My first experience with a real firearm
This past week my buddy Josh took me to shoot at a gun range in Macon. I had never shot a gun apart from my BB gun I had when I was a kid, and Josh reassured me that it would be a good time, and an adequate stress reliever (not that I get stressed easily). Now, I never really had the urge to shoot a gun, and my only knowledge of them was through “Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops,” and other shooting video games, so I decided it was about time to know what a real gun felt like.
As we rode up to Eagle Gun range in Macon, I was unsure of how the place would be. It looked like a large tin, pre-manufactured building, and I got the impression that there would be a bunch of rebel flags and rednecks inside judging by the large trucks parked outside. I was totally wrong, we walked into a very nice looking storefront with average looking people hanging out, albeit there were guns everywhere, and some of the employees were carrying sidearms, something you might not see the greeters at Wal-mart doing.
We approached the counter and proceeded to rent a lane. I had to sign some paperwork and got to pick out my gun and my target. First, the gun: I knew what I wanted to rent, the M1911. It was the military’s sidearm since 1911 until 1985 when the Baretta M9 replaced it; with all its years of service, it is a truly vetted weapon. My idea was that if its good enough for the U.S. military, then its good enough for me—and it’s the sidearm I use in Black Ops, so I wanted to know how it felt in real life. Second, the target: this was probably the most exciting part to me, since there were over 10 variations to choose from. I chose probably the most ridiculous target they had (a close second was Osama Bin Laden): it looked like a cross between 80’s James Hetfield of Metallic (you know, when he had the long hair and the handlebar mustache) and Dog the Bounty Hunter. He was there in his wife-beater tank-top with a revolver in his hand.
We finally got to the lane, I was all loaded up, in my shooting stance with my finger on the trigger ready to fire. I was so nervous to shoot the first shot that I’m surprised I hit the target since my hand was shaking. I pulled the trigger. BANG! It scared the crap out of me. It was like something had exploded in my hand, since incidentally, something had exploded—in a controlled fashion that is. I steadily got accustom to the gun and enjoyed it.
Coming out of this experience, I have a huge respect for guns now. I think that as a part of citizenship courses, you should be taken to a gun range to shoot a gun. While I’m not advocating for or against certain gun rights, but I think this kind of experience will allow you to make a better decision one way or the other.
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