The Right To Bear Arms - Taking a Gun Class

Jan 29th THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS – Taking a Gun Class

It all started one morning as I innocently read the daily newspaper. Heinous acts of violence and mayhem filled the front page and subsequent ones. Was this a good way to start my day? Probably not.

I flipped through all the sections of the newspaper and an ad near the bottom of a page caught my attention. Women’s gun class specially priced at a local gun club. My family has always owned weapons. While a teenager, shooting my grandfather’s 410 shotgun left a huge shoulder bruise and knocked me on my butt, hard. As a young woman, an automatic pistol took a chunk out of my hand, between the thumb and index finger, because I was holding it wrong. So needless to say, my relationship with guns is a love hate situation.

I believe strongly in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, the right of the people to keep and bear arms. As a paralegal for close to 20 years, I saw what damage a gun, usually stolen, can do in the hands of the criminal element. But on the flip side, strict gun control makes it harder for the responsible, god fearing adults to obtain a gun legally. And has no effect on the criminal, who can get a gun of any type off the street in a matter of minutes, with the intent to do egregious harm. But I digress, stepping down off my soap box and putting it away, for now.

As a co-owner of a couple of guns, I decided that learning how to handle and shoot a weapon correctly was the responsible thing to do. So… I signed up for the class.

Work in Progress!

I spent Tuesday night at the gun club learning the in’s and out’s of responsible gun ownership, from an NRA certified instructor. By the end of the evening, most of my shots were center mass on the target, once I quit mashing the trigger and used a little finesse. My husband enjoys the sport of shooting guns, I on the other hand consider them for self-defense. After successfully completing the class, I feel confident handling and shooting a weapon, which is a good thing for me and a bad thing for the criminals. Subsequent adventures on the shooting range may be in my future.

And just remember gun control is very important, you should always use two hands!

**Check back next week, when I’ll be blogging about my private tour of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), also known as Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station.