Can I immigrate?
I own five quadcoptersā¦
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Neither of my parents are ethnic Japanese, although we moved there shortly after I was born. My Dad is German, but a speaker of Thai. Mom is American, but her father spent much of his life in China. And she learned to cook in Japan. It is a weird combination, which I have also inflicted on my children. We lived in a rural fishing village when I was little. Somewhere I have a picture of a stereotypical beach scene, boats pulled up on the sand, a bunch of kids in traditional dress pulling a big net with glass floats up on the beach, and there I am, fantastically pale, right in the middle. I think it was something related to school, but I donāt remember. My daughter plans to go straight back to Japan as soon as she leaves college.
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Do you mean because the guns are non-functioning museum pieces with plugged barrels and no ammo? Like theatre props?
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I am not sure your use of the word semi is the same as mine. My first gun was a semiauto Browning .22, which we actually bought when we were in Japan, and I was nine. Of course I could only look at it through the glass of the gun cabinet at that age, unless we went to the range. I still own that rifle. I work on a lot of antique guns, so that puts me in contact with a wide variety of collectors. Generally, they are pretty secretive about their hobby, if only because they worry about burglary. I know one man in particular, who has a bunch of very expensive guns, all from WW1 and WW2, including legal full automatics. He owns no ammunition, and never shoots. But many of the people I deal with have collections that could rival some museums. None of the big collectors I know have particularly right-wing political views, as far as I can determine. One gentleman has a huge basement full of Nazi firearms, flags, and other items, but is an observant Jew. So it is hard for me to accept all the stereotypes as accurate.
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No, I do not own non functioning guns. Collectors in Places like England have deactivated guns, and I do sometimes work on those for other people, to get the finish and patina correct on the dummy parts. But my personal guns are all functional, although some of them use terribly obscure ammo. They are safe, because they are in a reinforced steel vault with a 3000 pound door. And I keep the ammo in a safe in another building on the property.
An example of a museum piece is a Lithgow rifle and bayonet, documented to the battle of Galipoli, with the canvas sling still bearing bloody handprints from the Australian soldier who was wounded while using it. It is functional, but is never touched. I have a couple of rifles that were commissioned for the 1938 German expedition to Tibet, and used to bring animal specimens for German museums. That sort of thing.
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Only if you include suicides, which is purposeful, conscious action and a completely different issue than gun crime or accidents.
I am not ignoring the risks. I have quantified that risk repeatedly.
Trying to crack down further on ownership is going to affect one set of people primarily - the ones already not hurting people.
Which they now have anti-knife campaigns in Britain. But again, Britain never had the murder rate the US had. And while there is a gradual reduction like the US and Australia, in Britain there wasnāt a sudden decrease in homicides after their new legislation. There was actually a large spike 2 years afterwards, but it is down over all.
Do you have a hobby? Do you have way more things related to that hobby than one person should ever need? It is the same thing.
I know people who own super expensive race bikes, 3 cars in various degrees of working order, more video games than they could physically play and beat within a life time, more comics than they could possibly read.
That is all it is. If you donāt fish a lot, you might wonder why you need more then one fishing pole. But if you are like my dad he has a dozen or so with different degrees of flexibility and sensitivity and some work for different style of fishing better for different kinds of fish.
Fun fact, he can only effectively use one at a time. So it isnāt like dozens of them are any more dangerous than one. Just like a guy who owns a dozen cars can only use one at a time.
lol - risk to others - the secondary risks of firearms ownership on a utilitarian basis are so low, your argument is laughable. It is your emotional attachment that keeps you jousting at the windmills.
That looks like a lot of work. Why would you NEED 6 layers? I mean it all tastes the same, right? 
C A K E ā¦ mouth the word right now, repeat it 3 times over. Feel the texture forming on your palate, the flavor and ā ā ā ā ā softness as it dissolves and crumbles delicately within the cathedral of your mouth. The smooth and creamy topping dancing across your tongue, squishing and circling, catching the last remnants of crumbs, mixing together, happy, like romantic euphoria on a Saturday night. CARRY CAKES NOT GUNS
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A lot of people who arenāt into guns might look in my safe and say arsenal, and the collectors I know would look and say, āthatās a good startā.
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[looks over at four different Japanese tea pots and three four different pairs of tea cups]
I have no idea what youāre talking about.
[sigh]
Okay. Okay . But each of those tea pots has a function distinct and unique from its siblings. Except for one. And I suppose I could do without two of those pairs of tea cups. But Iām gonna sell them someday, I swear!
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Now you reminded me of a guy I used to do tabletop gaming with in St.Louisā¦ he just collected old guns and spiffed them up but never fired them and IIRC disabled them just for safety. He finally got told to quit by his wife when he picked up a small field gun/howitzer type piece.
Too tempting, too many carbs. Lead is carb free.
Lol - rule #1 - as long as it fits in the existing safe, she doesnāt have to know. But yeah, once you start bringing canons home lolā¦let alone something like more recent artillery.
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I know a guy with a WW1 German 10.5 cm field howitzer in his barn.
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Only 4? You are either young or have controlā¦
Yep, same with firearms. Many different types for different uses.
Of course there are also collectors, who will have a dozen of the same gun with slight variations. Sort of like comic book variant covers.
Yes I agree, but Iād still prefer a tin of confectioners sugar powder over gun powder, any day. As for the lead ā¦ look where it has led us.
It all goes downhill once you embrace Yixing gongfu-style teapots, each of which must be dedicated to a particular type of tea (usually a subtype of oolong or pu-er). With sufficient capital and insufficient impulse control, you can end up with a stable of eight or ten Yixings alone, plus your three basic teapots (reduction-fired, oxidation-fired, and porcelain) and various sizes thereof.
I never got into the whole Yixing thing because Iād rather spend my money on tea.
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You should see my Momās Japanese Bronze sculpture and lacquer ware. And dozens of antique tea sets. We have always collected stuff, and been lucky enough to have the room and funds to not have to sell it off. Seen on their own, the gun collection might seem excessive to many, but when looked at from the perspective of the other sorts of things that we have a bunch of, it might seem less crazy. My Dad has two big buildings just for storing vintage cars.Most rooms in our house have at least one wall of nothing but bookshelves.
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