My long term girlfriend has never fired a gun in her life.. closest she ever got was a bb gun when she was young. She has never had a problem with my hobby, but she has always shied away from joining in on the fun.
Recently, a friend of mine and his girlfriend spend the better part of a saturday blasting away with pistols, rifles and shotguns at the range.
When I told my girlfriend about the fun we had that day, she was very interested in the fact that a female went shooting with us.. and actually enjoyed it.
The next week I joked that we should go shooting. To my surprise, she said,
'Ok'
When we got to the range, I told her the golden rules of gun safety, and showed her how the rifle (an AR-15) worked. I fired about 6 rounds and then offered the rifle to her.
She refused, and said it seemed scary. I tried talk her through it, to pinpoint exactly what was scary about it. A stranger even walked up to us, and asked her if she was afraid of the recoil (and insisted it was very tame).
I would fire 3 shots, then offer it to her, but she refused evry time.
Eventually, the range officer filed past and said something like 'Get rid of her, find one that shoots!'.. this was his attempt to break the ice with humor.. If any of you know the range officer from the Wexford SGL Shooting range, you'll know what I mean.
She was a little offended and said she would wait in the car. I told her thats fine, ill pack up my stuff and we can go. After I returned with the targets, she seemed to have changed her mind.. "No no, I was just watching you a while first before I tried it".
With a little bit of coaxing, she agreed to just fire 1 shot.
It was a bit akward trying to show her how to hold the rifle properly (probably because she was very hesitant to even hold the scary black rifle). I put my pack on the bench so she could rest the rifle on it. Eventually, she managed to squeeze off her first shot.. ever!
She (acted?) a bit startled, almost ready to hand the thing back over.. I asked her gently,
'Good Job! Want another?'
'K' she replied
I kept loading up the mags for her, and showing her progressively more and more about how to operate the rifle. She always put it back on safe as soon as she was done shooting.
By the end of the session, she had fetched her GI Boonie hat from the car, and was really starting to look like a pro. She would tell me when she thought she pulled shots, and was excited to see how well she did.
When we got back home, I asked her why she was so scared initially.. Apparently the rifle just looked scary and mean.. like the ones in video games and on TV.
'It really wasn't that bad at all'
I told her the reasons I enjoy shooting, one of them being ' its just kinda satisfying'
'Yeah, maybe just a little bit...'
Does this mean ive got an 'assault girlfriend'?