Monday, May 23, 2005

2nd Amendment: No 21st Amendment, But Still Rockin'

So, Sunday I went shooting for the first time with my Dad and my sisters.
We went to the Flatiron District to the West Side Pistol & Rifle Range-- the only firing range in Manhattan.
We had a safety course and learned to make safe, load, unload, aim and fire the Ruger 10/22 (10-shot, .22 caliber) rifle.


My middle sister, whom I'll refer to here by her street name ("The Oboe") fired off 150 rounds (15 magazines) and managed to hit her paper target several times.
My little sister, Doodles (when you step to Doodles, you're, uh, stepping to reading a education specialist, or maybe death row?) had excellent form from her week on the high school riflery team.
Dad blazed away with glee.
I did pretty well, too. I'll post a picture of my target from 50 feet later.

You can hardly feel the rifle kicking as it spits out little bullets; kind of scary.

There was a surprisingly low level of NOW I'M GOD feeling associated with the experience. I remember the one time I went to a strip club that for about an hour after I left, I had a disturbing expectation that every woman I saw would happily take off her shirt for $20. I think it says good things about my soul that, after leaving the rifle range, I didn't see rifle sights bobbing in front of the foreheads of everyone walking around Manhattan.

Overall, we were amused by all the paranoid NRA propaganda explaining how everyone wanted to take away our guns or enslave us to deer.
Shooting was a lot of fun.

So, I'd say the 2nd Amendment (bear arms) is pretty cool.
Afterwards, though we went to the Heartland Brewery for a pint, and I still believe the 21st Amendment (repealing Prohibition) is an even better deal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am interpreting this as a threat against my life.

No, no, wait. I'm interpreting it as a concession that you're so terrified of the hard-core blog-beef I brought that you feel compelled to buy a weapon to protekk yo' self before I brekk yo' self.

Bleyeaugh! How ya like me now?

The Litvak said...

It's true.
The beef between Jack Roy and myself has escalated to the point of death threats and paramilitary training.
No doubt our entourages'll have shootouts outside a local bookstore where we're both picking up advance copies of the new Harry Potter.
Stay tuned, and pray for my life (unless I'm already dead when you read this).