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HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN
“First time you ever plugged somebody?” Eddie Lee asked Jack Burton after Jack fired a number of rounds into one of the Wing Kong’s henchmen with a semi-automatic weapon. Visibly shaken, Jack composed himself, puffed out his chest and shrugged it off before replying “Course not.”
Big Trouble In Little China has been my favourite movie for as long as I can remember. That particular instant in the film, the first time Jack killed someone, has been seared into my memory since the first time I saw it. My young, saucer-like eyes understood the power of a gun.
It wasn’t until I first saw No Country For Old Men that I actually wanted to fire a gun.
Photo: Paramount Vantage Pictures on Rotten Tomatoes
Early in the film, Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon a drug deal gone really bad and finds a satchel full of cash and a shiny, silver handgun. Upon picking up the handgun, he pulled out the cartridge to inspect his new piece of hardware.
I was in awe. The sound of the cold steel in his hand, cracking against itself, echoed so heavy and so strong. I wanted to feel that gun in my own hands, to experience the weight of it as my slender fingers wrapped around the handle and to know what several rounds exploding feels like against my palms. There’s a fluttering in my stomach right now just writing about this.
Over the Christmas holidays, Amy and Lindsay felt the experience firsthand, and now Amy’s begging me to try. While we were hoping to visit the Pacific Shooters Association in North Vancouver, it appears to have closed down indefinitely due to licensing problems. That being said, does anyone know where we can go to get our shots off? And further, share your gun stories! Good or bad – I’m expecting flack from this post as it is, so feel free to fill me in.
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28 Comments
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That’s really disturbing. It makes me feel sick.
I can’t even describe how excited I was to just HOLD the handgun. It was so heavy and black and cold and exciting!! It made me nervous (in a good way) even without the clip. I think we should take a gun course and take up shooting at a range as a hobby.
Who says you can’t knit AND shoot guns?
Having grown up in rural Ontario, I gained experience using firearms. BB guns, rifles, crossbows. Unfortunately, some people cannot see the validity of shooting simply as recreation … you know, simply attempting to hit a target … thinking it will always lead to shooting prey or people. Such a stance is somewhat ignorant, in my opinion. Shooting a gun at a target is NOT an inevitable gateway to delinquent behaviour.
Biathletes shoot guns … they spend years training to become world class athletes.
And, I think you made that stance clear with the disclaimer at the bottom of your post.
I couldn’t even bring myself to shoot the gun when we were on the island.
I’ve shot guns before but for some reason, I just couldn’t shoot one. There is something exciting and scary and dangerous about it all. I spent hours over Labour Day weekend firing off a plastic, air handgun because I like shooting cans.
Shooting a gun (for recreational purposes) is like many recreational sports. You can get hurt (or hurt someone else) if you’re not practicing in a controlled environment. You don’t play basketball on an icy court because you can hurt yourself/someone else. Just like you don’t fire a gun without taking all the proper precautions.
*pow pow pow*
there are a few ranges in Metro Van, but i’m not sure if you need someone with a current firearms license to buy the ammunition to use. granted I haven’t been to a gun range in a while, but that’s what I heard is the new rule.
just google Vancouver Gun Range and there’s a whole list in the area.
“nor do I condone the use of firearms for the purpose of hunting. It should be clear that my interest in guns is purely recreational.”
I get flack over this all the time because you could go either way on this statement.
i’d say if you find a place, start a bit smaller and work your way up. if you go and try a .45 the first time round, it might make you a little hesitant to pick one up again. Start with a .22 so you get a feel for how to hold one, how to aim and what your stance should be like, then move up to something bigger.
if you need someone with a license to go I’m good to go. a couple of weekends a year of shooting tin pans at home definitely doesn’t do it. and im dying to try that new SR9 from Ruger.
A friend of mine went to the Plantation Pistol Range in Bellingham a few weeks ago…
I think it’s easily Googled.
While I was visiting Panama for nine months one of the local security guys took a liking to me and taught me the ins and outs of Glock models 17 (9mm) and 37 (.45). :3 Firing range and everything. I -think- I still know how to field-strip one… taking them apart is the easy bit, though. XP
There are a lot of rules regarding firearms in Canada, and every one I’ve come across is sensical. Plus common sense applies. Keep your aim down, don’t look down the barrel, know how to use the various safeties, know how to check for an empty chamber, keep your finger off the trigger, only load exactly what you’re going to shoot, and even then, treat every gun as if it’s live, etc, etc.
There are places online where you can take prep exams for a firearms license, too.
Using a target pistol may be a good route to go; they’re light caliber, fit as an extension of your hand, and should be great to learn and get accurate on. My 2¢.
— Alice.
If you go the shotgun route, start with a 20 gauge, your shoulder will thank you. My advice is to find someone very familiar with the kind of shooting and gun you want to try that is willing to teach you. Like anything else, your enjoyment of it as a sport will increase with your knowledge of it. Personally, while I like shooting paper targets, there is something supremely satisfying with hitting a moving clay pidgeon. Therefore, I highly recommend skeet or trap shooting.
Socio/Political arguments aside, have fun, I for one think it’s easy to do with this particular sport.
i shot guns and bows and arrows with the scouts as a youngin. i have vivid memories of firing the guns the kick back is insane. i can see wanting to try it. it is a good skill to have.
The first time I killed something with a gun (a moose) I felt very hollow inside. I was amazed at how quickly one living thing could take another living life. I’ve never killed anything since.
The entire moose was eaten and consumed. I’m not a vegetarian and I eat my share of meat but I have no desire to pull the trigger again – even on a target range.
Cheers.
GK
PS. I’d rather cook the Mexican dish for 10 people.
Never give a child a toy gun. A friend of mine was killed by the RCMP because he pointed a toy rifle at a cop during a drug bust. He was high, the cop had no idea it was a fake gun. Guns are just stupid, and they get stupid people dead. I can understand why holding the power to kill in your hand might seem sexy (especially in the movies), but it really is not very sexy at all when a person dies. Just my two cents.
Plus, killing animals for sport is just wrong in this day and age…. the spirit inside a bear, moose, or dear is the same spirit in a domestic animal, like a dog.
@Airdrie – I definitely agree with you on the points you made. I don’t think children should be given toy guns because, clearly, they are too young to understand the ramifications of firearms. And quite obviously, shooting game is not okay in my books, being the animal lover that I am.
Like you said, Hollywood makes holding a gun seem “sexy,” and I attribute my curiosity to too many hours spent watching Calleigh Duquesne at the firing range on CSI: Miami…
2 years ago i was against guns, before that time i had not ever been closed to one of them, then thanks to a good friend (who i must say is really passionate about it) i visited my first range. Now its not something that i would do everyday but if it fits in the plans, i’d would definitely go for it.
In my experience, its an adrenaline boost !!!
Last time I was in Vegas, there were ads in my cab for hookers and shooting ranges. You could shoot a machine gun if you wanted.
Becoming a member of a shooting club and firing only in a range is completely different than just saying “guns are cool” or using a firearm for hunting. I am not interested in either of those but I still would love to take a course and join a range.
Your Opa had a couple rifles and a shotgun when we lived up north. Hunting and fishing was a way of life and we ate everything he brought home. As youngsters he took us out target shooting occasionally and I traipsed along on one hunting trip. When he passed I took them to the RCMP for disposal as I have no desire to ever handle a gun again.
For whatever reason…I now have a fear of being around something so potentially deadly.
While living in San Francisco a friend (another Canadian) and I decided we wanted to do the most “American” thing would could think of – fire a handgun. And before any of you yanks get bent out of shape about that last comment, it was mostly a joke, and I myself an a dual US/Canadian citizen. Anyway, we went to a range w/ another friend who was experienced at these things, and also had an instructor show us the ins-and-outs. I fired two different handguns, a revolver and a semi-automatic – though I can’t remember the specifics of either gun.
The entire experience was creepy (there was someone at the range with a double-barrel shotgun that had a laser sight) and scary. I will never touch one for the rest of my life. That’s not to say you shouldn’t give it a try, it’s just my own personal experience.
@ Airdrie No, that makes people who do drugs and decide to point something at a cop stupid, that does not make guns stupid.
I’ll assume you live in a metropolitan area and have never once thought of a firearm as anything but evil because your experiences with them are heavily biased by stories on the news about people being shot in murders or gang violence. At least some of the other people who have commented have actually admitted to trying it and setting it aside for personal reasons after the fact.
Making loaded statements that say they are stupid only propagates negative sentiment towards them and gives a lot of good people a bad reputation.
I was given toy guns, but my father also taught me the difference between fake and real. Does that make him stupid? If a parent owns firearms then it is their responsibility to inform the child about the realities of it. I’d agree that a parent who does nothing to teach their child about how real firearms operate should be held accountable for the actions of the child to a certain extent. However, it’s a bit of a stretch to insinuate that a toy gun means a child will grow up to have absolutely no understanding of what real firearms are capable of.
I bet you have no idea the amount of safety training involved when learning how to properly use them. I would feel safer with a person properly trained to handle guns than I would getting in a car with most people. I’m sorry for the loss of your friend, but one of the cardinal rules of operating a firearm is NO alcohol and NO drugs, not even if you’re handling a mockup for practice or training. Of course, not everyone will stick to the rules, but that’s their choice and ultimately they are the ones who must suffer the consequences of their actions or lack of responsibility.
They’re definitely not for everyone, as some people have said. I applaud the people who have tried them though. I’ve been shooting since I was a toddler and I’ve always tried to convince people not to knock it before you try it. I think that if more people walked into a range, tried one and learned to respect it first hand, regardless if they continue shooting, it would do away with a lot of unnecessary bias and prejudice against them. They’re only frightening because they’re easy to see as a scapegoat for criminals and irresponsible people. Gun crime has declined over the last ten years in Canada and they account for less than a third of murders, but you could hazard a guess that they account for 95% of all news dealing with violent crime. What about the other two thirds, where’s the reporting on them?
Secondly, and I’m probably the only one on here who’ll say this, I see nothing wrong with hunting for sport. You don’t have to like my position on this, all I ask is that you respect that I have an alternative opinion. My father and I routinely run into farmers in the areas where we hunt who’ll stop us on the road and ask us to go get geese off their fields to save their crop. In the eastern part of Alberta, deer tag numbers and allowances have been increased to stop Chronic Wasting Disease from migrating across the Saskatchewan border. A few years ago the bag limits on waterfowl was largely increased because of a population explosion in Snow Geese causing many birds to starve to death because they were so great in number that there wasn’t enough food to sustain them. People argue that this does not amount to conservation efforts, but you can easily equate something like Chronic Wasting Disease in deer to the pine beetle problem BC is facing. If you don’t have people doing something about it, you risk losing control of it.
Amy has the right idea, go take a course, join a range, find out if it’s something you’re interested in AFTER you’ve tried it instead of assuming it can only add misery and danger to your life.
anyway… sorry to turn this into a late night rant… personal subject and lack of decent sleep will do that.
I went to Wade’s Bellevue Indoor range on a trip to Seattle last year.
I can’t even tell you…it was worth the detour and the money just for the experience.
I shot a police issue handgun, but you can choose what you want, and it was non-intimidating.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qU3QsBsQy7s/SL9u-mlcEuI/AAAAAAAAAHs/wYK5GPWUdYE/s1600/bang.jpg
I went on a Sunday afternoon and there were families there shooting together, weird.
I’m with PatZ on the hunting issue, although it’s not something I could do myself I have friends that do. One thing I don’t think most people understand about hunters is how much respect they have for the animals they hunt, I think too many people have a picture in their mind of a bunch of drunken rednecks shooting at anything that moves. I know if they ever stop hunting deer where I live we’ll all have to give up driving!
As far as shooting for fun at a range I don’t see anything wrong with it, guns are only a problem when in the wrong hands. At least if you’re at a range you’ll receive the proper training.
If it’s too expensive in B.C. and you ever find yourself in Toronto we have a free range here, it’s called Jane & Finch
Yeah in Vegas you can go shoot a machine gun if you want to.
I also agree with Airdrie re: kids and guns – my sister doesn’t allow her kids to have any type of ‘war’ type toys – nothing that’s gun-like (not even Nerf, I’m pretty sure).
To each their own, and honestly I’ve been curious, but they scare the bejesus out of me. I told John the other day I’ve never SEEN a real gun and I never really want to….
Although i have never been my man-friend grew up near by and mentioned this place to me. Langley Rod and Gun club:
http://www.lrgc.com/club_location.htm
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I don’t usually share this info because some people are totally against it and seem to think differently of me after finding out, but since you asked, I am an avid gun owner and shooter. I’m law abiding and peace loving, wouldn’t ever thinking of hunting an animal and won’t even watch homicide themed movies. I just love shooting paper targets for sport. I’ve sampled all the ranges in the lower mainland and am a member of the Poco range, it’s the best range around. If you want to give shooting a try, I suggest you give my friend ‘doc’ a call. http://mdgardner.com/ He’s really good with newbies, and will bring a whole stack of different firearms for you try if that’s what you want.
There are so many double standards in life. Where as I would not want a child of mine to have a toy gun for all the fear and implication and imagery of violence that it holds for us ‘grown-ups’. I still would not trade in all the hours of fun and adventure I had playing with them as a kid. I LOVED playing ‘cops and robbers’, S.W.A.T. Charlie’s Angels and there was nothing better than playing Cowboys. Just imagining being in one of the many westerns we saw as kids and playing out the scenes, hours of entertainment!! I still have a tiny pair of suede chaps that belonged to my brother.
But those were the 70′s, a more naive time perhaps. I am so not a violent person. I am against war and violence. I can’t ever imagine shooting another living being and taking it’s life. Yet I am not a vegetarian. I have questioned the ‘hunter’s mentality’ and yet have accepted moose meat from friends and made a delicious meal with it.
I see nothing wrong with someone wanting to shoot inanimate objects for sport, say skeet for instance. Ugh..clearly I have some things to work out around this issue, sorry for the rant.
Have you seen the movie Fast Food Nation? I am not proud to say that I have eaten McDonald’s since seeing it. Gross. There is something to be said for the 100 mile diet and knowing where your food comes from. *end rant*
I can’t say I’ve had an urge to shoot a real gun, but would not rule out trying in the future
I have lalways found the idea that people who eat meat, but hate the idea of hunting a wild animal. I find that way of thinking very strange. A wild animal has spent its life free as an animal should. Eating beef that was raised on a feedlot… or even worse eating veal seems so much more heartless. Those animals have no life… breed to be slaughteerd. I am thankful that there are a few sustanance hunters in my family.
I will second that commenter that said POCO gunclub is the best in the lower mainland.
http://www.pcdhfc.com/tour1.htm They also have archery ranges (my interest), and have blackpowder shoots. Bring earplugs!
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