A group of us went from work to Shore Shot Pistol Range, five of us were newbies. Just being outside made me so nervous I could hear the shots being fired. When we got in, there were guns everywhere, it was crazy. We signed waivers. then the very nice safety ranger went through the motions of handling the gun (which was a glock 34 9mm). He showed us ladies first and then showed the guys. Then we got our ear and eye protection and went inside the shooting area. Not many people were in there and then someone shot a gun and I must have jumped a foot in there air and of course the ranger goes, "Ok you first!"
He showed us how to load the magazine, hold the gun, put the magazine in the gun and then slide the thingy to put the bullet in the barrel (I'm still not up on the terminology sorry). Then how to aim and I shot. I couldn't believe how forceful it was! My first shot, not so great and I continued with the 4 left in there. Then everyone had their turn and on my second try I realized how to aim properly and I did pretty well after that.
Turns out the safety ranger was motivated to volunteer when a woman he knew was home alone and an intruder broke in. She owned a gun and had it in the intruder's face and fired but nothing happened because she didn't know how to use it properly. The man got control of the gun and proceeded to beat her with it. I couldn't decide at first whether or not to share that information but because the story made me feel like I bettered myself by going to the range, I decided I should.
I really did appreciate the experience and the ranger volunteering his time and I'm glad I did it but I was still relieved when we left the building.
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