Growing up on a farm as I did, you would think that would be a common practice, but for some reason, mom didn’t allow guns.  She had a dislike of guns so much, that she took dad’s gun apart and hid the parts in different places.  We didn’t question it, and they didn’t talk about it, so it was not discussed.  However at the age of 5-10, we all had toy guns strapped to our waists as we played out constant cowboy and indian games, imitating the few shows we had watched on tv.  Besides, don’t forget “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

When I got married, my husband talked about it, but a horrible incident had happened with an acquaintance that turned into a murder suicide, and I decided guns were dangerous and we just didn’t need one.  I continued to listen in horror year after year to stories of children finding their parents gun, and dying as a result of playing with the gun and it going of accidentally, resulting in an accidental death.  No way was I going to have one in my house.  But the funny thing is, my son would use anything as a weapon.  He even chewed his graham cracker into the shape of a gun one afternoon during snack time, and used it on me as I was cooking dinner!  Is it something that just comes with being a boy?  So it seemed to me at the time.

This fear of guns, turned into a hatred of war and peace became my motto.  After growing up during the Vietnam war, I could see no good that had come out of that, and I always voted for no war, and no guns.  I wasn’t against hunting, although it should only be in desperate times, when people couldn’t afford to go to the grocery store and purchase their meat.  Why kill Bambi?

I could feel a gradual change begin to happen in a most unusual place, as I began to read and understand the bible.  I saw that war is not going to stop just because we want it to.  I understood that there will always be someone who wants to come and take power and rule, and there will always have to be those that fight for freedom and righteousness.  My thinking then added the possibility that my third child, then only about 5 years old, might have to go to war some day and he would have to have a gun.  I knew it was a priviledge to live in America and as hard as it would be to see my son go off to war, I knew I wanted him to know that would be an honor.  I knew that he was following Jesus, and Jesus would be with Him wherever he went.  If he ever felt he wanted to go and serve his country, God would be with Him.

When our family moved to Redding in 2009 I began to have dreams of owning a ranch, and horses, and yes, maybe the “men” would shoot guns.  But me?  Not interested.  They just scared me, so I will stay far away.  Until a friend of relayed a story of one of her travels.  On this particular trip, she happened to be travelling with her two young daughters and her cousin and they had to stop for gas.  It was a seedy looking place, and they ran into some harassment inside, about how much money they were going to get back after paying for their gas.  The cousin argued and my friend began to get nervous and just didn’t care if the guy got their money and walked her girls back to the car.  As they loaded up the car and prepared to leave, a couple of greasy men sauntered over to the car, making remarks about the women in the car and the cousin had just had it.  These men were gawking in the window, making remarks when the cousin reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a hand gun.  She slapped the gun on the console and said “Do we have anything more to talk about?”  and the men quickly retreated with a few unsavory remarks.  But the girls felt liberated!  They were so terrified that their cousin was carrying a loaded gun in the glove compartment yet thrilled that she wasn’t afraid to use it.  That got me to thinking.  Why should I be afraid?  Why would I have a gun in my house and have no idea how to use it?  As a matter of fact, I’m probably more dangerous with a gun in my house that I don’t know how to use than if I didn’t have one at all!

I decided to investigate this world of guns and find out how scary this was and of course I wasn’t going to do this alone, I was going to invite my girlfriends and see if anyone else wanted to learn.  I was shocked!  They all said yes! What has happened to us?  The first lesson was at my home, and I was shaking the whole time.  Trying to remember how to get the gun out of the safe with my secret code, and where are the bullets that go inside?  What do they look like?  Is there one in there?  Better not shoot myself before I get to the range.  How many bullets do I need?  How can I tell them apart from the big gun I have?  Better take them all.

I stocked a large duffle bag full of all of my treasures and off we went.  Thoughts pummeled me with “Is it legal to have this in my car?  What if a policeman stopped me?”  “Hello sir, just out for a little friendly shooting”.  When I got to the range I found I wasn’t even able to put the bullets into the thingy that goes into the gun.  Wow, gun lessons 101.  Learn how to put the bullets into the clip (new vocabulary).  Once I got that down, I had to learn how to sight my target. Got it.  Suddenly I heard a light “ping” which indicated I actually hit my target.  I was thrilled!  We shot off a couple more rounds…doesn’t that sound professional? And packed up after an exhausting hour and a half… and put those things away until the next time.

Victory – I can get the gun out of the safe.  I can load the … clip…and put the bullets in.  I can sight my target.  Amazing.  And my friend was thrilled as well.

Let’s try this again.  Only this time a few more friends and we’ll go to the indoor range to see if we actually hit something.  Another interesting note:  hollow point bullets are for exploding the target.  What?  Why are we doing that?  Also, what is the proper attire for someone to shoot guns in?  Can we be girlie cowgirl?  Camouflouge…we are serious after all…or maybe just jeans and cute earrings.  Come on now!  We are women!  We have to have the right gun shooting ensemble.

We all lined up in the little stalls with our “weapons” of mass destruction and John our instructor helped us to line up our targets.  He explained that we would want to kill our target, not wound.  What?  Why are we doing that?  John explained that we don’t want to have to have any problems after wounding our perpetrator and him being able to come after us again or the fact that it would be our word against his.  This is getting scary.  Then John tells me “Robbie, shoot his eye out!”  Aaaaaa!  This is sounding like we would be shooting people!  I shoot his eye out. What is happening to me and my friends, though, is a feeling of strength.  We are no longer afraid.  We can do this.

At the end of the day, I know that I’m to learn every thing I can down here on earth.  I want to be excellent at everything I do, and learning can only make me better.  Will I pray and ask God to keep me safe, to surround me with His angels and protect me and my family?  Absolutely. But I know that things do happen, even when I pray.  I want to be ready for anything that comes my way, and if learning how to shoot a gun helps me to feel less afraid, more prepared, then that’s a good thing.

Plus, I think I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.  All of us were so scared to shoot, and we got the giggles many times, trying to figure out what to do.  But today, we conquered our fears and became a little more strong.  That’s a good thing.

Check out this book I found!  It’s totally on topic.  Click here