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These targets really do help you shoot better. Every time I put one in the black, it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Thanks to Robb @ Sharp as a Marble for hosting us this evening, and introducing us to "Shoot Straight" in Brandon, FL. I got to shoot my first Glock (10mm... shot really nice... real smooth... but I still wouldn't carry one. I like my thumb-switch safety.)
In return, I let Robb shoot my SKS and my M44 (about 5 minutes before the range closed, so we didn't have time to unload a lot of ammo.) I think he liked the SKS, but when he pulled the trigger of the M44, everyone in the room jumped and turned. What a happy feeling, shaking the entire range! The gun got some nods of approval, and even "wow, that's cool!"
I also brought my lovely wife, and a friend of hers who had never shot before (see, I'm living up to my promise which was inspired by AC.
My wife just likes keeping up on her skills. As long as she keeps putting most of the rounds in the kill-zone, she's happy. Her friend, I think, had a good time too. We spent about a half hour going over safety and function, then headed to the range. She got to shoot my .380, Robb's 10mm, and his .22 (one of those snazzy AR-15 knockoffs.) We didn't have time for everyone to shoot my rifles, since the range was closing. She was definitely a natural... maybe even *ahem* better than me...
On the way home we had the obligatory gun politics discussion, where I think I helped straighten out some of those ill-conceived liberal-media-induced ideas in her head. For one, she didn't even realize that "semi-autos" were legal! That speaks volumes about what the average uninformed individual thinks about guns. We also went over the "why aren't guns scary" bit... clearly the fact that she just had a gun in her hand helped that one. The discussion branched into the old "if they outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns" theory, which I'm pretty sure she got. Basically, she was throwing scenario after scenario at me, and I gave her the (correct) answers. At the very least, I don't think she'll ever buy wholesale into standard Brady-ite hogwash gun-control-speak ever again... at least not without thinking about it some. Actually, by the end of the discussion, I was playing devils advocate, and she was coming back at me with good points. Muahaha. Another convert? We'll see. I'd bet $100 she'll come back to the range with us. After one night at the range, I'd put her as a a "PRO-2A-Moderate" from my list of Gun Politics Personas. Before tonight, she was just a curious "2A-Indifferent". See what I mean about taking them to the range?
The tricky part of our discussion was when we started discussing who could not legally have a gun. Specifically, the perpetrator of the VT recent shooting. Most folks, including myself, agree that violent felons have given up that right. Generally dangerous people are out too. But what about "mental disorders"? It got me thinking about how sticky of an issue that is... I know some people who have been "Baker Act"ed, meaning they were not free to leave the hospital after a mental breakdown of some kind. They may have been a danger to themselves at that time, but never to anyone else. A lot of kids and young adults go through hard emotional times. It is extremely easy for a hospital to hold people in circumstances where they may be suicidal. So does that bar you from owning a gun? With proper treatment, or sometimes even time, a lot of these folks are right as rain. What do you check on your Form 4473 in a case like this? If anyone has an idea of how the law works here, I'd like some input. I know currently if you lie about being ordered into an institution, you probably won't get caught, but I'm thinking more about good law-abiding folks here who don't want to commit a felony.
Anyhoo, time for bed. I just couldn't go to bed with the smell of gunpowder and powder solvent on my fingers and not write up a quick post. |
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