Calamity in America by Pete Thorsen Read Free Book Online

action a couple times and had her get used to pulling the gun tight when she was aiming.  Then she loaded and shot this one.
    The first shot seemed to scare her a little bit.  It was much louder and while not very powerful the gun did have some recoil.  I watched her very closely on the second shot but I saw no flinch.  Same with the third shot.  We looked at the target and she had done very well.  Next she went right to the cans.  With the first shot when the big heavy bullet struck the can it went flying until it was out of sight behind some grass.  It was same with the second can.
    “Will you teach me handguns now?”
    “We go in and we will look at the handguns that I have.  You will handle all of them and you will see if any of them feel comfortable to you.”
    “Why didn’t we do that with the rifles?”
    “Because the rifles are different.  We could go in now and pull any of my rifles out of the case and you could shoot any of them adequately now that you know the fundamentals.  Pistols are not quite like that.  There is more of a relationship that you must have with a pistol to be able to shoot it well. 
    After a lot of experience then some people can shoot almost any handgun well but it is not really that way with a novice.  I think you will discover that all on your own after you handle several of them.”
    We went back inside and before we looked at the few handguns that I owned we stopped and washed up and then had lunch. 
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 7
     
     
     
     
     
     
    After lunch Beth wanted to immediately check out the handguns.  So we did.
    I showed her the ones I had and she carefully handled every one of them.  She kept coming back to one though.  To be sure she did handle all of them more than once.  Then she picked up the one she had kept going back to. 
    “I like this one the best I think.  Did I make a good choice?”
    “I don’t particularly like that one.”
    Her face fell.
    “So I should pick a different one?”
    “No you picked right one for you.  You did not pick one for me.  That is what I was talking about.  That one felt better to you didn’t it?”
    “Yes, it just feels better somehow.”
    “I have shot that one and it is a fine gun but I find that grip is way too small for me.  I could see where it might be great for you though.”
    “Can I shoot it?”
    “Yes you can shoot it.”
    The gun she picked was an old Colt Police Positive in thirty eight special caliber.  It would likely be a good choice for her.  Almost all my guns were old.  Most would be what many people would call collector’s items.  But all were shooters and would work today just as well as they did fifty or a hundred years ago.  The guns did not know or care what year it was.  They were all quality firearms and would still be fully functional long after I no longer could say the same about myself.
    I grabbed a box of ammunition and a pair of hearing protector muffs and we walked back out to the old shooting bench.  I put up a new target when we got out there too.  The new target was a scrap piece of cardboard with a dot of black spray paint in the center.
    I showed Beth how to open the gun up to swing the cylinder to the side.  How to eject the spent ammo and close the gun up again.  I showed her how easy it was to end up pointing the gun at her feet or my feet or other parts of her body.  How much harder it was to control the muzzle direction which made handguns much more dangerous to handle.
    I showed her how the gun could be shot by just pulling the trigger and also could be shot by pulling the hammer back and then pulling the trigger.  I had her dry fire the gun both ways to see the big difference in trigger pull.  When she asked where the safety was for the pistol I just pointed at her head. 
    “It has no safety?”
    “Many revolvers do not have a safety.  This one is safe enough.  If you drop it or anything it will not go off.  It will