{"id":197,"date":"2012-01-22T14:08:26","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T22:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jett.in\/?p=197"},"modified":"2012-01-22T14:08:26","modified_gmt":"2012-01-22T22:08:26","slug":"i-shot-a-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2012\/01\/i-shot-a-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"I Shot a Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

(three, actually!)<\/p>\n

growing up, i never thought i’d ever see a gun in real life (only murderers have guns!), let alone handle and fire one. but in Pennsylvania, do as the Pennsylvanians do, i say. (though i do have friends who shoot back home, which i forgot about.) and so, two of them took me to go to a shooting range<\/a> down by the Delaware border. i had a chance to go shoot guns in early high school when i was a boy scout (a failed experiment if there ever was one), but didn’t like the idea of firearms so never went on that trip.<\/p>\n

walking into the shooting range you are first hit with a row of stuffed animals (not the kind you give to a kid to sleep with) and a big showroom of bullets, guns, knives, and all the accessories you’ll need in order to wield a weapon. daunting, to say the least, for someone who has primarily only seen guns on TV and in movies. i mean, really. GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS! ALL GUNS ALL THE TIME! (i would have taken pictures, but there was a big “No Cellphones Allowed” sign.)<\/p>\n

since i’m always down for an adventure, this didn’t stop me, but just made me more aware of what a popular sport(? pasttime? hobby?) this is. for sure, i was scared to fire a gun, and the training lesson by the range officer (safety + how to load + how to fire + how to work the target track thingy) that went by too quickly to fully comprehend didn’t help, either. all i knew was that the gun should always be pointed downrange and when i was done, the slider would be in the back position. i’d chosen a Glock 9mm since really, this was the only gun i’d ever heard of.<\/p>\n

after loading the bullets the wrong way and wondering why the magazine wouldn’t go into the gun, i managed to get it all going. bullets in the gun, target mounted on the holder and whizzed back to about 6 yards, gun in my hands (whether or not i held it correctly is definitely debatable). weapon up, sights aligned, and slowwwlllyyy squeeeeeeeze.<\/p>\n

i was so scared. what if i loaded the gun incorrectly? what if it exploded in my hands? what if i somehow flinch as it fires, sending a bullet into the ceiling? my friends were all in different lanes and who knows if the range officer was watching me like a hawk. the worst part (that i still haven’t gotten over) is that you really have to pull a lot further back than expected before the gun fires.<\/p>\n

POP!<\/p>\n

it fired, and it went into the target! muahahaha. well, it didn’t go where i wanted because i didn’t know how to aim (later figured it out), but still. no accidents! i had to keep telling myself that if there were tweens there shooting guns, i clearly could do it. i loaded five rounds into the clip each time and before i knew it, i was done with 25.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

i switched to the other target i bought which a friend shot with me (i was the one with better aim ;)). before i knew it, 50 rounds, gone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

when all was said and done, we went through 100 rounds (split partially with friend) over a couple more targets and i also shot a Glock .40 and a revolver that some other friends had in another lane. before i got there i thought i’d only want to shoot maybe 10 rounds at most<\/em>\u00a0— i mean, who needs more than that? but dang you go through 10 in no time at all. loads of “serious fun”, as a friend calls it. i’m definitely doing this again!<\/p>\n

the best part, though? seeing an old granny (who i thought was pretty betty white-ish) shoot single-handed from a holster — not just her right hand, but her left as well (or vice versa, if she was left-handed)! i didn’t catch this, but apparently she’d shoot one clip (using a single hand), drop it out and shove another in lickety-split with the other, and continue shooting. such a BAMF. such. a. BAMF. didn’t even use printed targets at times, just the cardboard backing.<\/p>\n

i later came to learn (from a friend who figured out based on her holster?) that she was a member of the US Practical Shooting Association<\/a> and probably competed. hot damn. that’s my kind of grandma!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

edit: i love it! just two days later, my girl Terry Gross had a whole Fresh Air episode<\/a> on the Glock! and it’s so true, it’s America’s gun of choice, and mine (since really, like i said, it’s the only gun i knew by name). too bad she didn’t come to the gun range on sunday to do some field research, though i’d prefer to meet her under different circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(three, actually!) growing up, i never thought i’d ever see a gun in real life (only murderers have guns!), let alone handle and fire one….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"I Shot a Gun","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[348,555],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nI Shot a Gun - Wanderlusty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2012\/01\/i-shot-a-gun\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Shot a Gun - 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