My friend's background:
Does the person have a physical problem that must be dealt with? Example: Arthritis, injury, carpal tunnel, etc.
Nope.. in fact, we're both boxers, so his hands are quite strong and in good condition. He's in excellent physical shape - the kid looks like a Greek statue. I wish I had his shape, that's for sure.
What are the person's shooting experiences? Did some idiot start a newbie off with a .454 Casull (it happens) and there are residual effects that need to be resolved?
New Years, 2000.. He'd just bought his Glock 21 a week earlier, and decided to shoot it for the first time. He fired into the air, and a look came over his face I'd never seen before. At this time, I'd never owned or shot a .45, so I just assumed the power shocked him a little bit.
Fast forward almost 6 years. He's never shot that Glock again. I have no idea why he bought it, except maybe he just wanted to be a tough guy.
He has no ammunition for it, he's never cleaned it... I cleaned it for him before we went to the range that day - his first time ever going to a range. He still refused to take it. Maybe he scared himself or something all those years ago.
Does the handgun fit the person or is he/she just barely hanging on to it and has no real control, finger barely reaches the trigger, etc. Does the person have a proper grip on the handgun?
He chose the XD because it was the most similar to a Glock. They had a G17 and G19 he could have rented, but for whatever reason he went with the XD.
I noticed he was doing the Hollywood grip - you know, the one where the person cups the bottom of the grip/mag in their hand? I corrected him as often as possible (and as nice as possible), and he would do a little better for a short time, then go right back to the Hollywood grip.
It wasn't the fact that he flinched, it was the amount of flinching that I found intriguing. I expected some flinching, just not as severe as it was. Afterwards he just opined about how hard it was to shoot a pistol, and that he never expected it to be that difficult.
"I told you, you d***. What, did you think I spend every weekend at the range just to get my guns dirty?"
I'll explain why I said that to him later.
Training? Did the person start off with a low-recoil caliber or air pistol and work up from there? Was there any training at all? Does the person have a familiarity with handguns and is comfortable with them?
He pretended to, and I think that's what all the embarrasment was about.
This kid and I grew up together. He's always been somewhat of a tough guy. He was the first one of us who could legally buy a gun, and did so as soon as he turned 21. I spoke earlier about his first time and only time shooting it.
Fast forward to last year. I've been shooting regularly for a couple of years now. I get my CCW and join THR. I increase my reading, training, and shooting. I'm becoming the "go to" guy for advice, for all my friends who like guns. Me and this friend start school together.
Guns are the talk of choice at lunchtime and cigarette breaks among the guys at school. He and another guy (who was a felon and can't own guns) act annoyed whenever the topic comes up. I notice this, and ask him to come to a range with me.
"I don't have time for that s#*@."
He starts hanging out with said felon on the weekends. I go to the range w/my girlfriend, like always. I ask a few more times, and always get that same harsh BS response. "I don't have time for that s#%!"
So I stop asking.
One day he asks why I don't hang out with him and Mr. Felon - I reply I'm too busy practicing something useful to go out of town and get drunk every weekend with some criminal who thinks he's a tough guy. He asks why I never ask him to go to the range anymore. I reply that I'm tired of being treated like a jerk for offering to pay to teach someone something they should want to know anyway, since they're a gunowner and all. That seemed to provoke thought.
I extend one more invitation, and inform him that if he acts like a jerk about it, I'll never ask again. He takes me up on it this time. We go over safety, how to run the different types of guns I own, all seems fine and good. We get to the range, and he doesn't do so hot.
Well, what a surprise! Turns out you can't just throw a gun under your mattress for 6 years, then pick it up and shoot 4-leaf clovers. During our little bouts over going to the range, he'd day things like "I don't need to practice to shoot someone in my house." And he was always a jerk about it, like he resented someone telling him that simply owning a gun is not enough, and that he needs to practice.
On a few occasions when heading out to town to see Mr. Felon, he'd take his loaded gun, and transport it completely illegally. Basically, he was carrying without a license. When I told him he should look into getting his CCW so he wouldn't get in trouble, he'd do the same thing - turn into a jerk and start an argument about what he didn't need to do. It was like he was doing it intentionally, just to piss me off, and act like I was some kind of gun-nut psycho for wanting a CCW (I never told him I got my carry permit, for obvious reasons).
Frankly, I'd had enough of his crap and wanted to teach him a somewhat humbling lesson. When we got to the range, the first thing I did was hand him a mag, and some ammo, and set the target out to 15 feet.
"So what do I do?" He asks...
"Nah homie, you're the one who told me he could hit someone without any training... You show ME what to do... This guy's in your house. Show me you can really back up all that s#@% you talked at school and hit the target."
I smile a sarcastic smile, and let him shoot his 15 rounds. We pull the paper back on a full-sized silhouette target, and there isn't a single mark on it. He looks baffled, like he can't believe that happened. I manage to hide it, but there's this insatiable satisfaction... I've knocked him off his high horse, and proved my point... THIS ISN'T HOLLYWOOD, AND SHOOTING A GUN AIN'T EASY. To drive the point home, I put his target back out, and inserted another mag. I dumped all 15 rounds right into the chest of the target, one hand rapid fire. I bring the target back, and he looks like he's seen a ghost.
"Practice, my friend... That's what I've been telling you. The only difference between the way you shoot and the way I shoot is practice." Hence, my response to his stupid statement on the way home. I figured it was high time that the cynicism come from me, for once.
As soon as I proved my point, I apologized - and told him that I didn't mean to bust his bubble, so to speak - but that he had to learn that lesson for himself because he just wouldn't listen before. He admitted that it was scary knowing that this whole time he had that gun, he was still completely incapable of defending himself. We had somewhat of a heart-to-heart about the way he'd acted at school. All seemed good. We finished out the day, and at the end, he was actually putting all of his rounds into the target. The range session ended when I let him shoot my .357Sig - which he asked to do, but apparently the recoil overwhelmed him, and we'd probably shot a good 500 rounds of 9mm before I let him shoot the Sig. His confidence was up, and he told me it was the most fun he'd ever had.
Next week, when I called to see if he wanted to go again...
"I ain't got time for that s#!%."
I'm sure you can tell we don't hang out anymore.
That was the last time I called him. This trip to the range, and his attitude are what inspired the thread, basically. Ironically, tough guy is the only one who had problems with the 9mm. All the other new shooters I've taught personally were not tough guys (or girls), but yet they all did so much better shooting all of my guns, not just the 9mm... so maybe it's a tough guy thing in some sense.
I just found it funny that the cockiest person I ever met happens to be the one with the least tolerance for recoil. But then recently here on THR, I've noticed some of our members saying the same thing. So here I am, asking what you folks think of this phenomena - and I'm glad all of you have taken time to answer. Thanks again. I'll shut up now since I seem to have written a books worth of information about my half-ass anti friend and our trip to the range.
Thoughts on how I handled that experience are welcome as well... I realize that letting him prove my point with his poor shooting might not have helped, but I felt it was necessary given his attitude. FWIW, I'd never do something like that to a new shooter who simply wanted to learn, but sometimes you just have to punch folks in the face with their own ignorance. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.
