SSN Vet
Member
I’ve made friends with my banker, who is a naturalized citizen from Ireland. A year back I came across him surfing the gun racks at a local sporting goods store and was interested to see that this was part of his standard “tour America” for a niece who was visiting from the “homeland”. He likes to dispel the typical “Euro-attitudes” about life in the U.S.A. by pointing out that there are hundreds of guns that can be legally purchased and yet people aren’t running around the parking lot shooting each other.
Upon further inquiry, I learn that he served in the Irish army and was a marksmanship coach. So I invite him to the range, thinking that I’ve got a new shooting buddy here, only to be disappointed to learn that he burned out on shooting, hans’t fired a weapon in 15 years and has no desire to do so.
Time warp ahead to this July. I’m trading e-mails with him regarding a HELOC application and he asks if he can cash in that rain check for the range trip, as this year his 16 year old nephew is visiting from the Emerald Isles and he want to show him that friendly, sane and rational people own guns in the U.S.A.
So we set up a rendezvous at the rod n’ gun and I begin to debate what “sane and rational” weapons I should bring. Finally I decide it would be better to not freak any body out with the EBRs and load up the Marlin 60, a scoped Marlin 336 (in 30-30) and a 6” Taurus .357 mag. revolver.
I started in the parking lot with a little philosophy that guns are like power tools in that they are designed to do a specific job, they harness a lot of energy and being potentially dangerous, they need to be handle with respect. Then we go over the 4 rules in detail, summarize them and I have laddie state them for me.
We put ~200 rounds down range with the M at 50 yd w/ open sights, going over the rifle function and different shooting positions. We even got uncle to jump in.
Switching to the M @ 100 yd. we put ~30 rounds down range.
Then we move over to the pistol range and put ~75 rounds of .38 Sol. target loads and a box of .357 mag 158 gr soft points.
We had the whole place pretty much to ourselves and the weather cooperated nicely. Nephew was a smart lad and was very interested in my detailed explanations of how metallic cartridges work, internal, external and terminal ballistics, etc…
We all had a great time. And though I didn’t shoot that much myself, I enjoyed playing the teacher. I made sure we retrieved the better targets and put his name and date on them so he had a souvenir. But unfortunately none of us thought to bring a camera.
Uncle was very pleased that safety was the #1 thing emphasized and that there was a lot of instruction going on. Laddie was just one big smile, despite his best efforts to be "mature".
My conclusion is that even when they are “socialized” to think of firearms as evil incarnate, every red blooded boy out there really wants to handle and shoot guns and that it’s quite a shame that society puts so much emphasis on academics and athletics that many don’t get the opportunity to have fun shooting.
Yup, like all the other power tools in my shop……..guns are just plane cool
.
Upon further inquiry, I learn that he served in the Irish army and was a marksmanship coach. So I invite him to the range, thinking that I’ve got a new shooting buddy here, only to be disappointed to learn that he burned out on shooting, hans’t fired a weapon in 15 years and has no desire to do so.
Time warp ahead to this July. I’m trading e-mails with him regarding a HELOC application and he asks if he can cash in that rain check for the range trip, as this year his 16 year old nephew is visiting from the Emerald Isles and he want to show him that friendly, sane and rational people own guns in the U.S.A.
So we set up a rendezvous at the rod n’ gun and I begin to debate what “sane and rational” weapons I should bring. Finally I decide it would be better to not freak any body out with the EBRs and load up the Marlin 60, a scoped Marlin 336 (in 30-30) and a 6” Taurus .357 mag. revolver.
I started in the parking lot with a little philosophy that guns are like power tools in that they are designed to do a specific job, they harness a lot of energy and being potentially dangerous, they need to be handle with respect. Then we go over the 4 rules in detail, summarize them and I have laddie state them for me.
We put ~200 rounds down range with the M at 50 yd w/ open sights, going over the rifle function and different shooting positions. We even got uncle to jump in.
Switching to the M @ 100 yd. we put ~30 rounds down range.
Then we move over to the pistol range and put ~75 rounds of .38 Sol. target loads and a box of .357 mag 158 gr soft points.
We had the whole place pretty much to ourselves and the weather cooperated nicely. Nephew was a smart lad and was very interested in my detailed explanations of how metallic cartridges work, internal, external and terminal ballistics, etc…
We all had a great time. And though I didn’t shoot that much myself, I enjoyed playing the teacher. I made sure we retrieved the better targets and put his name and date on them so he had a souvenir. But unfortunately none of us thought to bring a camera.
Uncle was very pleased that safety was the #1 thing emphasized and that there was a lot of instruction going on. Laddie was just one big smile, despite his best efforts to be "mature".
My conclusion is that even when they are “socialized” to think of firearms as evil incarnate, every red blooded boy out there really wants to handle and shoot guns and that it’s quite a shame that society puts so much emphasis on academics and athletics that many don’t get the opportunity to have fun shooting.
Yup, like all the other power tools in my shop……..guns are just plane cool
.
