When I was in Vegas for the conference, there was an opportunity to shoot guns with fellow hackers. To my disappointment, most of my team didn’t feel like it, so we skipped it.
Once my boyfriend joined, we started talking about guns and gun laws in the US, and in the spur of the moment, we decided to shoot some guns. We figured we probably would never have an opportunity to try it outside the USA and were curious how it feels. After all, many Americans are proud of their gun freedoms, and we wanted to know what it was all about.
We passed through Vegas again on the day we headed toward Death Valley. Once on the road, we googled available shooting ranges, and to our surprise, we found multitudes of shooting spots open. We picked the first one on the way and found ourselves visiting Pro Gun Vegas.
Once we went to the reception, we were presented with a sushi-like menu, where we could pick whatever gun we dreamed of shooting with as many rounds as we could afford. There was even the possibility of booking a Humvee with a weapon mounted on top or even blowing up a car! Money is your limit!
We decided on ten rounds each with a submachine gun H&K MP5; I then took a sniper rifle PSL, and my boyfriend decided on a shotgun Remington 870. As total noobs who only saw shooting guns in movies and games, we weren’t entirely sure what we were up to. But the firearms we picked looked cool, and whenever we played games, we went for those guns.
After a short video telling us how to hold a gun so we would not kill anyone, we hopped into our golf cart and drove toward our instructor, surrounded by the sounds of shooting guns in the area.
The instructor was great; he explained everything, showed us how to handle the gun, and prepared us for recoil. When he saw I picked a sniper riffle, his reaction was, “ohhhh, have you ever tried snipers?”. To my obvious “nope”, he wished me luck and told me to hold the gun tightly with my chin or else the recoil would knock me unconscious 😛 Then he assured me that even though the recoil would make the viewfinder end up next to my eye, I would not end up with a blue panda eye as long as I kept my posture right 😛
You always hear about the recoil, but man, I was not prepared for how strong it was! Every time the viewfinder recoiled, I closed my eyes. I shot the target 4/5 times and ended only with minor bruises on my shoulder, so I call it a success. It was an exciting and fun activity! My boyfriend was thrilled with the possibility of reloading his shotgun as they do in movies. His fun with the shotgun cost him also bruised shoulder, but we are glad we took a detour to shoot the guns!! Unforgettable experience.
