From: "David M", [EMAIL PROTECTED] EMAIL ADDRESS OF WRITER:- Elizabeth Bromstein's E-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] PUBLICATION: Montreal Gazette DATE: 2001.01.09 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: News PAGE: A4 COLUMN: Page Four Column BYLINE: ELIZABETH BROMSTEIN SOURCE: Freelance Home, home on the range: Pistol-packing mama guns for tranquility There are so many things I've never done. I've never gone skydiving. I've never been on a spiritual quest. I've never crowd-surfed, smoked crack, won a beauty pageant, read War and Peace, been a Bond girl or battled a gang of ninjas. You might say I haven't really lived. Up until last week, I had never shot a gun either. And it dawned on me recently, while reading yet another article on gun control, that unlike battling ninjas or smoking crack, this was actually something I wanted to try. I know all kinds of people who grew up target-shooting on farms, but coming from a very urban upbringing, I had never even had the opportunity to touch a gun - oh, except for the time my friend Paddy found one. We were going to turn it in, but forgot his bag in the restaurant where we stopped for lunch. The only other thing in there was his flute. I can imagine the look on the face of whoever found it. Secret Location So I decided to give it a go. The first thing I discovered is that, unlike how I imagine the U.S. to be (shooting galleries in the back rooms of privatized liquor stores), it's not easy to find somewhere to shoot in Montreal. It took some investigating before I found a place; even then, I was asked to please keep the name and location secret. Club members are understandably afraid of being swamped with the wrong kind of visitors - anti-gun zealots. I agreed and was invited to come on down for a handgun-shooting lesson. Bill (last name withheld) assured me that I would enjoy myself, saying members ``come here to forget all their troubles, forget all their cares.'' When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go shoot a gun. Sounded good to me. First, I was greeted by a gang of exuberant older men that included an elevator-operator, a well-known landscape artist and a war hero missing the fingers of an entire hand. These people love their sport and are not happy about feeling marginalized because of it. And all, it appears, were hoping that I would leave feeling the experience had been a positive one. ``People think we're a bunch of yahoos,'' lamented Dale, the club president. So I feel it is my duty to tell you that there was not a yahoo among the bunch. Bill started me on a .22 automatic, showing how to load it, outlining safety precautions (I can't stress how seriously these people take gun safety) and assuring me it couldn't hurt me as long as I didn't point it at myself. The bullets are small and the gun doesn't make much of a bang, but I was nervous and my hands were shaking when I pulled the trigger (not a good thing). Then I pulled it five more times and when I saw, through a telescope, that I had actually hit the target (once) 20 yards away, I felt like a superhero. The Natural I had been told that pistol-shooting takes more co-ordination and concentration than any other sport. How could a woman who can't walk through her apartment without hurting herself not be thrilled to discover she's not half bad at it? Then I tried a .38 revolver, which makes a louder bang but was definitely my favourite. I was starting to feel a little more confident until I tried the .45, which jerked back in my hand and scared the living daylights out of me. Back to the .38. And I was good! At least, that's what Bill told me and I choose to believe him, even if he was just being nice. Women, I'm told, are naturally better marksmen than men. The better I got, the better it felt. Also, Bill was right. ``Tell me,'' he said after I had finished. ``What were you thinking about while you were shooting?'' That's when I realized I had forgotten all about a personal matter I'd been crying over all morning. I hadn't been thinking about anything but the target. I had, in effect, forgotten all of my troubles and all of my cares. Wow. Waddaya know? I can see why people get hooked on this sport. And it looks like there is still a lot of interest out there. Several people I mentioned this to have begged me to take them to the range. So if I can get permission, they might be swamped with visitors after all. Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________________________ T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01
