New Shooter Report

Took my friend Dom out to the range on Friday. He's never shot anything bigger than an airsoft gun before.

He shows up at my house and I give him a rundown on safety and grip and mechanical operation. Rounds go in pointy-end-out, mag goes in rounds first, pull this back, safety's here, pull the trigger thusly... suitably educated we head out to the range. First up is a Marlin .22 rifle my uncle gave me. At 15 yards. Dom cannot hit the target for nothing. All over the backboard, the berm, anywhere but the paper. I finally get him to shoot off a bag, and now he's hitting something. He was using the sights wrong. How, I don't know, they're dirt-simple Soviet notch-and-a-post style.

Anyhoo, he knocks the black out of the bullseye for a hundred rounds, and we move over to 25 yards with my recently-scoped battlerifle. Haven't sighted it in, that's what this trip is for. The rednecks making one-hole, 42-shot groups with their .22s mosey on over to look at this new-fangled black rifle. They hem and haw appreciatively, and offer to spot for me with their 500x magnification scopes. Takes me twelve shots to move the dot of my Vortex Strikefire to where the shots are impacting. Dom knocks the center out of his target at 25 yards (first centerfire rifle ever, and he did a damn good job), and I shift my shooting to 50 yards. Got it sighted in, roughly, at 50 yards, and then we move over the handgun range again for the USPc9.

Dom had liked the 9mm the most of all the guns I showed to him at home, and he absolutely hated shooting it. Shot it very poorly too. Too much recoil, he was expecting it to be as easy as shooting on TV. We gave up quickly on that, and headed home.

On the way out, we stopped at the shotgun range and ran about 15 rounds through my built shotgun. He liked it despite the heavy recoil.

On the way home we talked guns and politics. He hates Obama and McCain nearly as much as I do, and brought the word "socialist" into the conversation before I got a chance to. I reminded him that when we say "socialist" we have to be aware of what it means, and not just a grown-up way of calling someone a doody-head. We ended up agreeing that most if not all politicians are SOBs, and he said if there's ever a disaster, it'd be a good idea to be as prepared as I am. We'll be going to the range again.

I take heart in knowing that because of my actions, there are people all across town who are now capable of using firearms, and who recognize the value of owning them, being proficient in their use, and being prepared for disaster. I've taught 4 now.

I win.
America wins.
Liberalism loses.