TomareUtsuZo
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Posts: 36
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« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2008, 01:00:17 AM » |
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This is the story I am gona put up on gunstories.org I wanted to put it out there before so it could be critiqued for style and grammer.
I basically have three memory's of my father before he left. Casting bullets, having my head squeezed like a grape, and going shooting. Casting bullets was fun and exciting and having my head squashed like a grape is great in the way that every sort of affection shown by your father is great. But shooting was fun. And right as rain. No one ever questioned our right to shoot, or my fathers right to put a gun in my hand for me to carry back and forth to the wash where we shot. There was evidence of shooters all around where I lived, and people I knew talked about shooting, so I was firmly on my way to being an adult when the concept that guns might be anything but right and good ever entered. And this was 83 or 84.
But, as I was to soon learn, in part, my father was not an upstanding citizen, nor was he an upstanding member of the People of the Gun. So, let me tell you a story that didn't end badly, but shows the need to include safety in teaching your children to shoot.
It was the first day I was going to shoot the pistol without my father holding me while I did. I was very excited about the matter and had been looking forward to it. It was another bright sunny day (like all days are in Arizona) and probably spring. We had been casting bullets for a few days and now it was time to go shoot them. Across the street and an empty lot was a wash (gully) with high sides that we did most of our shooting. Coming from the house on the left of the empty lot was an older man who had recently suffered a stroke and was still recovering, so his left side was mildly paralyzed. He was sitting out on a lawn chair resting in the sun. Friendly fellow he was, we stopped and he and my father started chatting. And at some point the conversation turned to the impending fun and the small semi-auto in my eager hand. Being the excitable four year old I was, I began explaining it was gona be the first day I got to shoot on my own and showed it to him ... muzzle first. This poor man was HEALED then and there. He leaped from his chair like god himself reached down and raised him up right he was on his feet so fast. My father quickly righted me, and belatedly explained that you don't point the gun at people.
Sadly, I was unsettled and ended up missing my opportunity to shoot by myself that day; and my father left soon afterwards and as it worked out, I didn't shoot again till I was a Sailor stationed in Japan.
Since I have learned many things. Among them are Jeff Coopers Four Rules of Gunsafety.
1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Always be sure of your target.
While I hope everyone got a good chuckle. I also hope everyone also remembers to be safe when handling firearms.
Some notes. When I said that I was to find out that my father wasn't an upstanding citizen, in part. The in part is in reference to my finding out years later, how much more a criminal he was. Should I leave it? or is it to ... oblique?
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