Gun Safety Class
Steven and I took a gun safety course on Friday – a course we had been wanting to take for some time. We went to the shooting range twice last year. I hoped going would help me overcome my fear of guns, but I still felt pretty nervous when I was there, so we took this class.
The class was different than I thought it would be. I thought it would be pretty textbook – this is a gun, these are the parts, this is how you use it, blah blah blah. But I felt like the class was taught by the zen master of gun safety. He was all about being calm around the weapon – about finding an inner peace and balance. He talked a lot about anticipation, and how someone anticipating the weapon firing is what messes up their shot the most.
That is definitely what MY problem is. My hands are shaking before I even get the gun in the air. I feel like a million electrical currents are running through my blood. The whole time I am putting pressure on the trigger, I am just waiting, waiting… and I am still startled when it fires.
The instructor really helped with that. He talked a lot about mentality, and anticipation. I think he really helped me feel more calm and less fearful. He shared good techniques with us.
I think I could apply some of those techniques to my life OUTSIDE of the shooting range. I have been WAY TOO nervous and anxious lately. Way too impatient. I rush too much. I am always going from one thing to the next. I never really take time to relax. I’m all go go go ALL the time.
It’s time to find some inner focus.
I’ve been trying for some time already. Maybe now I can finally do it. Or at least get one step closer to being less… anxious all the time.
Maybe.
Themocracy
Sounds like a good teacher. My dad taught me all about guns from a very early age. The way he figured it, if he eliminated any curiosity about guns, I wouldn’t want to try to get into his collection and play with them. He was right. I never did. I knew he had guns and didn’t care. Nor did my brother. We respected them and didn’t even try to play.
Katie and I would like to take this sort of class too. She wants to learn to shoot. I think we both need updated FOIA cards, though.
kapgar – That was very responsible of your dad to do that – it’s good to hear about a parent who is making a conscience decision to teach their children about gun safety. I think that is how so many accidents happen. The place we went is kind of close to you – Dundee. You may need an updated FOID though. You can just go there to get one 🙂 Let me know if you want the name of the place.
This is such a good idea! I’d really like to learn how to shoot and learn more about guns (does that sound creepy? hmmm…). We have a couple – my husband is former military and grew up in the country, so the combination of the two…well, you can imagine. He is completely comfortable with them and has taught me some gun safety stuff, but I am super scared of them and I hate just knowing that we have them! Until I understand how to use them and use them safely…I know I’ll continue to have that fear.
I think it is really kind of funny in a cool way that you learned these Zen lessons from your gun class. E. has an FOIA card, and was stunned when I was pretty non-plussed about the fact he was looking into purchasing a gun. (mainly for shooting clay pigeons at his parents’ house) But E. is rational and safe…exactly the kind of person I feel comfortable with owning a gun. I mean really, can you see him committing a crime of passion?? 😉
Your instructor also makes me think of Cesar the Dog Whisperer and that video I shared yesterday . Ha! Calm and assertive…calm and assertive…
ok, i must say, your instructor sounded completely way awesome!!!! i am proud of you for going to the gun safety class!!!! gun safety is very important!!!! honestly, if you don’t know anything about guns then i think it’s better if you’re kinda scared of them… there are way too many accidents!!! anything you can take and apply to life to help calm it down is a good thing too!!!! i know what you mean though, i am always go go go and rush rush rush…
=^..^=
I was very anti-gun for a long long time (still am in many respects) but the night I spent at the shooting range when I was training to be a self-defense instructor was eye opening. Holding that gun in my hand, I finally understood why people want them. I didn’t want one but I got the powerful feeling it gives you.
I could have written this post myself! Fireman (BF) is really into going shooting, and finally one day I decided to go try it with him. I wouldnt say that I was anti-gun, but I was anti-gun for me up until that point. Guns scare the crap out of me (and still do to a point), but I was literally so scared before each shot fired that I was almost brought to tears the first few times I shot the gun. After about 20 minutes, I was actually really enjoying myself. I’m still not a big fan of firearms in the home, but since my boyfriend is, we have had to compromise, so he wanted me to know the in’s and out’s of the guns.
i had a date take me to a shooting range once. i hear about all these women who are all empowered and stuff when they shoot guns, but i felt the opposite – i’ve never been more aware of the fact that i could kill someone, RIGHT NOW, as when i was holding a gun. i didn’t like that feeling.
@diane: I wasn’t really stunned at all… I knew from our 3rd date that we held very different views about guns. 🙂
I’m more of a “gun nut” from the policy perspective than the practical one though — I think I care more about the individual right to self-defense than actually having the means to do it (at least for now, while I’m a strapping young buck with a “don’t mess w/ me” scowl living in a decidedly-oppressive county for gun owners. Or, at least, an “I make money and look gullible enough to give some away in a scam” smile – take your pick. 😉 ).
But then, I live in a well-to-do area where the crimes committed which would justify a gun in self-defense (even if it is never fired, only threatened – crime doesn’t necessarily need to be averted with actual force!) are few and far-between, and seem mostly to occur between people who know each other. If I lived in, say, Maywood or Englewood or around the Morse stop on Red line (ghettos, all), it would be a different story…
I enjoy shooting clay pigeons and non-living targets. That’s just plain fun. 🙂 But I dislike hunting: I don’t see what is “sporting” about shooting at something that can’t shoot back, and which doesn’t also *want* to shoot back.
I’ve always thought the “fun” and “self defense” arguments for gun ownership are much stronger… But that’s opening a whole ‘nother can of worms!
Sounds like you had a good instructor; he does sound very Zen-like. 🙂 I’ve never been to an official safety class – my dad taught me (and very strictly enforced) rules I first learned on BB guns. I take the safety rules very, very seriously…
I know people at work who go to ranges at least once/month, but I’m lucky if I get to shoot twice/year at my grandpa’s farm.
You’re right about the anticipation and better approach of slowing-down vs. the fast-paced lives we lead driven by our jobs downtown and the pressures that implies. Having long commutes doesn’t help either… :-/ The business world in major urban centers like Chicago move too damn quickly to allow for good-quality work and to allow people to retain their sanity, as I’m learning the hard way these days…
Mrs. Smith – That DOESN’T sound creepy to me, but because I am trying to conquer the same fear. Have you thought about taking a class? Or having your husband teach you about them?
diane – I have to watch the video! ARG! I haven’t had a chance to yet 😉 What is it called when you shoot those clay disks? Steven has wanted to try that. I bet I would be really, really awful at it. I have a hard enough time shooing a piece of paper that is 30′ away.
CourtneyInControl – I think it is a good instinct to be scared and want to stay away too. I wonder if there are people who aren’t? Of course there are, that is how accidents happen… 🙁
sizzle – There is a lot of ideals that go along with most gun-owners that I don’t agree with as well. But like you, I did feel that sense of power. I am not sure if it is a sense I would want to have all the time though. Or something I could handle.
Scale Warfare – It is really intimidating at first, isn’t it? And you get up to the range, and if you are not familiar with it, and you have all that anticipation… ugh. I get so shaky. That’s cool that you are trying to conquer it as well!
Alice – It CAN be so scary. I think that is part of something I have had to overcome each time I go there. I know it is so dangerous that at first, I don’t even want to touch it. I have to ease into it or something.
E – LOL! Don’t mess with me scowl? 😉 Ha ha ha. 😛 I was telling a coworker about the class, and she immediately thought it meant WE wanted to buy a gun, and couldn’t imagine why, living in “Round Lake”… She must think all of the suburbs are full of friendly people. I definitely agree with you on hunting, but you probably aren’t surprised about that 😉 I hope things slow down for you at work at bit so you can breathe!
Congratulations on overcoming your sense of intimidation, and getting past the rush-rush-hurry and finding the slow, balanced place. I think most martial arts make an effort to get there.
I got the sense of power thing too, at first during my first exposures to guns, it was kinda electric – but later that changed – and what it changed-into was a sense of responsibility. It’s still there but it makes me want to be more sure about what I’m doing.
Shooting at clay “pigeons” is called a couple different things depending on how it’s done. There’s “Trap” and there’s “Skeet” which are the traditional, old-style manner, and there’s “Sporting Clays” that some describe as “golf with a gun.”
Hi and congrats on taking the class…
Out in McHenry (a bit of a hike for you, I guess), we’ve done some very basic pistol courses taught by women for women to help overcome some of the fear associated with shooting for the first time.
If you’re ever interested, keep us in mind… (Oh, and we don’t have dead animals on the walls and like our veggies too!)
DirtCrashr – Martial Arts probably would be good for finding that inner balance. I wonder if I will ever try skeet. I know my husband really wants to. I think I would be so awful!
Less – Thanks for the link! McHenry is really close to our house. I bet that course would be good for me 🙂
If you are ever up Cleveland way, email my wife, Breda – she’ll take you to the range -girl knows how to have fun.
http://thebredafallacy.blogspot.com/2009/03/quite-possibly-best-range-day-ever.html
Also note the similar sense of zen…
“…I had found and surpassed gunny nirvana somewhere in the middle of all that and was reaching the critical “OMG, I’m so blissed out I need a nap” stage. Ranges are filled with happy, relaxed people of every race, gender and creed- recoil therapy really is good for what ails you.”
Skeet is difficult, but they’re clay discs and only pride gets wounded. Guns definitely are the most martial kind of art, the Samurai adopted them in the late Meiji period. 🙂
Mike – I love that post! I think we would get along. Thanks or sending the link 😀 I can agree with the therapy part, once I get past the fear. I have to keep working on it. I told my husband we need to go back so I can do so.
DirtCrashr – I wonder if I will ever try Skeet. Maybe in a few years. Maybe!