Why "Gunner"?

This one is easy, but it requires a bit of backstory as well.

When I was 6, I was given a Daisy BB rifle for either my birthday or christmas. I still have it, in fact, and my kids have just as much fun shooting it as I used to (and still do, to be honest). When I was 7, I was given a slingshot. At 8, I was given my first longbow and a bunch of arrows by my uncle. I believe I was either 8 or 9 when I shot a 20g shotgun with a shortened barrel and a revolver for the first and last time. The shotgun was great, though I was holding it wrong when I shot it and skinned the hell out of my hand. The revolver was much more fun, though it was pretty damn loud (my father and I were not wearing ear protection).

When I was in my teens, my uncle, who was a bit eccentric, started carrying a gun on him concealed. I thought it was rather funny, as did most of my family, since there was very little to fear. I mean, robberies and lethal crimes happened to people on the news, not to us (even though the majority of my family lives in St. Louis).

Around a year ago or so, my father-in-law started to get into guns. He was purchasing and trading them left and right, or so it seemed. Started making reloads. Got a conceal and carry permit. He really turned into what I would call a "gun nut". Now, I have to make a quick note here: My wife was so anti-gun that it took me years of trying to just get a nerf gun in the house. I never really asked, but from what she has told me her father only had a pellet gun while she was growing up and it was only to kill obnoxious squirrels and other small pests.

So it should come to no surprise that my wife and I were a bit stunned to see her father get into guns.

Luckily, he got my wife to shoot a few of his guns and she really enjoyed it, which enabled me to get her to agree to bring my old bb gun/rifle into the house. Then I brought home a bb gun/shotgun and a bb gun/pistol for the kids (these use the plastic 6mm balls, which made it that much safer for the kids to use them... that and they shoot the bb's at very slow speeds). However, at this time, while I was into guns still I was leary and hesitant about having a real gun in the home. I don't exactly know why, but it probably had to do with my lack of experience with them.

Because of that, we borrowed a little .22 long rifle from my father-in-law and practiced with it in order to gain experience with reloading a gun and dealing with jams, as well as gaining a familiarity with having a gun in the home. I spent a bit of time reading reviews on a number of guns and within three weeks time, I had purchased a Sig, a Ruger, and a Winchester shotgun.

Not only did I get into guns pretty bad (I took my wife to a gun show for her birthday), but I've gotten into the entire concept of guns, and through that, I've become far more aware of politics and our rights. As part of that, I Open Carry everywhere I go, even to work, as long as it is not illegal for me to do so. I wake up and grab my gun sitting by the bed before I even grab pants. I set the gun on the counter when I take a shower and it rests on my hip when I mow the grass. Now that I have realized and understood the nature of the world that we live in today, I keep my gun within arms reach.