My first gun experience
When I turned 10, I was allowed to buy my first BB gun. I had wanted one since my brother got his years earlier, but my parents held me off for as long as they could. I don't remember the brand or how much I spent, but I remember looking through the selection at Wal-Mart and making my choice based on the special point scope that came with one. I think it might have been called the Cobra, now that I think about it. Anyway, it was all black and had the air pump and special sight to mount on top and I was set. The best part? It was newer and better than my brother's gun, which I had coveted so much over the years.
Mom made all these rules about what we could shoot, and made us take a hunter safety course so we knew how to handle "firearms." The rules were that anything alive we shot we had to either eat or dissect -- not kidding. Neither of those options sounded very appealing, so most of the times we just set up my old Barbies, A & W Rootbeer cans and green army men up across the yard.
We lived out in the middle of no where, with trees and brush surrounding our house, so we decided to go "hunting" one day. I'm not sure what our plan was, since it was obvious that we weren't hunting for little plastic army men out there, but I guess we thought mom wouldn't notice us creeping off into the woods WITH our BB guns.
I was too scared of the maternal wrath to shoot at anything but a couple frogs in the pond, but my brother decided to take on a squirrel.
He killed it, and I was mortified. Not only did I wonder how he would explain this to mom, but I thought that squirrels were too nice to kill.
Needless to say, we didn't tell mom, and found a broken down chimney to hide the evidence in. I'm pretty sure mom could have seen the whole thing unfold from her bedroom window upstairs, but who knows if she was watching. She never said anything, so probably not.
Anyway, the whole point of that story is to say that BB guns might be dangerous to squirrels and frogs, but definitely not to people. On the other hand, I got the chance to shoot some real guns a few weeks ago at Women's Retreat, and I can see why my parents tried to keep me away from them for so long. Not that I went crazy or anything, but I had forgotten how much fun it is to shoot stuff. I shot a .40 smith and wesson, a .22 handgun, and a 20 gauge shotgun. The shotgun was the best. I even shot skeet, and hit on my first try! It was awesome.
Mom made all these rules about what we could shoot, and made us take a hunter safety course so we knew how to handle "firearms." The rules were that anything alive we shot we had to either eat or dissect -- not kidding. Neither of those options sounded very appealing, so most of the times we just set up my old Barbies, A & W Rootbeer cans and green army men up across the yard.
We lived out in the middle of no where, with trees and brush surrounding our house, so we decided to go "hunting" one day. I'm not sure what our plan was, since it was obvious that we weren't hunting for little plastic army men out there, but I guess we thought mom wouldn't notice us creeping off into the woods WITH our BB guns.
I was too scared of the maternal wrath to shoot at anything but a couple frogs in the pond, but my brother decided to take on a squirrel.
He killed it, and I was mortified. Not only did I wonder how he would explain this to mom, but I thought that squirrels were too nice to kill.
Needless to say, we didn't tell mom, and found a broken down chimney to hide the evidence in. I'm pretty sure mom could have seen the whole thing unfold from her bedroom window upstairs, but who knows if she was watching. She never said anything, so probably not.
Anyway, the whole point of that story is to say that BB guns might be dangerous to squirrels and frogs, but definitely not to people. On the other hand, I got the chance to shoot some real guns a few weeks ago at Women's Retreat, and I can see why my parents tried to keep me away from them for so long. Not that I went crazy or anything, but I had forgotten how much fun it is to shoot stuff. I shot a .40 smith and wesson, a .22 handgun, and a 20 gauge shotgun. The shotgun was the best. I even shot skeet, and hit on my first try! It was awesome.
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