Took the wife to the range today

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My wife just recently got her LTC after taking the class back in December. Today was a nice day and I asked her if she wanted to go to the range and try her first day of shooting. She has shot my pellet guns including an old Daisy 1911 which she really mastered her trigger pull with as that gun has a notoriously long trigger pull.

My wife, son, and myself went with .22, .45, 9mm handguns, .22 AR 15 and a .223 AR 15. I have to say going over the rules of the range with her and how each gun worked she showed that her class instructor did a great job. She also really paid attention as she knew the rules, minded her trigger finger, and pretty much remembered how the 1911 type pistols worked.

I went over the .22 Beretta I have (larger 101 model) and she took her first shots ever with a cartridge firearm. After about 4-5 shots at 12yds her shot group went from 4" to 1 1/2". She continued to shoot that way the rest of her time with the Beretta. My son then shot the 9mm which she quickly disliked because of the report. Turns out she has really sensitive ears and will need both plugs and muffs. The felt concussion also bothered her but after a while she got used to it.

I shot my .45 and asked her if she wanted to try a round. I told her I did not expect her to shoot it nor to like shooting it and it was her choice to. She wanted to try shooting it and I loaded one round in the mag (in case of her losing her grip or something of the sort) giving it to her. She closed the slide, aimed, and pulled the trigger not really aiming it that good as I'm sure she expected the recoil. She did a great job controlling it and thought it wasn't that bad but wanted to go back to the Beretta.

She fired about 125rds through the Beretta, tried my .22 AR which she really liked and even shot my son's AR .223. My son's AR is lightly scoped and she shot 5 rounds at a 12"x12" plate @ 150yds hitting it 3 out of the 5![shocked]

She has now asked when are we going again.
 
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Maybe it's timeto het her her own .22?

@chrisb319: what's wrong with loving peace? Don't you love peace? If not, go see a specialist.
 
I took my wife for a trip last week, first trip for her in "some" time. We shot pistols only, I introduced her to my XDm .45 which she did not like, so I also brought my Ruger P89 which she has previously shot, she was fairly comfortable with that and shot reasonably well at 7yds

We're heading out today again if I can get out of the office at 2:30 today, may bring my build AR this time, only has 1 round down the tube so far.....
 
Maybe it's timeto het her her own .22?

My LGS has an old Beretta in the case for sale. Not sure of the model but it has virtually the same grip as my 101/76 but a shorter lighter barrel. When I told her about it her face lit up. Should take her down there and let it be her first very own gun registered to her. She also told me she's going to post a story on FB to all her girlfriends and put a picture of her target on there. Luckily none of her girlfriends are "anti" and one even is a RI LEO. My wife is pretty proud of her shooting. She told me that she had a better time than she thought she would and even though she never had a problem with guns she really didn't understand why guys like them so much. She told me she now understands the allure.
Chris, try to get your fiance to go with you at least once to the range and get her to shoot. If she doesn't want too do what they do and put her on a guilt trip. Once she gets there she might change her mind. What I though might be a 3/4-1hr shooting session yesterday turned into a 3hr one with the range officer coming out and telling us the range was closing! My wife never asked once when we were leaving.
 
Maybe it's timeto het her her own .22?

My LGS has an old Beretta in the case for sale. Not sure of the model but it has virtually the same grip as my 101/76 but a shorter lighter barrel. When I told her about it her face lit up. Should take her down there and let it be her first very own gun registered to her. She also told me she's going to post a story on FB to all her girlfriends and put a picture of her target on there. Luckily none of her girlfriends are "anti" and one even is a RI LEO. My wife is pretty proud of her shooting. She told me that she had a better time than she thought she would and even though she never had a problem with guns she really didn't understand why guys like them so much. She told me she now understands the allure.
Chris, try to get your fiance to go with you at least once to the range and get her to shoot. If she doesn't want too do what they do and put her on a guilt trip. Once she gets there she might change her mind. What I though might be a 3/4-1hr shooting session yesterday turned into a 3hr one with the range officer coming out and telling us the range was closing! My wife never asked once when we were leaving.


Nice, a regular shooting partner! If it were me, I'd ask her to reconsider the FB thing. The world already knows too much. I'll leave it at that.
 
Chris, my fiancee is similar. However, through exposure therapy, she's coming around. Just realize it'll be a long haul before she's ready to shoot a gun herself or encourage your buying habit.

Agreed - people do come around and it's worth taking lots of effort, time and patience to show your spouse that guns are not evil.

... If it were me, I'd ask her to reconsider the FB thing. The world already knows too much. I'll leave it at that.

Why discourage an adult who wants to do their part and normalize guns for the rest of society? Every bit helps - the main battle is fought in the court of public opinion - the legislators and the courts threw us to the wolves a long time ago.

And yes, likely the FB post will generate some "OMG!!! Evil guns!" posts - all the better to identify the next people you need to bring to the range.
 
That's EXACTLY what I have been doing. Many of my friends never knew I even owned guns for 20+ years

Well, they know now

For too long I was a quiet complacent gun owner, no more. There's too much at stake

JM2C, YMMV

Why discourage an adult who wants to do their part and normalize guns for the rest of society? Every bit helps - the main battle is fought in the court of public opinion - the legislators and the courts threw us to the wolves a long time ago.

And yes, likely the FB post will generate some "OMG!!! Evil guns!" posts - all the better to identify the next people you need to bring to the range.
 
Why discourage an adult who wants to do their part and normalize guns for the rest of society? Every bit helps - the main battle is fought in the court of public opinion - the legislators and the courts threw us to the wolves a long time ago.

And yes, likely the FB post will generate some "OMG!!! Evil guns!" posts - all the better to identify the next people you need to bring to the range.


I guess it's a generational thing. If your comfortable with it, knock yourself out. It's not that I would worry about "shocking" the FB community, it's about privacy. Facebook posts like that will be viewed negatively, just as much as positively. Why when we are losing our privacy at an alarming rate, would we want to accelerate the loss?

Like I said, if Facebook is your thing go for it. I'm just giving you all something to ponder.
 
My wife wasn't thrilled about guns at first, but she's coming around. She's "adopted" my M&P15-22, at least until we can find a pink one for her. Now I shoot my S&W 22A pistol and SKS. The only downside is that I'm going through ammunition even faster now!
 
That's a better problem than a wife who won't let you have a gun [grin]

My wife wasn't thrilled about guns at first, but she's coming around. She's "adopted" my M&P15-22, at least until we can find a pink one for her. Now I shoot my S&W 22A pistol and SKS. The only downside is that I'm going through ammunition even faster now!
 
I guess it's a generational thing. If your comfortable with it, knock yourself out. It's not that I would worry about "shocking" the FB community, it's about privacy. Facebook posts like that will be viewed negatively, just as much as positively. Why when we are losing our privacy at an alarming rate, would we want to accelerate the loss?

Like I said, if Facebook is your thing go for it. I'm just giving you all something to ponder.

Just for the record, I do not have an active FB account - the one that was created for me when I was in graduate school was never used (still retain it, but I did not log on to it in years).

The point though is that while one should not advertise their gun ownership with strangers, keeping it a secret from family/friends/neighbors, etc. hurts us all in the end since it allows many people who could maybe see the light on the second amendment to think that nobody close to them cares.

Public opinion can be changed one person at a time, and the most effective tool I can come up with is to put a face on the gun owners - when people know that their neighbor, teacher, accountant, etc. are law-abiding gun owners, they will consider gun related matters a bit differently versus people who think that only criminals and the govt. have/need guns.

And the reason I got my MA Firearms Safety Instructors Certification (paperwork in for a few weeks - did not get it back yet) is to allow me to teach adults and children that would otherwise not have considered learning about firearms.

Every person we reach out to could become a friend - we have to keep trying even when things look dim.

Activism works, and it's not the Occupy this and that crap you've seen from the 99 percenters - it's what each of us does with the opportunities to teach and co-opt one person at a time that life gives us.
 
Just for the record, I do not have an active FB account - the one that was created for me when I was in graduate school was never used (still retain it, but I did not log on to it in years).

The point though is that while one should not advertise their gun ownership with strangers, keeping it a secret from family/friends/neighbors, etc. hurts us all in the end since it allows many people who could maybe see the light on the second amendment to think that nobody close to them cares.

Public opinion can be changed one person at a time, and the most effective tool I can come up with is to put a face on the gun owners - when people know that their neighbor, teacher, accountant, etc. are law-abiding gun owners, they will consider gun related matters a bit differently versus people who think that only criminals and the govt. have/need guns.

And the reason I got my MA Firearms Safety Instructors Certification (paperwork in for a few weeks - did not get it back yet) is to allow me to teach adults and children that would otherwise not have considered learning about firearms.

Every person we reach out to could become a friend - we have to keep trying even when things look dim.

Activism works, and it's not the Occupy this and that crap you've seen from the 99 percenters - it's what each of us does with the opportunities to teach and co-opt one person at a time that life gives us.


Like I said, it must be a generational thing, or maybe I'm just an old coot. I value my privacy, and don't wish to share it with the world. Personal interaction is fine, but the sharing of personal information on Facebook is not, IMHO, a wise thing to do.

Millions of users do it regularly, with no ill effects, but I won't take the chance. You could say I'm "behind the times", but that's where I'll stay. I'm not saying anyone should not promote or support the Second Amendment. So go out and spread the gospel. We need more people like you! I'll be here, behind the drawn curtains. [wink]
 
Like I said, it must be a generational thing, or maybe I'm just an old coot. I value my privacy, and don't wish to share it with the world. Personal interaction is fine, but the sharing of personal information on Facebook is not, IMHO, a wise thing to do.

Millions of users do it regularly, with no ill effects, but I won't take the chance. You could say I'm "behind the times", but that's where I'll stay. I'm not saying anyone should not promote or support the Second Amendment. So go out and spread the gospel. We need more people like you! I'll be here, behind the drawn curtains. [wink]

Bill,

We seem to be in full agreement - as I said, I don't share that type of info with the whole internet, I talk face to face with people I already know. I might put "MA Firearms Safety Instructor" on my LinkedIn profile when I get my paperwork though... should be fun.

Also, please note I did not say you or anybody else should go and spread the gospel even face to face - I was merely pointing out what I do and why I believe it is the right thing to do... for me. In this, like in everything else, everybody needs to make their own decisions and live with them.
 
Ha. Im in the same boat. Almost. Though mine isn't anti-gun per se...she IS anti- needing more than one or two guns in a small home. I got the go ahead for another as soon as we move to a bigger place. (We have been outbid twice) Ive been building an AR. As long as it isn't ready to fire before we move, i'll be in good shape.

sounds like you had a great time!
My fiance IS a anti-gun peace loving hippie...so I'm screwed.[sad2]
 
congrats on getting someone else involved... just got the wife to take the class this past weekend. when she finaly gets her LTC I am going to have to figure out what to get her. Will prob end up with a long day at AFS shooting a whole pile of handguns to see what she likes.
 
My wife had me go by the range and pick her up an application. She has started inviting her friends and some family to come and shoot. I guess she's hooked! She's been telling everyone how much she enjoyed shooting and is showing off her target.
 
I agree! Don't have any of her shooting yet. Actually, don't have many of her alone either. I get to see her everyday and it's funny how we don't take as many pictures as we should. I'm lucky as I'm 51, she's 42! She's as good of a person as she looks too. My first wife was good looking on the outside but butt ass ugly on the inside!
 

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