My experience at Indoor pistol range

I must say that the only instance where I saw gun in India was while travelling in the border areas. Of course, I have seen few policeman holding vintage era long and heavy guns!! India has very strict gun control making it very difficult for a common man to buy or use guns. Of course, there is no use of guns for common man in India. In fact, I never thought about it until my recent visit to Pittsburgh in United States.

During my stay, I had an option of either going for ice skating, skiing or shooting. All options looked interesting but shooting was something I had not tried before. We went to the indoor pistol shooting range.

My colleague gave a short lesson on how to use the gun. It was quite simple but you should also understand that the ‘gun’ is a very powerful weapon. Wrong usage can also cause injury to the shooter. I had to wear an ear muff and gun safety glasses for ears before entering into the shooting area. The shooting area was protected by double door and glass windows to reduce the sound impact.

As I entered into the shooting area, I was welcomed with the smell of gun power. After putting the target and loading bullets, I took hold of the gun. A the same time, a person on the other lane started firing at the target. In spite of the ear muffs, the sound was so loud that my body jerked. I do not know how soldiers manage with that sound. 

Pulling the trigger was the easiest step. It was so exciting to see the “real” bullet firing from the gun. The force of the shot causes recoil of the slide backward ejecting the bullet casing. It is important to use the right technique.  It can otherwise hurt the shooter. Weapons like AK 47 were available which can only be used in outdoor shooting range. Just lifting those weapons made me overwhelmed.

It is very easy buy guns in US. As simple as buying grocery. I am bit exaggerating but a person can buy guns with some documentation. They were also very inexpensive. Cheaper than the iPhones available in market. The person in charge of the shooting range was very surprised on hearing that we were holding gun for the first time in life. They were more surprised when they heard that it is not easy for common man to buy guns in India. Well, each country is unique.