A friend of Barb's and mine for over twenty years contacted me recently and asked to take me up on my offer to teach her to shoot. We went to Wades this afternoon. I had her shooting my Ruger Mark II. It has a six inch bull barrel and her arms got tired quickly. I went back out to the front desk and utilized my "free rental" (comes with being a member) for a Browning Buck Mark. It was much lighter and she did better.
At about 10 feet nearly all of her shots were within the black. After about 20 rounds she told me, "Maybe I should buy a gun." I said we could talk about it after we got outside. I did a little bit of shooting with the Buck Mark and my Gun Blog 45 then we left.
In the parking lot I asked her about why she wanted a gun. The answer was the economy is probably going to get worse and Obama may make it difficult to get a gun. She wanted a gun to be able to protect herself and her youngest daughter who lives with her. She asked how much a gun costs and if a .22 would be okay for her needs. I suggested she should practice some more and try to get the strength to be able to shoot something a little bigger. But, the most important selection criteria was that she feel comfortable shooting it. If that means a .22 then that would be best for her.
I emailed her a link to this class which would let her shoot a number of guns as well as cover other important issues of gun ownership such as self-defense legal issues. She responded with:
I will sign up the class with my brother.
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Thank you so much for teaching me. You are a great teacher. ...you can post the comment to the blog too. :)
We are winning the gun rights issue one new shooter at a time.