporting use, like target-shooting. But, target-shooting is designed to make you more accurate with your killing tools. Hunting is killing, but for food, rather than for shooting other humans. Still, it is killing.

Firearms were not invented to punch holes in targets. Nope.

[Hortensis]

42. We have old friends in California who collect butter churns and guns.

The guns started first with him, a very outdoorsy, mechanically minded sort. They were a typical couple with no interests in common beyond their lives and children together, so everyone who knew them was immensely tickled when they developed a passion together for searching out and acquiring antique butter churns. He still does guns, but the scope is mostly limited to those at least somewhat related to his hobby of competitive distance shooting.

Even if hanging a sunburst of polished rifles that are almost never used over a sideboard filled with butter churns sounds incredibly pointless, and even more so the much bigger display that covers the walls of the den, it's not to them. They do it for the dusting.