Guns can be FUN!

Ok, obviously that title might make some people angry. Guns are not meant to be fun toys, they are meant for safety and protection. However, that does not mean that a person cannot enjoy themselves immensely while honing their shooting skills at the range or a friends ranch.

One of my more recent gun purchases was this Springfield 1911. (My other guns are a Ruger 10/22 rifle and a Sig Sauer SP 2022 9mm) I'll admit, it was an impulse buy. I saw them online, I knew people who had them, and by damn I was going to have one myself. .45 cal is much more expensive to shoot than the 9mm I am used to and the gun is very finicky about ammo, but when you have the thing in your hands at the range, it's like pure heaven.

Another fun thing about guns is the fact that almost anyone can learn and use one. It's not rocket science. Pull trigger, gun goes bang. Pretty self-explanatory. However, the ease of use means that shooting doesn't always have to be something you do alone. I even made it a point to bring Molly along with me when I went to the range a while ago and had one of the proudest moments as a husband that I've ever had.

Molly and I had been at our station for about 20 minutes and it came time to change out the targets. Just as we were changing out targets a group of 5 or 6 "college buddies" came and parked at the stations next to ours. As they laughed and joked, Molly got a little "apprehensive" since she didn't really like anyone watching her do things like this. Well, I line-up first and fire the first magazine at my target. Then Molly steps up to shoot. Just as she gets to the station (I go back behind her a few feet, out of the firing line and so I can see how she is shooting), one of the guys walks in between her and I on the way back from tossing some empty boxes into the trash can. He stops for a split second to watch Molly's 1st shot at the target. Boom, Dead on bulls-eye. She had been shooting ok at the start, but had never hit dead center like she did on this shot. She glanced back and saw me and the guy watching and I gave her that "good job" look. She turned back around and fired her second shot. Boom, 2nd shot landed about a millimeter away from the 1st shot. Simply amazing. At that point, the dude turned back to me and mouthed "Wow!". As Molly continued to shoot, I watching him go back to his group of friends and proceed to point over to our station and re-tell the story about the hottie that just shot two nearly perfect shots in a row while he watched.

I was beaming. That's my girl!

It's a shame I haven't made the time to get back to the range in the last month or so. I really enjoy it and it is a great way to relieve stress. If you are ever in Houston, just let me know and I will bring you out to the range and let you squeeze off some rounds. If you didn't like shooting before, I bet you will after we're done.