Shoot Report: May 20, Private Land, Osawatomie, KS

This is first in what I hope will be a series. I don't plan on documenting every last trip to the range, but bigger outings like this are worthy of retelling.

Cast of Characters:

Myself

Thomas, my friend and fellow Kansas attorney

Ben, Thomas' friend from way back

Michael, Ben's friend

Weapons:

Glock 19 (9mm)

Ruger single-action revolver (.22LR)

Vintage rifle #1 (.22LR)

Vintage rifle #2 (.22LR)

Benelli hunting shotgun (12ga)

Deer rifle (7mm) (not used)

Thomas and I met last week and discussed going out shooting - he suggested we go to Osawatomie, and I agreed. Last summer we took a trip to this pretty small town in Miami County, Kansas, and had a solid time. Last summer's trip was just Thomas and me, his two handguns, no ear protection, shooting off a bridge at trash in the creek.

This trip was more organized and more well-armed. Thanks to Ben we had a vehicle that could handle driving through fields, as well as a 12-gauge hunting shotgun and a 7mm deer rifle. In addition to his handguns (the Glock and the Ruger) Thomas brought a couple of old .22 rifles of questionable condition. I also had ear protection this time! The four of us assembled at Thomas' house at 6:00 and left shortly thereafter in Ben's truck. In about 30 minutes we reached Thomas' aunt and uncle's house, off of a gravel road somewhere between Osawatomie and Paola. His uncle led us to the entrance to a big piece of land behind their house, and separated from all neighbors by considerable distance and trees.

We drove further in to an area near a wood pile - this is where we shot the pistols and 22 rifles. We had a large adhesive Shoot-n-C target as well as some empty cans. The 2 vintage rifles belonged to Thomas' grandfather and were recently unearthed and probably hadn't been fired in decades, yet I felt them beckoning to me. I loaded up the first one, which was a bolt-action Remington and loaded via a tube magazine (like the Marlin 60), said "well, worse comes to worst, it's just a 22 so it won't blow my whole hand off," and fired - and it went off without a hitch! The other one did as well, but it wasn't as fun to fire since it was a single shot and required opening the bolt and loading it into the breech each time. These little rifles, though inaccurate and likely in need of a good cleaning, were a lot of fun and a very enjoyable addition to the evening.

As time went on we decided to take out the shotgun. Ben demonstrated it by taking a few shots at the reactive target, which was promptly riddled with many tiny green holes. We drove closer to the entrance to the land and readied the clays. Thomas, Mike, and I had all never shot clays before; Mike and I had never even fired a shotgun. Ben threw the clays with a hand thrower and we all got several attempts. The others took to it better than I, but by the end even I was hitting 3 out of 5 and I view it as a success. There is really something special about pulling the trigger and being greeted with an instantaneous orange explosion in the air. The four of us went through the whole box of 90 clays with surprising speed.

By this time it was pretty dark. Thomas suggested that we go to the bridge anyway, but it was even darker by the time we got there and Ben ruled it unsafe and pointless to fire a few out of his deer rifle. A somewhat anticlimactic end, but the four of us set out for Johnson County very satisfied with the evening and looking forward to the next one.

The Four Rules

These rules of firearm use and handling, introduced by Colonel Jeff Cooper, are the foundation on which a shooter's habits are built, so I thought I should post about them early. This is also an admittedly self-serving effort to firm them up in my mind, so I can easily rattle them off when I have a new shooter with me and, in time, drill my kids on them endlessly. Of course, this whole blog is essentially self-serving, so if you're here then you're hopefully ok with that.

The theory behind these rules is that, when they are followed, a negligent discharge will be impossible, or if it happens the damage will be mitigated to a great extent. Of course, nothing is certain - mechanical safeties fail, and human error is a given - but the goal is redundancy. You should be treating the gun as if it's loaded, so you're careful with it at all times. If that fails, then your finger's not on the trigger. If that fails, then it's pointed in a safe direction, and so on.

Before getting to the rules, I should note that if you follow these to the absolute letter at all times you'll never get anything done. Cleaning your gun or dry-firing it for practice necessitates suspending one or more of the rules for a little while, and that's ok. The important thing is being able to think to yourself "I know I need to act like this is loaded, but I've dropped the mag and triple-checked the chamber, and I'm pointing it in a safe direction, so I'm ok to do a little dry fire practice." By knowing exactly how you're breaking the rules, you're still aware of them and, as far as I'm concerned, you're still acting safely.

Rule #1 - Treat all guns as if they're loaded

Even if it's not, the gun is always loaded. This requires a bit of doublethink, but it is the most important of the rules because it is the building block of all of your smart gun habits. Guns are designed to do one thing, and this rule is about respecting that fact. You wouldn't take a loaded gun and point it at your own head or your buddy's head just for a laugh, right? So don't do it with an unloaded gun either. Even if you've triple-checked it. This is also why you don't muzzle-sweep other people at the range or at the gun shop, even with an unloaded firearm. Yes the clerk just took an obviously unloaded gun out of the case, and checked the chamber just to be sure, but you still don't point the thing at him when you're checking the sights, because it's loaded (even though it's not). Build smart habits, early and often.

Rule #2 - Never let the muzzle cover anything you're not willing to destroy

Ties in with #1 quite a bit, but remember that redundancy is the goal. The muzzle is the end that the bullet comes out of, so don't point it at your friends, or other people, or your cat, or your own face. This rule fosters awareness of where the gun is pointing, which should always be prominent in your mind when a weapon is in your hand (especially because that weapon is always loaded!). Indoor ranges always have this rule on their books - all guns must be pointed downrange (towards the targets) at all times. When it's on the table, or when it's in your hand - never pointed anywhere but where you're going to shoot.

Rule #3 - Keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot

TRIGGER DISCIPLINE! Everyone loves pointing out poor trigger discipline in movies and tv shows because it's all over the place. Trigger discipline refers to this rule, also colloquially and colorfully known as "keeping your booger hook off the bang switch." More redundancy - if you slip up and muzzle sweep someone, with your gun that is loaded even if it isn't, your finger won't be on the trigger so it's "ok" (really not ok, but at least nobody got hurt and you learned your lesson). Your trigger finger, when you're holding the gun and doing anything but actually firing it, should be pointed straight ahead and resting on the area above the trigger, on the frame. This serves several purposes: beyond being safe, of course, it lets anyone else looking at you see that you're being safe, and it also gives your brain an easy, no-look way to know where the gun is pointing.

Rule #4 - Always know your target and what is beyond it

"Beyond" means behind, above, next to, and below. At indoor ranges, this is taken care of; the range has been built with bullets in mind, so as long as you're shooting (and keeping the gun pointed) where you're supposed to be, you are ok. This rule is more important in the context of shooting out on your grandparents' farm, or on some Federal land (BLM land is ok to shoot on), or out on a bridge in Osawotamie, KS, or something like that. When you shoot, you need to account for what may happen if you miss. This rule is why you shouldn't be shooting up at a target, why you shouldn't shoot at cans right on the edge of your neighbor's yard, and why - I hope I don't need to say this - you don't fire your gun in the air in celebration. Yes, you're a crack shot and you'll hit the target every time, but what if you don't? What if you're shooting up at your target and your bullet, which might have a few thousand feet of travel left, goes toward your neighbor's house? These things have to end up somewhere and, tragically, sometimes they end up inside of people half a mile away who had no reason to expect it.

Learn and internalize these rules and you will be a better gun owner and human being for it. Safe handling doesn't just benefit you and the people in your life; all of us who enjoy the hobby have an interest in everyone being safe with their guns.

Why Guns?

Why guns? Why the (relatively) sudden interest?

This question has been asked of me, and sometimes I ask it to myself.

I was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in a suburb on the Kansas side. I had school friends who hunted and whose parents owned firearms, but my parents grew up in Queens, NY and were largely not exposed to guns growing up. For much of my life I viewed hunting as a "redneck" activity and, I'm ashamed to admit, somewhat looked down on those who did it. My parents, my mother especially, were horrified at the idea of my being in a friend's house where guns were present - that I am an only child only compounded her worry. Other than that, guns just didn't come up in conversation, and I didn't think about them much. I really didn't even have that many friends whose parents had guns, that I know of. Perhaps they hid them well, but I never saw them or heard about them when playing with my closest friends.

In the seventh grade a friend's father took my friend and I shooting at the local indoor range. This was my first time handling a weapon and I remember it well. I shot a .22, a .40, and a .45, all handguns, a mix of semi-automatics and revolvers. It was a brilliant time and I proudly displayed my targets and some spent brass in my room for a good while afterwards. But again, after this, the magic faded and I didn't really think about guns beyond recalling the fun time at the range. The concept of actually owning a firearm was pretty foreign to me.

In 10th grade I worked for a time at a local big box sporting goods store as a cashier. I recall once or twice someone paying for a gun at my register, but the process of a "gun deal" seemed so complex and esoteric that I still didn't think of it as a common thing. I was becoming more familiar with guns, in a sense, through video games. The Nintendo 64's Goldeneye 007 prominently featured realistic (for the time) depictions of firearms, with the names slightly changed, and I remember eagerly learning about the real-world analogues for James Bond's arsenal. As the technology got better and the games got more realistic, I continued to gravitate toward games that prominently featured real-life firearms, but they remained the stuff of games.

I went to college and later law school in Massachusetts, not the friendliest state for guns as I eventually found out. I eagerly embraced liberal causes while in college and, while I did not take part in any protests or anything of the sort, I recall thinking that gun control was not a bad thing, that lay citizens had no use for powerful rifles (beyond - ugh - hunting), and that allowing civilians to carry a concealed firearm something from which no good could come. I recall a conversation with friends shortly after the Virginia Tech shooting in April, 2007. One friend thought that if VTech students had been allowed to carry, the situation would have been resolved faster and with less loss of life. Another friend and I, however, believed that your average CCW holder is more likely to injure or kill an innocent party, create a crossfire, or simply be useless in a firefight.

While in law school I regularly visited my fiancee's (girlfriend, at the time) family in Pennsylvania. Her younger brother, toward the end of his college career, purchased a Sig Mosquito .22 pistol. I had a pretty good time racking the slide and playing with it, and we shot it in the backyard a few times. We also, on several occasions, visited the Sunset Hill range, a range largely intended for city folk (it's only an hour and a half away from New York City) that, with plenty of supervision, allows firearm newbies to play with an immense variety of vintage and modern arms. It was always a great time, but it never occurred to me that I would enjoy firearm ownership, and I never even looked into it until the end of law school.

Maybe it was graduation into a tough legal economy with a lot of loans, or maybe it was just getting older. Whatever it was, my thoughts and political positions began to turn more conservative. This included handgun ownership, and upon researching Massachusetts' and particularly Boston's onerous firearm laws, a feeling grew inside of me. This is a tough feeling to describe - a mix of frustration, anger, and hopelessness perhaps approximates it. Why, in the city that was the flash point for America's revolution, could I not obtain a gun without a complex dance of licensing, taking a class that I would certainly need to rent a car to get to, and paying untold sums of money, simply to obtain something that the Constitution says I am entitled to?

It seems silly but the visits to Pennsylvania and home to Kansas City became more painful. When I would return to Boston, my heart would sink. I hated East Boston, where I lived. I spent probably too much time regretting my decision to attend law school where I did, and not just because of the loans and the crummy job market, but because at times it felt like I had imprisoned myself in a place that I really, really didn't want to be. Somewhat irrationally, I will admit, I envisioned what I would possibly be able to do in the event of some kind of societal collapse. No police, no running water, no food - what chance would my fiancee, my hypothetical kids, and I stand, disarmed? I thought about all of those "rednecks" back home who would be armed and at least somewhat skilled in the event of a dangerous situation and I began to think that my choice of lifestyle - to be "car-free," to live in a state that was about as strong in social welfare as you can get in the USA, to eschew my roots in pursuit of the young professional urbanite life - was wrong.

So I took the Kansas bar. I, despite finding some work in Massachusetts, positioned myself and my job search to focus on Kansas. At the end of April, 2012 I accepted a position as corporate counsel with an IT company in Prairie Village, and that's where I'm working now. I've spent a lot of my spare time (and some work time) over the last 6 months reading about firearms - about laws, policy, history, and the weapons themselves. Guns interest me - on a mechanical level, on a policy and political level, and on a "let's go to the range and put some holes in paper" level. This blog is about all of this, and more.