I recently read a story about a Canadian Air Force pilot who, wanting to simplify his life, lived for a whole year with only 10 items of clothing. At the end of that year he said he really missed having choices and has now splurged to over 30 pieces of apparel.
It sounds like the sort of crazy thing I would do myself–try to simplify my life by getting rid of the excess stuff cluttering my small house. I regularly go through my closet and put everything I haven’t worn in the last 12 months into garbage bags and haul them off to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army drop-off point.
Similarly I take immense pleasure in cleaning out my garage every year and taking a packed trailer-load to the local landfill for either disposal or recycling. I get great satisfaction from discovering just how spacious my garage really is so that I can start collecting more “stuff” to fill it back up again.
I guess I am totally unsentimental when it comes to possessions–either I need them or not. When I moved to the United States from Australia in 1986 I had no qualms about selling off everything I owned and had accumulated, and arrived in San Francisco with one small suitcase and a banjo.
Which got me thinking. Over the last thirty years or more, like many of you, I have accumulated a more than reasonable number of firearms. I bought each of them for a reason that was clear to me at the time, and have never sold any of the guns I bought.
But what if for some reason I was only allowed to have, say, four guns? Which of the many that I own would I keep, and which would I give up? I am not a hunter, so maybe I don’t need that high powered rifle. I am a strong believer in self defense and being prepared, but do I want to keep the concealed carry guns, or the tactical shotgun. (I asked this question here a couple of years ago and the answers were great, but most of you have probably bought more guns since then, so if you commented on this article before, let us know if anything has changed.)
What about the two cap and ball blackpowder guns that I built myself? Neither are particularly practical these days, but the hours I spent shaping the stocks, fitting the parts, polishing the brass etc. is worth something, isn’t it?
And then there’s the Benelli Ethos shotgun I bought myself a couple of years for trap shooting. That is too nice a gun to just dispose of without some misgivings.
Tough decisions, and if you were faced with having to make the same choice, what you kept and what you sold off would likely depend on how you use your guns, what sentimental value they might have, how much each individual gun is worth, and so on.
So, here is what I want you to do–find a quiet place to sit, pour yourself your favorite adult beverage if you like, and consider. If you could only keep four guns, what would they be?
Share your answer with us all in the comments below, and let’s see if we have more common ground with each other than we think. At the very least, you will have a better idea of which guns to grab first if your house ever catches on fire, right?
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