Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Follow-up...

Back in September, I took a couple new folks to the range. It's the second new person I'm following up on now. I got an e-mail over the weekend from Dwight, the father of the first new shooter I took to the range. He had only minimal experience with firearms before going, a few fleeting shots with a .22 rifle at camp as a young man.

He came to the range partly out of curiosity; partly out of a growing urge to try something new, and partly because, as an engineer, he was fascinated by the mechanical aspect of handguns (can't say I blame him there, it's one of the many fascinations for me, too). We ran through a variety of guns, starting with a .22 and going up to a Colt 1911. He seemed to enjoy the outing, but I didn't realize how deeply we'd set the hooks until this past weekend's e-mail...

Here's his e-mail:
Jay -

I thought you might be interested.

Since you took me out with Bill & Elizabeth I have been to the HSC [Harvard Sportsman's Club] with them once.

I joined HSC.

I am taking the ISI/A&G course late december and will apply to the [town name redacted] police department as soon as I have the course certificate.

Cowboy action shooting ( and later maybe mounted if my horse agrees) has captured my fancy. I believe it may be a massive long-time conspiracy between the NRA, hollywood, the TV networks and the gun manufacturers corrupting me at a very early age and planting subconscious time delay intructions. I've joined SASS and applied for an alias.

We're going to have to get together after I get the Rugers, 1866 and coach gun and knock down some steel targets.

dwight




Heh. heheheheheheheheheheh.

Consider one new gunnie. Corrupted. Hooked, even.

I'd be happy, nay, honored, to come shootin' with you, Dwight. And I'll have to remember to send the NRA an extra $20 for the sooper-seekrit time-delay mind control rays they've been putting in every western since Roy Rogers first donned a white hat... That's the most dangerous thing about going shooting - finding out that guns aren't, in fact, evil talismans waiting to turn the unsuspecting choirboy into a mass murderer, but rather, kinda fun, once you get over the loud factor...

Fun, stress relief, and training that could possibly save your life one day. What other activity offers all that?

That is all.

2 comments:

Joe Allen said...

My God, have you no shame?

You could have gotten him interested in a relatively inexpensive discipline like USPSA, with its race guns and carbon fiber holsters.

But SASS?! He's doomed.

Seriously, good work! I believe that right now, the most important grassroots effort we can make is introducing as many new shooters as we can.

Anonymous said...

Sweet. You will need a Ruger Montado for the horse shootin'. Just another reason to buy another handgun.