Shooting Range

This might sound weird, but shooting a gun has been on my bucket list.  A very long time ago I held a gun at a friend’s house and it was somewhat chilling.  Having something in my hand that can cause damage or death was scary.   But also possibly powerful as protection.   I scooted away from that friend’s gun, but have contemplated in recent years if it would be worth it to have a gun as a single woman in a big city with escalating crime. 

I do respect the 2^nd amendment and I wish we could figure out why people have the need to shoot a gun at others.   The guns are not the problem – the people are, and I hope we can come up with a solution to help them before they need to take a tool to hurt or kill someone.

With that said, my now ex-husband bought a few guns as a hobby years ago  – he grew up around them and I hadn’t – and before we split we had planned to go to the shooting range so he could teach me how to properly handle a gun.   Well, life got in the way and the day we were going to go to the range, my dog Ringo was failing, and I was expecting to have him put to sleep.  Fortunately, Ringo lasted another year, but my marriage didn’t.   When I found out my husband was playing with another woman, the first thing he did was take his guns out of the house.  Apparently, he thought I would use them on him.  Nope.  You are not worth me going to prison for murder. And, being a klutz, I would have probably shot myself instead.

Fast forward three years.  My ex and I are friendly and last week he took me to the shooting range.  I guess he trusts me not to shoot any of his parts off.  Which I won’t.

It was fun!  He belongs to a range near LAX and after giving me earplugs and eye protection and a quick lesson on loading the magazine and making sure I was handling the .22 properly, we blasted through about 100 rounds of ammo and I will say, that after I finally learned how to line up the sight, I did pretty well.  It was fun to learn a new skill and I am considering getting a gun for protection.   Jury is still out but it is a consideration.

I will also say that I would never hunt for sport.  Just my opinion.  I think the only time I would shoot an animal is if it’s coming at me and planning to cause harm, or if I am really starving.  I was an animal science major at my university and just can’t shoot anything for fun or to hang on a wall.  I honor the life of fauna and humans. I could try to shoot a skeet though 🙂