Shooting Range

I had good intentions of going to the gym after dropping my son off for his youth group trip. I was dressed and ready to go straight from the drop point. Only thing was, I am weak when it comes to early morning interruptions of intended plans when the interruption includes breakfast with a friend and the original plan included running. So I easily opted out of exercise for breakfast. After all it is the most important meal of the day. So at the restaurant I gave the appearance that I had been involved in some positive physical activities, but alas, it was a mere facade.

I enjoyed eating and chatting with a friend from work and his son. In the conversation over breakfast the topic of guns was broached. And it was decided that we would head to the indoor shooting range after breakfast was wrapped up,...not leftovers, I mean just finished, completed. My friend and his son stopped to get ammo, so I went home to change OUT of my athletic attire, though I would have been fine, just athletic looking.

I met them at the range and they were signing in and choosing a pistol to rent to shoot. They chose a Sig 226 9mm. I had only shot a 38 but had seen my Dad shoot his 357 magnum, both were loud, the overwhelming wall of sound alone seemed effective protection. We had ear plugs that were foam which you roll between your pointer and thumb to make smaller so they will fit in your ear canal, then expand to fill the canal and block the sound,...worked well, but you must just leave them alone,..if you touch them they will shrink and have to expand again, and the noise of people in other lanes firing their weapons reverberates in the enclosed room seemingly magnifying it. I was a little jumpy as it was, with muffled sound, but if the plug had not fully expanded, leaving a space in which sound could travel, then it increase the possibility of me not having to wait to go the the bathroom.

My shooting seemed to be up and to the left, so if I aimed down right, I would hit the center of the target. There was a little recoil, the pistol held 15 bullets in the clip and it fired easily and rapidly if you needed. We asked about the safety and one of the cowboy looking clerks said there's no such thing as a safety. He said people who use a safety are using it as a substitute for THINKING. I see the point, but I would still want a safety for people who should not EVEN be THINKING about shooting a weapon and who might not be able to figure out a needless crutch like a safety.

I was a little frightened by being this close to something that could kill me, but at the same time, it was kind of a rush. The range sold Osama bin Laden silhouettes, and so my friend bought three. He sent Osama down the lane on the zip line to about 9 feet. Brian said that most crimes happen within 9 feet, don't know how he hears this information, but it sounded good to me and I ain't looking it up. Osama was carrying what looked to be an AK47, so in real life, our aim had better be good from the first shot. Brian did knock him right out with the first shot to the skull. We were safe. All troops can come home. We can stop looking for him in Pakistan too. We not only found Osama on American soil, but found him conveniently in our lane at the gun range and we quickly took him out of commission. Can't wait for the fake reward money.

Well, having fought our imaginary war on terror, and emptied many a cartridges of 9mm ammo, and done it all in the air conditioned confines of an indoor shooting range, having accomplished so much, I felt it was time to take a nap, so I headed back to my military compound for a little siesta after a new experience.