Guns Don't Kill People, Husbands Who Come Home Early Do

Soo, the other day the College Republicans, a group I have thoroughly offended numerous times in a very public forum, decided to plan a stereotypical trip to the local shooting range in Virginia. As I am on their listserv and have admittedly never fired a handgun before I thought it could be fun to tag along so I signed up. I figured there would be a dozen or so people who would carpool out to this place, rent handguns, and “kill some paper.” So I get up nice and early last Sunday morning and went out to the meeting place where I met 47 other Reps who also had had a similar thought to my own. This was a rather interesting cross section of humanity too, not the stereotypical Republican, gun-loving hunters as one might think. There were big guys and very little guys, tiny blond chicks and even a nerdy looking asian kid with glasses…not the group I would have envisioned. Anyway, we were waiting for a while when a big yellow school bus pulls up and stops in front of us. We all look at each other thinking “no. this couldn’t possibly be how we are getting to a gun range!” but sure enough, it was $100 cheaper to get a school bus than a coach…so school bus it was (Reagan-nomics at its finest). Thinking this was ironic and wrong on a couple levels that I couldn’t really express to anyone around me, we headed off. Not to delve into a discussion of the idiot driver who took us to Virginia via downtown Maryland turning a 30 minute drive into an hour long scenic trek, we finally made it there. They asked who had shot before and I raised my hand (cause on a technicality I have shot before…just not a hand gun) and they put me in there first. So there I am with 5 other kids, in front of God any everyone, there with my Sig Saure 290 (I think) 9mm and 50 rounds staring down the sights at my paper target a whopping 15 feet away. It turns out I wasn’t that bad at it though I must say that the things that surprised me sound pretty stupid looking back. The sound, not surprisingly, is really loud. But I don’t just mean loud like gun-shot loud, I mean if I played the sound for someone who couldn’t see what it was, they might have guessed it was a civil war cannon firing. It was startlingly loud, even with ear plugs in! Also, the muzzle flash is actually this foot long fireball that shoots out the front of the gun. Also a little unsettling. Anyway, in the end, it turned out to be rather exhilarating. A hand gun is a shit ton of power in a very small package. Bottom line, I was God for 10 minutes declaring Jihad on that paper target (I'm going to hell for that).
Deep Breath.
Another observation. Tiny blond girls who have never shot guns will surprise you. We had the choice of 3 gun types: a 22 (the smallest gun with little recoil, smaller bullets, and less noise), a 9mm (a powerful gun with a decent kick and a nice big bullet that makes a nice big bang), and a 357 magnum revolver (a big, mean looking gun that fired a big bullet, made a loud noise, and had a shit ton of kick as there is no slide to absorb any of it). As to be expected, the smaller guys among us picked the 22, still an intimidating gun, nothing wrong with it. Most of us picked the 9mm as it is the typical gun you see on television and in movies. Very generic. However, most of the girls, including one tiny blond chick who I was very excited to see fire any gun, picked the 357 magnum! What the fuck?! I couldn’t believe it. She walked confidently into the range, loaded the 6 rounds into the revolver, cocked the hammer, aimed at the target (all of 10 ft away) fired, nearly hit herself in the face and then seemingly screamed, put the gun down, and jumped all at the same time. It was possibly one of the best things I'd seen in a while. The long lead up to that moment definitely didn’t disappoint. To her credit, however, she then stepped back up and fired the remaining 5 shots nearish to the target without screaming or jumping. I think I'm in love.
Breath.
Last observation. Outside the range in the store area there was a poster made clearly by very young children saying: “Dear Mr. Gilbert, The children at Beth Sholom Early Childhood Center thank you for donating all the bullet casings to their school. As you can see from the pictures, we used them to make beautiful menorahs to celebrate Chanuah.” (Check it) It was then signed by 20ish very young children (Dana, one of the children , wrote her name in all capital letters and wrote the N backwards). Attached to the poster were 3 pictures of makeshift menorahs made by creating 9 blocks of colored clay with brass bullet casings pressed in used as candle holders. Now, upon seeing this I commented out loud to anyone who was listening “wow. Something seems wrong with that.” As it turns out, people were listening…so much so that I almost started a riot. About half of the CR’s agreed that yes, something about that poster was wrong on some level and about half were adamant that no, nothing was wrong with that. These people, I theorize, grew up with guns. They have fond memories of hunting with their fathers when they were younger. They grew up with guns in their houses. I have no problem with this. However, there seems to be a symbolism issue with combining a religious symbol (especially a religion often wrapped up in violent conflict) with a symbol of violence…and then add in there the fact that these are very very young children and you seem to have three things that really shouldn’t mix (religion, young kids, and guns). I mean, lets not kid ourselves, I'm all for the second amendment, but this seems a bit excessive. Not sure that there is a better way to put it other than that it just rubbed me the wrong way, but it was entertaining to watch the rest of the CR’s duke it out amongst themselves INSIDE A GUN RANGE! Haha
As always…please no one read this…