Bang! Bang! Rollover ...

Today Kevin, Mary, and I took Levi for his first shooting experience. Because handguns are illegal in Australia (as in the UK) he never had occasion to fire a shotgun or a handgun, and there was no way he had an excuse to fire a fully automatic - so now he has. Standing in Dominion Shooting Range I realized how subconsiously safe I felt in Oz because I knew the worst that could happen would be a stabbing. If anyone wanted to attack me when I was walking home late from the busstop or the store they would have to get close to me to hurt me, they would have to challenge me not to spot their approach.

My familiarity with guns reminded me how often I have fired a weapon, never in self defense, but always for some form of teaching. As a child I shot a shotgun on a range at Indian-Princess Camp with my Dad. I recieved a sharpshooter badge several years in a row. Around the same time I was frequently firing a BB gun with my best friends Dad, aiming at styrofoam deer and wood stacks. As I preteen I used to shoot with my neighbor, always blanks and always in a secure environment.

With that said - here are the scores from our day "gone shootin'". Kevin beat us all! But of course he has been trained by the government so no contest. With the 9 millimeter (my favorite) I scored the highest. With the semi and fully automatic MK-5 (excluding Kevin's score) I did the best and will admit to getting knocked back by the fully automatic setting. So I will stick to handguns. At least until we move back to Oz.

Mary firing the MK-5 (eventually, much to her objection)


Me firing the 9mm


My target (yeah! heart and head)


Levi and his target (not bad for a virgin)