Everyone Should Own an AR/AK

[Bill50]

Today I made my first trip to a gun range since moving to California. A coworker that had shot a gun once as a child was eager to go since he's tried to go to a gun range recently and wasn't allowed in because it had been too long since he shot a gun and none of his friends had ever seen a gun.

He came to pick me and some "tools" up with his girlfriend. His girlfriend said she was afraid of guns but wanted to try. When we got to the range, She did the usual flinch and duck a little bit like most people new to a shooting range do. We got set up and she shot a couple 10 round magazines out of the cheap scoped .22 I had. Then she noticed an AR-15 at the bench next to us.

She kept asking me if it was a machine gun. I told her it wasn't. I tried to explain that California made it illegal to possess machine guns. The people next to us had a semi-auto gun that was modified with a bullet button and 10 round magazines. I explained to my coworker about California and Federal laws.

She still kept asking me if these people had machine guns and looked scared until we moved to the pistol range. During our range trip,

As soon as she started mistaking 10 round AR-15s with a bullet button for machine guns, I was wishing that I had an AR-15 for her to shoot. If she could have shot an AR-15 to see how low powered it is, it could have fixed her.

 

[ChaoSS]

Wait, the gun range won't allow in people who are new to guns?


The one here has an orientation, where they would treat Massad Ayoob as if he had never seen a gun before, then the guy out on the range can give you pointers if needed, but new shooters are welcome and encouraged.


In fact, it had been awhile since I shot when I went down there, and I proceeded to make the brilliant move of placing my left thumb directly behind the slide. When they saw the blood he made a point of pointing out exactly how I should be holding the gun. Yeah, I know how to hold a gun, but he wasn't being a condescending prick about it at all. Just helpful, friendly advice.

 

[Twiki357]

"wasn't allowed in because it had been too long since he shot a gun and none of his friends had ever seen a gun."

Never heard of that when I lived in CA. But, I escaped to Arizona 12 years ago and I know CA was getting bad when I left and has become really, really bad for gun owners since then.

 

[Bill50]

He said he went with 3-5 people to an indoor range in a populated area. They probably didn't have enough time/space to baby sit that many people at once.

At the range I went to, they seemed really cool to new shooters. I gave my coworker a simple explanation of how to use each gun. I expected someone to come over and then re-lecture how to use it after seeing me give him instructions. Didn't happen. When his girlfriend needed instructions three times for every gun, had to be maneuvered into position to fire, and needed help following the instructions step by step, I was sure someone would come over and say something. The gun never got pointed in the wrong direction or loaded/chambered when it shouldn't, so no one came to bother us.

I've been to ranges in more gun friendly states and had range officers come over and try to teach me how to use my own gun after seeing me spend 10 seconds showing friends that owned rifles and handguns how pump action shotguns worked. I was actually scared to go to a range in California with new shooters but was pleasantly surprised.