Would you believe it? I’ve already got a New Shooter request!

And this is in addition to a friend who hasn’t gone shooting for years, and another friend who wants to learn basic firearm handling and safety.  Three guests lined up already — damn shame Lissaville Gun Club only allows one guest per month!

This latest new-shooter-wannabe is my friendly co-volunteer Delta (not her real name), who does meds at the Lissaville Animal Shelter.  We initially broached the topic the Sunday after this summer’s bloggershoot, when she asked me why I was so hopped up and what I’d done the past weekend.  I casually mentioned that I’d gone shooting with some friends, and she was FASCINATED.  Ever since she’s been periodically checking to see how my journey to the LTC was going.

Well, this past Sunday I was able to happily tell her that I had my license.  Her overriding emotion at this point is curiosity.  She asked me why I was interested in shooting — whether it was entertainment or self-defense — and listened closely to my explanation of why it was both.  I did a quick Four Rules rundown on gun safety, and she agreed wholeheartedly that guns could be very dangerous, but it was the intelligence and diligence of the handler (or rather lack thereof), not the weapon itself, that caused danger.  She told me frankly that she’s never held a gun, never seen a gun at close range, and doesn’t know at all how they work, but that all the people she knows who shoot love it.  Finally, when she heard that I was planning on going shopping next weekend, she enthusiastically accepted my invitation to go shooting once I was all set up.

Boo-yah!

So . . . what tips do y’all have for me?  I’ve been reading good stuff here, here, here, and here.  I also tried, and failed, to find Jay G’s ruminations on taking new shooters/female shooters out.  (Jay, why can I never find what I’m looking for on your site???)

My plans so far:

1. Give her an index card with the Four Rules to memorize before we go shooting.  Quiz her in a friendly way to make sure she has them pat before we hit the range.

2. Outdoor range would be better than indoor range.  It’s not as loud and I can have her go plinking with a .22.

3. Cans are good — bean cans, tomato cans, the bigger the better.  Anything that will go “BINK!” and either move or fall over.

4. If weather prohibits the outdoor range, try and pick a slack time of day for the indoor range.  The upside is that we could have the targets as close as we liked, to start off with.

5. If we’re at the indoor range, make sure I have some spatter targets; something that will splat bright orange or green and give her instant gratification when she makes a shot.

6. Concentrate on safety basics; technique can wait until later.  If she gets in the habit of safe handling NOW, chances are she’ll keep those habits.

7. Start on something small.  We’re planning on getting a Sig 239 for my gun and a Sig Mosquito for training purposes; that will give the feeling of handling a real gun but the kick and cheap firing cost of a .22.

8. The outing won’t be about me.  I can go practice anytime I want.  It’s about making sure Delta learns to safely handle guns and has fun while doing it.

What else should I keep in mind?

UPDATE:  Thank you, everyone!  I agree that I’ll need to be rock-solid on my own bangsticks before I let anyone else handle them.  As I wrote in an email earlier, it’s a bit scary and humbling; I feel like anyone being introduced to shooting should be with someone super-knowledgeable, with decades of experience and ten different guns to try.  That being said, since I’m the only gunnie Delta knows, I’ll just have to make sure I do a very safe and good job!

Also, Jay G links.  Thanks!

Proud owner of an LTC

That’s right.

I am now the (careful, responsible) owner of a Class A Large Capacity License to Carry Firearms.

SQUEE!!! 

I’d like to thank the Academy . . .

No, of course not.  But I would like to thank everyone who encouraged me to step onto this path.  That would be the entire membership of my “Bloggers I’ve Met (!)” blogroll, with particular gratitude to TOTWTYTR and Doubletrouble (and his lovely wife).  Thank you to Breda, Tam and Caleb, who welcomed a baby gunchick into the fold.

Jay G gets his own paragraph of thanks — without the bloggershoots he organized, who knows whether I would have entered the gunnie world?

And last but not least — thank you to my husband Mike.  He was the one to actually schedule the safety course, download the forms, and schedule the appointment with the police.  Without him, I’d probably be sitting here wistfully saying, “Gosh, it’d be nice to have a license . . . “

Happy Monday, everyone!

UPDATE:  Jay G links.  Thanks!

Chivalry versus condescension

I’ve mentioned before that the gunnies around here are some of the most courteous, friendly and welcoming people I’ve come across.

Some of it stems from the sheer difficulty of becoming a gunnie in this neck of the woods.  Anyone who wants to climb that mountain of regulatory hoops (how’s that for a mixed metaphor?!) is welcomed as a comrade-in-arms.  (Jay G’s written about this before — about how the burdensome laws make 2A folks band together, that when you find someone who shoots, you’ve likely got some things in common — but I couldn’t find the post.  Jay? UPDATE — this is the one I meant.  Thanks Jay!)

On the other hand, some folks feel it’s their duty to introduce new people, especially women, into the joys of shooting.  LawDog, for example, has written about the proper (and less-than-stellar) way to break in a newbie and feels that the future of the shooting depends on women.  And I wouldn’t exactly classify Texas as gun-hostile!

I’ve come across multiple essays explaining

- things to avoid unless you want your wife to hate guns

- chastising gun shop workers who ignore women or assume they can only handle .22

- warning against misogyny, even the well-meant kind, in the gunnie community

And the one time I’ve walked into a gun shop, the owner chatted me up in a friendly way then commented how nice it was to see a woman walk into the store.

In other words, I’ve found that the shooters around here are overwhelmingly chivalrous, not patronizing.

Which is more than I can say for the range officer who told Shoothouse Barbie she would have to wear ear protection “because guns are loud.”

Pissant.

Double bleg

Two pieces of advice being solicited this morning, dear readers!

First off . . .  how does one choose a holster?  I know, I know, try lots of stuff and see how it works . . . but where’s the starting point?  There are lots of things one needs to purchase before actually getting a gun (e.g. holster, bulletproof vest or big bucket of sand, cleaning kit, gun safe, etc.).  Where do I begin?  Which shops do y’all patronize?  How do I go about this business WITHOUT dropping a few hundred bucks on experimental holsters that I’ll never use?

***

And the second piece of advice I’d like today is:

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR COWORKER WILL NOT BLOW HER GODS-BEDAMNED NOSE????

The woman in the cube next to mine has severe sinus problems.  She continuously sniffles, snorks, and snerks.  You can HEAR the gunk in her neb move about as she snorts.  It’s absolutely disgusting.

And she does it VERY BLOODY FREQUENTLY.  I counted once — in the space of one minute, the longest she went without horking was thirteen seconds.

Mind you, there were a lot of five- and six-second intervals before we made it to that golden thirteen.

I freely admit that I have my fair share of character flaws.  It so happens that one of my flaws centers around aural cues such as sniffles — said flaw being that I cannot tune them out. No matter how hard I try to concentrate on my work, I find myself keeping half an ear out for that next, repulsive HNGKKKKKKK inhale.

It actually got bad enough that I broke all sorts of work etiquette rules and offered her a tissue.  Very politely, very sweetly, very hesitantly called her name and, when she looked up over the connecting wall, held up a box of tissues and sweetly, hesitantly asked if she needed one.

“Oh,” she said blankly.  “No,” she said flatly.

Four seconds later:  “CNHNNNKKKKK.”

I’m contemplating wearing my hair down and loose today so that I can hide earplugs.

There’s gotta be a better way.  Help me, Readers wan Kanobe — you’re my only hope!!

UPDATE:  Jay G links, and SayUncle links us both.  Thanks!  And thank you, readers, for the great suggestions in the comments!

Odds ‘n’ Ends

On the way to the Shootout at the Jay G Corral:

LISSA:  (spotting cows) “Moooooooo!”

MIKE:  “Oh, are there doggies?”

LISSA:  (completely blank)  “Whaaaaaaa?” (Long pause.)  “Ohhhhhhhh.“

***

Sunday was one of those Patriot games I’m quite, quite sure was better seen on our TV than live-in-person.  After a while, though, it just got sad.  Why don’t they have a Mercy Rule in football?

***

Is there a MA law about buying more than one gun a month?  I vaguely remember such a law, but I don’t know if it’s applicable here.  Anyone want to save me the Google-fu?

***

Mike got inspired by the wretched weather this weekend and attached plastic insulation sheets over our screen doors.  The living room does seem warmer and less drafty!  Of course, I am smart enough to tell Mike that, regardless of whether it’s true.  My one big regret was that I didn’t have any beer in the fridge to hand him afterward.  So sorry darlin!

***

Tried a new recipe from my favorite cookbook (thanks Mom!)!  Lessons learned:

1) Stuffed chicken is YUMMY, but takes longer to prep than I thought it would

2) Broccoli rabe is DISGUSTING.  It is NOT the same as broccolini.  It tastes like stale, bitter broccoli with a dash of quinine and a touch of mold.

***

We did it.  We waited until the cat was sleepy and unsuspecting and then we shoved him into the Mickey Mouse costume.  Pix will be ready for Halloween!!  (Jen from Wisconsin — you should TOTALLY dress Elvis up like Elvis!!!!)

Happy Tuesday!  Don’t freeze!

Range report: Shootout at the Jay G Corral

We *finally* made it work!!!  Mr. Jay G kindly made some time for us Saturday afternoon, and we trekked up to Jayville for some shooty fun and shameless razzing back and forth elegant and erudite conversation.

We started off small, using the Smith & Wesson 422 .22LR.  After I’ve had more practice with bigger calibers, .22LR feels a little odd; it feels almost like a pop gun, instead of a *real* gun.  We moved on to the Sig 226 in 9 mm and I felt more at home.  It had a lovely-smooth action with very gentle recoil.

Jay - UL; Me - LL; Mike - LR

Moving on, we tried the Sig 232 in .380 ACP.  It was rougher on my hands than the Sig 226, but it was still smooth, with nice accurate sights.

And then we tried the Snubbie.  No, not the Snubbie From Hell — I *like* my husband, and I have a healthy sense of self-preservation.

Holy cow I disliked this gun.

This picture is after we’d run through the .380 and the Snubbie.  Note the two big, blank, black, mocking targets.  That’s right — both Mike and I failed to put a single freakin’ round into the target.

Jay - UL and ML, Me - LL and UR; Mike - MR and LR

But, you know, I’m very glad we tried it.  Because now we know — I do not want a snubbie revolver as my carry gun!!!!

At Mike’s request, Jay also brought along a beautiful Colt Gold Cup 1911 in .45.  (Is there any other kind?)  I was a little wary of shooting .45 — my hands are not that big, you know — but actually it was quite friendly!  The sights were perfect and the recoil wasn’t bad at all.  It *was* very heavy — I wouldn’t want to hold it steady for a long period of time — but I ventilated my target, y’all.

Fixed the blank targets! Mine is middle-right, Mike's is upper-right.

Done with pistol shooting, we set up some reactive targets for rifle shooting.

And . . . I was hard-put to hit a single damn one.

But here’s the kicker — we did a bit of pistol work to clean out the loaded magazines, and I started hitting the clays with Jay’s Smith & Wesson 39-2 in 9 mm.  Yes, that’s right — I did better with a pistol at that range than I did with a rifle.  What the hell?!? That can’t be right!!  (Jay thinks it’s ’cause I’m just more used to pistols . . . definitely possible.)

Click to embiggen!

Can I just mention my lack of surprise that Mike and Jay geeked out together?  Calibers, chemicals, you name it, they dissected it. Oh yes, I was mightily entertained, I was!

In conclusion — a lovely time was had by all, Mike finally got to light off a rifle, I discovered how much I hate snubbies, and I discovered a surprising liking for the Colt 1911 .45.

THANK YOU JAY!!!!!

(posted with no proofing ’cause I gotta go jump in the shower — I reserve the right to edit later!)

Gunnie dreams

According to Kathy Jackson at The Cornered Cat:

A new shooter often found herself fighting off recurring nightmares and vivid dreams about guns and self-defense. Night after night, she battled shadowy bad guys, reaching for her gun only to find it missing. Or she drew the gun, and it would not fire no matter how hard she pulled the trigger. A masked intruder entered her dreams, and she stood frozen, unable to lift the gun to fire at him even as he reached for one of her children.

I think I had my first gunnie dream last night.

I dreamed that my sister and I were walking home from a party late one night.  (I know, tactical mistake number one.)  We were wide-awake and alert, so when a completely-sloshed-out-of-his-mind guy approached and drunkenly demanded that we give him liquor, my sister handed him her leftover drink without missing a step and we sped up.  (Full disclosure — this is a DREAM.  I have no idea why Jenny was walking around with half a drink, but in real life, if a belligerent drunk approached her baby sister … well, I seriously doubt she’d just give him what he wanted!)

The drunk smashed the drink to the ground and began screaming abuse at us; we began to run.  He chased us, staggering, his pace slowed by occasional bounces off trees as we surged ahead.

We made it to the apartment of my sister’s friend (a waitress).  The friend listened to our panicked story for a few seconds and then handed me . . . an empty holster.

It gets better, though!  I snapped at the waitress and she quickly brought me an old beat-up Sig.  (No, I don’t know what model.  Too big for a P239 though!)  I slapped the magazine in, smoothly racked the slide and spun to the doorway.  Half-in, half-out of the apartment, I pressed myself against the doorsill and raised my shooting hand just in time to have the sights centered on Drunken Goblin as he came around the hallway corner.

I very clearly remember that I had my index finger straight against the slide, safely outside the trigger guard.  Four Rules, even in my SLEEP, baby!

The instant Drunken Goblin came around the corner and saw the Sig pointed at his head he skidded to a halt, did a 180° and ran.

Happy ending.

…

It doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out.  In fact, it’s almost trite.  It was no accident that I was with my sister in this dream, since her approval matters A LOT to me.  No accident either that I didn’t actually have to shoot Drunken Goblin.  Oh, no, I simply scared the bad guy off and we all lived happily ever after.

Still, better that dream than the type Kathy described.

Now all I have to do is figure out who on earth that waitress was . . .

UPDATE:  Breda links, and makes me blush.  Why thanks!!

UPDATE:  Tam links.  Thanks!

Quote of the Day

“I’ve got no problems with any institution, whether it’s a business or a church, hiring professional, trained security people who know the risks,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “What I do have serious concerns about is the idea that a private individual, just because they’re a gun owner, can be a security guard just by carrying a gun to church.”

Because A SECURITY GUARD . . . is the ONLY ONE . . . PROFESSIONAL ENOUGH . . .

(h/t to my father)

Gun show undercover

Did anyone else wander by HuffPo and see the story about Mayor Bloomberg’s undercover gun show sting?

I had a few thoughts on this.  In no particular order:

1) Wait, so undercover camera work is GOOD now?  Huh.  Could have fooled me.

2) This is bad, any way you slice it.  This isn’t a private seller making a sale to a private buyer and innocently fumbling a few of the rules; it looks like vendors deliberately dodging laws in order to skip fees.

I understand that gun laws can be stupid, cumbersome, confusing and time-consuming; I’m going through the song-and-dance myself and it’s taking both time and money.  (Thank you Mike for doing the lion’s share of the forms!)  But breaking those rules and laws to make a few bucks, and doing so brazenly, seems to me like A Bad Idea.

If wishes were horses and I had my way, I’d have stupid gun laws pointed out Rosa Parks style, rather than Mayor Bloomberg’s exposé.  I.E., I’d have two law-abiding citizens get up in front of reporters, then have the licensed gun owner hand a bullet to a non-licensed resident, daring anyone to arrest them.

But wishes are not horses.  I’m certainly not volunteering for such a stunt.  I have other, important things to do, like a) not break the law, b) continue to go to my job and earn money, c) cook dinner, d) pet my cat, e) muddle through this state’s confusing restrictions as best I can, etc.

3) First trans-fats and now out-of-state stings.  To me, these seem like odd things for a mayor to concentrate upon.  Shouldn’t he be concentrating on local problems?

You all know I’m a baby gun chick searching for knowledge, so as always I welcome your thoughts.  Enlighten me!

(h/t the Hot Air headlines)

First time at a gun show!

Eager to cement my status as a non-bahstid, I trucked over to Marlboro last weekend to visit Doubletrouble and his booth at the Best Western Gun/Knife Show.

Holy cow, there were a lot of people there!  Took me forever to find parking.  Shockingly (snort) there were a gazillion pickup trucks, often festooned with bumper stickers such as “GUN CONTROL MEANS USING BOTH HANDS” and “BORDER CONTROL NOT GUN CONTROL.”  I paid my nine dollars (yay coupon!) and examined the prominent signs by the front door.  Nope, I didn’t have a gun to surrender . . . nope, no live ammo . . . awwwwww, no cameras?!?  Dammit!!

I wasn’t terribly surprised that the demographics skewed HEAVILY in favor of the Y chromosome.  I’m talking at least 90%.  I did see the occasional female or young child, but I’m not sure I met another woman wandering around by herself.

(Ladies, did you know that if you go to a gun show by yourself you get hit on a LOT?  Of course, you get hit on in a VERY respectful and chivalrous manner.  After all, a woman at the gun show is probably not there to look at the plastic WWII figurines.)

Every gun was “secured”, i.e. it had a plastic doohickey locked through the chamber or trigger guard.  Pistols were also either under netting or glass, or secured to the table with elastic-thingies.

Ammo shortage?  What ammo shortage?  9 mm ammo went for $14.75 for a box of 50; hollowpoints went for $30.  They also had Federal law enforcement ammo available, which is apparently a “bounded bullet” that will stay intact.  The gentleman explaining that to me chatted me up for a little while; apparently his mother a) is 72, b) is my height, c) can put 15 shots into the center of a target in three seconds, and d) is meaner than a three-eyed rattlesnake.  I think that’s a lady I’d like to meet!

On to the guns!  In no particular order, I saw:

- a new Smith & Wesson M&P in 9 mm for $585, in .40 for $540, and used 9 mm for $410

- SigSauer 239 in .40 for $675, standard night sights (that thing must kick like a mule)

- SigSauer Mosquito .22 for $369

- SigSauer 229 in .357 for $785 (They wouldn’t let me hold this one without a permit.  Seriously.  The best she could do was hold it up at eye level for me.)

- a Glock 19 9 mm for $599; since it was available in MA, that means used and pre-ban**

- a massive gun safe for $950 picked up, $1150 ground delivered; a smaller one went for $799.  Wonder if it’d do double-duty as a fireproof box for important documents?  (I broached that idea to Mike, who pointed out that if the ammo DID go off the documents would be super-ultra-mega destroyed.  Hmmm.)

- FINALLY! a Sig 239 in 9 mm for $709 (and also a 226 in 9 mm for $639)

As a souvenir of the show, I’d bought a $10 SigSauer holster from Doubletrouble.  I pulled it out and thought it fit the 239, but it didn’t quite; the latch on the side wasn’t clicking.  Doubletrouble very kindly dug through his box of holsters and picked me out a Blackhawk holster to try.  I scurried back to the Sig 239 table and — yup!  It’s a match   Sweet!  (I think I’m the only person I know who bought the holster before the gun.  Like, weeks before.)

Yeah, I thought about buying a T shirt instead of a holster, but what fun would that be?  Although I was amused by the shirts; they included such slogans as “This State Allows Concealed Carry; Think Before You Act” and “Smith & Wesson: ‘The Ultimate in Feminine Protection’ “.  (That latter one was on a baby-pink shirt with the writing in sparkly silver.  Naturally.)

I was way happy to run into Borepatch and #2 son.  Like me, Borepatch wasn’t shopping for guns, but he’d grabbed some targets and a set of ear protection. This made me laugh like a loon, because I’d talked to Mike earlier — who had his own gun show in North Carolina — and guess what Mike bought?  Targets and a set of ear protection. 

To sum up — a lot of nice people and a lot of nice guns.  Thanks for inviting me, Doubletrouble!

**That’s gotta be one of the stupider regulations, when you think about it.  So the gun is legal, but a gun EXACTLY LIKE IT manufactured six months later is illegal.  Oy!