Gairney Bridge

The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends with these somewhat famous words: “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (actually, the first part of the amendment has to do with the necessity of a well-regulated militia in helping protect the security of the State, but that’s another story ). The way I see it, owning a firearm is pretty close to being an integral part of the living the American dream.

The missus and I went out and purchased a handgun a few weeks ago. It is a used weapon, a Sig Sauer P226 9mm pistol. It’s a little old (How old you say? The barrel inscription says it was manufactured in West Germany; do the math on that one!). Here’s a picture of what such a weapon looks like:

Today was about the first decent Monday (weather-wise) since we’ve had the thing that we could take it to a local range for a little target practice. The place recommended to us is an outdoor range with a bit of notoriety of its own: the Knob Creek Gun Range, home of the largest machine gun shoot and military gun show in the country (no, I’m not making that up!). It was so wet in the area that they were not able to hold the show this year (the creek was too high, it seems). The wife and I set up a target and proceed to use up two full boxes of range ammo.

It was quite fun. I was off target a bit at first, but then I gradually became used to the gun, and at the end I managed to put three consecutive shots into the inner circle of the target, including one bullseye (intruders, beware!). The missus was even displaying impressive accuracy as well (she’s virtually ambidextrous, so part of her time was spent deciding if she wanted to shot left-handed or right-handed; I say let’s get another gun and have her shoot two-handed like Billy the Kid — I would make an Annie Oakley comment, but I’m afraid it might sound too much like one of the presidential candidates).

Overall, a very nice experience, imho.