“Even though I was nervous while shooting, I never felt in danger” (Fall 2024 Student Range Visit Reflection #7)

This is the seventh of several student gun range field trip reflection essays from my fall 2024 Sociology of Guns seminar. The assignment to which students are responding can be found here. I am grateful to these students for their willingness to have their thoughts shared publicly.

Previously posted reflections from Fall 2024 are available here: Reflection #1 and Reflection #2, Reflection #3, Reflection #4, Reflection #5, and Reflection #6.

Reflections from previous semesters of Sociology of Guns are available HERE.

By “Dead-Eye” Jack Klein

The gun range changed how I view guns. Before arriving, I had never held a gun before, let alone fired one. I have shot bb guns and paintball guns but those experiences were nothing like this one.

When I was first handed the 22 caliber at the beginning of the session, I was nervous. I shot that one and since there was not much recoil, it didn’t feel like a super big deal. It felt good to get over that hump without much issue.

Then we started shooting the Glock. Once I had shot the Glock for the first time, the full realization of shooting set in. I immediately tensed up and began to sweat a bit. While it felt good to shoot, the anticipation of waiting till the trigger was fully pulled was killing me. Since I was following instructions and pulling it very slowly, the gun seemed like it took forever to fire. I quickly realized at that moment that firing a gun was nothing like how they make it seem in movies and on tv.

In the media, they make shooting seem very easy, like you can fire back to back shots without much difficulty. I believe that a lot of people who have never shot a gun before would assume the same thing as me. I assumed that shooting a gun, even a larger one, would not affect me, especially with my larger build. But when that first bullet left the Glock I knew that this was not like how the media portrays it.

The media’s portrayal of guns has created somewhat of a stigma around them I believe. I have seen people who likely have never shot a gun before talk about guns as if they are so easy to shoot and take almost no effort. After shooting a gun, I can confirm that this is not true.

Shooting a gun is nothing to be taken lightly. However, our culture has conditioned us, through violent video games and television, to think that shooting a gun is something that is easy. This creates the belief around guns that it is easy to take another human life. When you view guns from that perspective, it becomes understandable why people want to ban guns. However, after shooting a gun, you realize that it is, in fact, not that simple.

I believe that, in the right hands, guns are not that dangerous. It is when people who do not know how to safely handle guns use them that people get hurt. Even though I was nervous while shooting, I never felt in danger or a threat to anyone around me. I believe that the people who do want to own guns should be heavily screened, but no one, who clears the screening process, should be prevented from owning and safely using that firearm.

Through this experience, I learned a lot about guns. I learned my true feelings about them and how much fun, under safe conditions, they are to use. I really enjoyed this experience and I can not wait to do it again.