Great post!

We had guns on our farm, too, but they were used to scare coyotes away from our chicken pen (I can relate).

Even though I had to be trained to use guns because of my former “job description”, it never ceased to amaze me how powerful they are and the kick they can produce. I still can’t believe in this day and age they can be acquired legally. They seem too powerful a force and much to prone for accidents to be allowed in metropolitan cities, let alone remote areas. Maybe someday we’ll catch up to Canada.

Great seeing you here today, Sami. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
.-= Lori´s last blog ..Front Porch: Not A Typical Day in the Park =-.

Thanks for relaying your excitement about this series. You *know* I’ll be knocking on your door about this! I’d love to chat with you (keep an eye on your email inbox!). ; )

Thanks for sharing your story here, too. I’m really sorry to hear about your uncle. War is just horrible, and it has many faces.

I actually had a friend in MN that shot a squirrel for me to eat. I had never heard of such a thing; I couldn’t believe it when she actually gave it to me. You just reminded me about a story I could tell here, actually.

Thanks for visiting here, Nadia. I appreciate it!

I grew up on a farm so we had a couple of guns around but they were very rarely used. When they were, it was generally Dad shooting into the air to scare kangaroos away from a crop.

I’m not a fan of them myself. I’ve had a go at shooting into the air with a shotgun and can remember feeling quite scared. Those things really kick back too. I’d be happy to not see/use one again. Let’s just say nothing gun related made it to my Daisy List!
.-= Sami – Life, Laughs & Lemmings´s last blog ..Kick Arse Question – I Need Your Help =-.

Yay for the debut of the Front Porch Series and yay for Tim being the first dude to share his story!

My parents originally came from a war torn country. When they left, things were peaceful but after a few years, it got really violent again. So in our house, violence was always something that was viewed negatively. Then when I was about 12, one of my uncles died due to the war. He was at an outdoor cafe when a bomb was thrown into the cafe and landed right at my uncle’s table. The story we heard was that he was not killed immediately and was screaming from pain.He died about an hour later. He was in his thirties and had one son.

So as a result of that my parents even became more anti-war and anti-guns. Funny enough, the dude who lives next to my dad is gun lover. He shoots squirrels for dinner. It is so disguting but no one tells the guy anything out of fear.
.-= Nadia – Happy Lotus´s last blog ..Hanging Out with Hemingway =-.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your stories – absolutely every one of them. As Lisis mentioned, I was bracing for the comments to be different than our normal bantering, smiling, and joking around. This is certainly a shift from my normal light-hearted posting style. But, I wanted to share Tim’s story. Tim, again, thank you for allowing me to do so.

I’d also like to share one of my own:
You all know I was in the military by now, I think. Of course, in basic training we shot everything from semi-automatic M16s, grenade launchers, and light anti-tank weapons to claymore mines. I didn’t think much of it because it was a “peacetime military” at the time – or I don’t think I’d have joined. Well, in walks Desert Storm and our unit was deployed to the Middle East. Now, we were all carrying around live ammo on our hips with our M16s. To say it was unsettling is an understatement.

I’ve never held a gun in my hand since and I refuse to do so. This post dug up some deep, dark memories of my own – so when I say I’m with you all on this porch, I truly mean it.

Thank you again, all for sharing part of your lives with me. I think they are all beautiful in their own ways.
~xo