When you Give a Girl a Gun

I'm an archer! I've had a bow since the summer before starting high school. With the loss of horseback riding, archery became my obsession. I was fascinated by the old, human-powered bows from movies like King Arthur and Braveheart. Within a day, I convinced Father that archery would be an awesome sport for me to participate in. In the mail arrived my baby: a black wooden longbow that can pull 22 pounds (can be stretched back 22 feet). Father and I started bonding, visiting Outdoor World and picking out our archery supplies like a glove, armband, and a target. It was one of the greatest afternoons.
Today, I'm not an all-time amazing archer! The novelty of archery wore off and I stopped practicing. Or the weather turned sour ...like the entire season of winter. But my love for my beautiful bow has never waned. I am so proud of that weapon and wrapping my gloved fingers around the string, pulling it taunt against my face, releasing it and hearing the satisfactory THWACK as the arrow pelts the Styrofoam target. The over six foot all-powerful stick makes me feel safe as it slumbers under my bed (because I can't display it like I did at home since there are supposed to be no weapons at the apartment). It's my peace of mind.

However... this weekend I got to try out a new weapon: a gun!!

CC and his friend "Morgan" (so dubbed because of his love for Morgan Freeman) took me and some friends out to the shooting range this weekend. After a whirling drive through one of the most beautiful parts of the state I've seen, we arrived a mudhole cut out in the side of one of the Appalachian Mountains. On six of the seven concrete slabs, Morgan and CC set up their babies then gave us a long but important speech about safety. After the whole speech thing, I was darn right afraid of touching the guns. Heck, I could hurt someone with one of my blunt-tipped arrows. I couldn't kill them!! One false moves with one of these weapons with their live ammunition, I could ruin or end someone else's life in a split second. Suddenly, my excitement about the adventure began to quickly drain out through my cold feet.

Then, CC dragged me up to a .22 rifle.

"Ok, just shoot it," he basically said.

I just knew I was going to make a fool of myself. The gun would recoil and slap me in the face. I was going to be shot back off the bench. I was going to break the gun. There was so many horrible scenarios running through my head! Then, I took a deep breath, laced my finger around the trigger, and shot my first gun! And, it was EPIC!

A Glock 19, Remington 700, .22 hand gun, Ruger .357, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, and Marlin .30-30 lever action later and I was loading the ammunition by myself and just firing away. What would have made it more epic was if I had had my iPod and slipped my ear buds under my silencer headphones to blast some Bullet for my Valentine, Opeth, or gangster rap! Now, that would be awesome.

Personally, I loved the .22 hand gun of CC's. It was easy to load, it didn't cause me to shudder like Morgan's handgun which had a lot more kick, and it was smooth. I burned through the ammo on that one!

And what an amazing day hanging out with my roommate and the guys!!! That was one of the best days out I've had in a while even though it was bone-chillingly cold on the morning we went. Like I forgot how cold it could get in the mountains! It was so cloudy and just cold. Not wet cold or where it takes your breath away but when there's an ache that settles into the pits of your lungs and your feet will never be warm again. I took a ten-minute shower when I got home. But, what a day!

That night, CC let me clean his revolver... which I botched as I am more clumsy than Bella Swan and made a mess of Morgan's cleaning pad. Then my blood sugar dropped too low, but we're going to forget that.

Oh, and I forgot ice cream and Wal-Mart with CC, Morgan, Morgan's little brother, and their friend the night before! That is a kick a$$ ice parlor. They like almost fifty flavors! Cinnamon! That's a topping, people, but no, they have it as a flavor!! O.o Amazing!

...Anyway, I have to say I still prefer my bow to guns, to feel the arm strength in pulling an arrow back and letting it fly. Guns are too easy, and I say that without having hit anything on Sunday because I can't properly aim. And I didn't try any of the big guns that really could have made me go flying from the recoil. Still! I prefer my beautiful bow, and next time, I'm taking it with me! ^_^