The same reason I once had 8 keyboards and 6 guitars. It's my hobby. The 3 inch barrel handgun is my personal protection gun. It is never out of reach. And I mean literally never. Until someone can predict the exact moment a thug is going to kick in my back door and try to kill me so he can rob me with no witnesses, I will relax my posture. I then have a 5 inch barrel handgun for shooting competitions, of which I have entered 5 and never placed better than 5th. And I have an AR-15 with a scope, used for the 100 yard target range.

Ireland was war torn for many years, but not on the scale of the street violence in most bigger cities in the USA. Young punk kids here play a game called "Knockout", where they walk down a crowded street and pick a random person and punch him, the goal being a one punch knockout. And the rest of the punk kids shoot video with their cell phone. On the rare occasion that I am walking he streets, my gun is loaded and in my inside the waistband holster, ready to fire. If someone approaches me with any sort of mayhem on their mind, I will not hesitate to use it. I didn't live through 18 months of the Vietnam war to die on the street in Ohio.

We also have something here called The Constitution. That is the document that lays out the rights of our citizens. I spent those 3 years in the military defending that Constitution. The 2nd Amendment to that Constitution gives the right to the people to bear arms. My guns are legal, purchased though proper channels, each with a background check performed. Unless they start disqualifying people for speeding tickets, I am in the clear. I also went through a far more stringent background check to get a permit to carry it concealed. (My state has open carry. You can walk down the street carrying guns in the open, if you don't mind being stopped by police every 45 seconds when nervous citizens call in.)

I live in the ghetto. Crime is high here. Our street has a tightly knit group of people, all armed, who watch out for each other. We have not had a major crime in the 13 years I have lived on the street. Most of us have security cameras that start recording when there is motion. I have 2 that will set off an alarm if there is motion. I have had cats go past that camera and it beeped my phone, at which point I got out of bed, grabbed my rifle, and investigated. When I saw it was nothing, I went back to bed. I have set up 4 houses on the block with a similar system.

And that is why I have 3 guns.