I never gave much thought to guns. I loved target practice when I was younger. I was generally a good shot, even without much practice at 7 and 9 and 12 at summer camp. I loved going to the outdoor range. The covered shooting area. The backstop with targets. I shot archery too. But I like the shotgun boom.
I always thought it's a good skill to know how to shoot a gun. I was never into shooting animals or hunting. (I do think that is an excellent skill. Stalking and hunting prey. Actively focusing on being a predator.) I was saying to the boyfriend that people should hunt more but not kill the animal at the end. He then told me about camera safaris. After I thought about it for a while, I decided it was a silly idea (silly in not matching my reason for hunting to begin with).
My main point in hunting is to gain knowledge - about myself, about hunting, about stalking, about what I am hunting and about what it is to be an active predator. Most people don't realize that they are predators. Hunting might make them more aware. It would sure make me more aware. So that's why I thought going through the motions of hunting w/ out the final kill would be beneficial, and not kill the animal, when it might be unnecessary. But then I realized there's a huge flaw in that idea. To get the most important lesson, the animal must die. The hunter must kill it. There is no other way. (We'll see how thrashed I get in the comments of this post...)
I'm not about to go out hunting animals. (I hunt many other things.) (Side note: something strange has been happening to my food intake. If I have a choice, I generally take the vegetarian route. )
So, yesterday I took Violet out. She's a hefty girl, but packs no kick and a breeze to shoot. It was her virgin trip and she worked beautifully. Got compliments all around.
Later we were sitting on the tail bed watching the lighting in the distance. The warm wind blew all around. I love dusk in the desert. The sound of the wind. Eyes adjusting to low light. Sometimes I'm ready to throw all my work in the city away and become a hermit - live in a crazy shack in the desert completely off the grid. But then I'd miss the city noise, the possibilities to do and make change. And what about high technology and my dreams and aspirations related to that topic? So I'll wait a bit longer and satisfy that craving with these trips.
From about 13 till I was 19 i was rifle shooting probably once a month every month, starting on 25m indoor ranges and eventually making the Scottish Air Cadets full-bore - which was open sites on a 600-700m range. I always wonder if these opportunities were visibly available to all, that the gun culture would be a heck of a lot smaller?
Posted by: Ewan Spence | July 30, 2007 at 02:14 AM