How do you feel/what do you think when seeing someone with a gun?

[JA]

For me, if I see, for example, a neighbor with a gun strapped to their side or guns in a person’s home, I reflexively feel anxious and repulsed, and associate guns with crime or crazy right-wing people. I’m perfectly well aware that there are more reasons to own guns than to commit violence or express a political viewpoint, but my immediate reaction to the sight of them is always the same.

[Thank you for being a friend...]

The only time I ever see guns is when cops are wearing them.  There was one time an uncle took me into a gator-infested moat in Florida and he took a gun with him on the boat.  Then I felt safe.

[Suburbia]

It doesn't make me feel anyway.

I live in NJ, I see police officers with guns all the time.

They are the only people in NJ allowed with guns, in the gun-grabber state of NJ.

I would feel neutral.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

1. It makes me feel nervous   
2. I mostly associate guns with crime


But seriously, seeing someone with gun in Poland is so rare that seeing person like that probably would make anyone there somehow nervous.

[Torie]

If the gun is visible and it is not in a hunting setting (or clearly in a situation where someone is getting ready to go hunting), it makes me feel very nervous if being held or worn by a civilian. I mostly associate guns with hunting and recreation, since that is how guns are mostly used. But that is precisely what makes me feel nervous about them in more urban settings. If several folks are seen in a hood with guns, that suggests to me that it might be time to leave the hood. I am just in the wrong zip code.

[Ohioguy29]

If someone's open carrying really ostentatiously for no reason at like, the grocery store, I think, "that guy's probably a douchebag." Beyond that I have no strong feelings.

[dead0man]

It doesn't make me feel any particular way

I mostly associate guns with self defense and safety


I've been around a lot of people with guns in my adult life, mostly USAF security dudes, so like real guns.  But also well trained and there for an obvious reason.  The few times I've seen guns on people in street clothes, they've always presented themselves in a professional manner.  I've never seen a shady looking guy at the local store with a gun, that might make me nervous....but a professional looking person, nah.

[DC Al Fine]

Context seems very important here.

[courts]

not any particular feeling.
safety and self defense.

[DavidB.]

It doesn't make me feel any particular way

I mostly associate guns with self defense and safety

This. Context-dependent though. If I saw someone with a gun in my neighborhood I'd definitely feel very unsafe because that's illegal af and someone like that isn't up to anything good. But in countries where carrying is legal, it doesn't make me feel anything in particular. And when I'm in Israel in Judea/Samaria with a friend who's carrying a gun and we're on the road or at their place, it makes me feel much more safe. I also feel safe when I see military police with guns here in the Netherlands.

[Lechasseur]

Context seems very important here.

[parochial boy]

Mostly it makes me want to grow a mullet and drink white wine

no-one will get this joke, but I don't care

[Mr. Smith]

That depends on the type of gun.

[fhtagn]

Context seems very important here.

[junior chįmp]

Seeing someone with a gun just reminds me of my father coming back from his stint in the military when I was younger

[Peanut]

I'd feel nervous, and would associate it with crime.

[IceSpear]

It doesn't make me feel any particular way

I mostly associate guns with self defense and safety

[ON Progressive]

It depends on the situation.

On a gun range, I wouldn't even care at all.

In public though, I would be very anxious given that we don't have CCW in Canada.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Yea there is no open or concealed carry laws in Canada. We have much stricter gun laws and a much less of a individualist nature than the US. In the US, if a person walks into a restaurant with a AR-15, a lot of people would just say he is exercising his 2nd amendment rights. In Canada, if I ever saw someone other than a cop or in a hunting situation with a gun, I would assume that they are there to shoot up the place.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Neutral. I'm Israeli, so I'm used to guns and I'll be carrying one in September when I'll briefly be a soldier in recruit training. If I'll see a suspicious-looking person with a gun, I'll obviously feel nervous, but I mostly associate them with self-defence considering the big majority of gun owners in Israel are soldiers, cops, guards and people who served in combat roles and thus have a license.