Gun ownership is one of the most volatile issues today, especially in Colorado, which has its own grisly history of gun violence. Granted, whether someone owns a gun doesn’t matter to most people most of the time. But when a Columbine-like disaster strikes, as in the case of the Aurora theater shooting last summer, thunderous rhetoric flashes from both sides of the gun divide. The pro-gun lobbyists say the Second Amendment is sacrosanct and should never be trifled with. Anti-gun advocates declare that no reasonable person needs to keep or buy a cache of weapons to the extent Americans do. In fact,there are an estimated 60 million gun owners nationwide who own more than 260 million guns. So who are these people? Anarchists? John Wayne wannabes? The unhinged? That’s something The Denver Post wanted to find out when it asked on Facebook: “Why do you own a gun?” The question is simple enough.

The answers, as it turns out, are a lot more complicated.

Guns are used for food and not trophies, hunter says

James Hagerman | 12-gauge shotgun. “I have no heads on my walls; I don’t use guns or hunt to get trophies.”

FORT COLLINS — James Hagerman was shaken the first time he killed something with a gun.

He was about 13 and hunting deer with his father near the tiny Western Slope town of Gateway. He got the animal in his sights and shot it dead with his rifle.

“It was sad. I ended something’s life,” said Hagerman, the owner of an insurance company in Fort Collins. “It was very humbling.”

He felt reverence for the animal he killed and for what it gave his family — food for the winter. When he hunts, he feels he’s part of a natural cycle of life and death, and he hopes to instill that perspective in his two small sons.

“I have no heads on my walls; I don’t use guns or hunt to get trophies,” Hagerman said. “I provide for my family. We eat on that for the rest of the year.”

“That animal,” he added, “has to die somehow, and when I kill it, I know how it is processed and what I went through to get it.”

Hagerman’s first hunting trip followed years of learning from his grandfather how to handle a hunting rifle.

“He taught me to never shoot anything I didn’t intend to kill, and to not kill anything I didn’t intend to eat.”

Hagerman, a former Marine, said guns shouldn’t be blamed for the mass shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 and at an Aurora theater last summer.

Those shootings, he said, were committed by someone whose cries for help were never answered.

“I am willing to bet neither the shooters at Columbine nor (Aurora shooting suspect) James Holmes had the training or life lessons I had, like countless gun owners out there,” he said. “(Holmes) lashed out, violently, to get the attention he needed, and now we have the stain of blood on our community for eternity.”

Gun owner says he doesn’t want to kill Bambi

Stephen Holben| Several handguns and rifles

“I felt very uncomfortable with the feeling of having a loaded weapon within reach.”

Stephen Holben says he’s not a gun nut. He just likes to see how accurately he can shoot his handguns and rifles.

“There’s a tremendous amount of skill involved,” he said. “You have to be in control to squeeze that trigger, and once you do it’s a big thrill.”

Holben also figures it’s a lot safer than mountain climbing or other sports.

“You hear about climbers getting hurt or getting killed all the time. That rarely happens at a shooting range,” he said.

He also likes the feel of a gun in his hands.

“For men, it’s shiny and it goes ‘bang’; what more do you need?” said Holben, who visits the shooting range several times a year.

But he refuses to hunt.

“I just don’t have it in me to kill an animal. I don’t want to shoot Bambi,” he said.

Holben also doesn’t use a gun for personal protection. When his wife thought she heard an intruder one night in the couple’s home, he decided to keep a loaded handgun near their bed.

“I felt very uncomfortable with the feeling of having a loaded weapon within reach,” he said. “I could get rousted out of my sleep and I could shoot and hit my wife, or a cat. The next day, we got that alarm system.”

Holben is skeptical of the rhetoric that gun owners would be the last line of defense should government agents try to take away everyone’s weapon.

“We are a nation of people who just fall in line; we are all dependent on government,” he said. “I’m pretty confident that a lot of these guys who wear these ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ T-shirts would (soil) their pants should a SWAT team show up at their door.”

However, he’s certain he would use his guns if his family were threatened.

Woman likes having gun in Boulder

Katherine Whitney|Ruger LCP .380

“I became more and more aware of the violence around me.”

Katherine Whitney says she grew up in a “fantasy land” before moving to Boulder.

Whitney, who is from Kansas, began attending criminal trials as part of her law studies at the University of Colorado and discovered another side to seemingly peace-loving Boulder.

“I became more and more aware of the violence around me,” she said. “I started thinking how I would defend myself. Hit someone in the nose or groin? How close would I have to get to use Mace or pepper spray?”

“Look at me,” the petite 26-year-old said. “I’m not that hard to subdue.”

She heard plenty of people tell her that violent crime in Boulder is “exceedingly rare.”

But she attended a murder trial of a student killed off-campus.

“I don’t think telling the family of the murder victim that crime in Boulder is exceedingly rare is a lot of comfort,” she said.

So she applied for a concealed- carry permit and attended an intensive two-day course. Whitney — who has been an advocate for concealed-carry permits on campus — said those who apply must be age 21 and are carefully scrutinized before they are allowed their permits.

“Someone who holds a concealed-carry permit is five times less likely to engage in violent crime,” Whitney said. “We are the least likely of people on campus who will cause any problem.”

She bought a Ruger LCP .380, which fits nicely in her hand. It also is equipped with a red-laser tracer that will help her aim at her attacker in a dark alley.

She said: “It makes me feel safer knowing that I have the ability to defend myself.”

Whitney says there is no guarantee she and her weapon could prevent a Virginia Tech-style attack on the CU campus.

“But I think we should all be able to defend ourselves,” she said.

Gun owner: “You can’t unshoot someone.”

Gary Reed| Collector of vintage Colts and long rifles

“You can’t unshoot someone. That only happens in Hollywood when you show up for your next movie role.”

Gary Reed is a straight shooter — both on the gun course and in person.

And he has a question for those who are considering owning a gun.

“Are you willing to take a life?” said Reed, a retired Denver firefighter. “Because let’s face it, that’s ultimately what guns are for: to take a life.”

“You can’t unshoot someone,” he said. “That only happens in Hollywood when you show up for your next movie role.”

Reed’s a writer and a collector of Old West firearms, including vintage Colts and long rifles.

Reed learned to shoot as a boy on his uncle’s ranch and to hunt for food.

“I am not a trophy hunter,” he said. “I was taught that you have one bullet for one rabbit and everything else is a waste.”

Reed enjoys the elegance of guns and how they feel in his hands. He participates in — and often wins — Cowboy Action Shooting contests around the country.

He believes most gun owners represent the down-to-earth values of middle America.

Reed, an Army veteran, sees himself as a member of the well-armed militia described in the U.S. Constitution.

“I am ready, willing and able to come to the defense of my country, my state and my community should that ever become necessary,” he said.

But Reed also has little use for most gun-rights groups, many of which gave up talking to the media and putting out a positive message about gun owners.

Reed also wants to take the mystique out guns.

“People need to be taught how to handle guns and take away the Hollywood image of owning a gun,” he said.

Owning a gun is a “grave” responsibility

Kyle Fenner | .45 Long Colt and .38-caliber revolver

“If I’m going to shoot a weapon, I need to know everything there is to know about that weapon.”

Guns never meant that much to Kyle Fenner until a friend decided to let her shoot his 30.06 rifle.

“It was quite interesting to me, and I was good at it,” said Fenner, 45, who grew up in Montana.

That started a relationship with guns that led her first to hunting and then to become one of Colorado’s estimated 139,560 concealed-carry permit holders.

She hunted deer and elk until 2009, when she decided she was done using guns against animals.

“I decided if I was going to hunt again, I’d use a bow and arrow,” Fenner said.

Fenner then decided she would buy a handgun for self-protection and enroll in a two-day course to earn a concealed-carry permit. “If I’m going to shoot a weapon, I need to know everything there is to know about that weapon,” she said.

That included finding a gun that makes her comfortable. She originally owned a .40-caliber Glock but decided it was too big.

“I felt intimidated by my weapon,” she said.

She eventually settled on a smaller .38-caliber revolver.

The course, meanwhile, weeded out the gun-toting wannabes.

“If you did not take the course seriously, then you weren’t around for the next day,” she said.

She also learned a different way of looking at her surroundings.

“I pay attention more to what’s going on around me because I know I have a huge and grave responsibility,” she said.

Fenner has three weapons registered in her name and uses them for protection, mostly against predators at her horse farm in Elbert County.

The guns, she said, allow her to do her work without fear.

For war vet, guns are a bonding experience

Michael Haring| Ruger .22-caliber long rifle

“The bullet could go through my wall, my kid’s wall, to a neighbor’s wall.”

Michael Haring knows better than most how to use a gun.

An Iraq-war veteran, Haring says his M4 carbine “went with me everywhere” during his Army tour.

But for his personal protection — and that of his two children — he will pick up a baseball bat as his first line of defense.

It’s just safer that way, said Haring, who says he suffers from post- traumatic stress disorder. He also suffers from bouts of insomnia so severe that he can’t sleep for two days.

“When I’m in that kind of condition, and suddenly I’m rousted from sleep, I honestly don’t think I could trust myself with a weapon,” Haring said. “The bullet could go through my wall, my kid’s wall, to a neighbor’s wall. The way I see it, why take a chance?”

Yet a Ruger .22-caliber long rifle that Haring’s father gave Haring’s son is a treasured possession.

He used it recently to bond with his 12-year-old son and his 9-year-old daughter at a local shooting range. Haring helped them load and scope the weapon and then showed them how to squeeze the trigger.

His daughter was terrified at first.

“Guns, huge guns, were going off around her, and they sounded like cannons,” Haring said. But he put his arm around her, helped her aim, and she shot.

“It was great. She heard and felt the pop, and she ended up having a good time,” he said.

It was the type of experience every parent should have with their child, Haring said.

“You are imparting knowledge, and you are learning something together,” he said. “I think another trip to the range is in the future.”

This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, gun-owner Katherine Whitney’s age was misstated. She is 26. Also, Whitney said concealed-carry permit holders are five times less likely to be involved in violent crime.