First Person Shooter

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

• Spent an hour or two working to save all sentient life in the galaxy from the Reaper menace
• Spent over fifteen minutes trying to decide whether the acronyms for the Mass Effect sequels are pronounced “em-ee” or “me”
• Settled on “me,” largely because it makes the phrase “I’m playing ME2″ sound like very brief conversation with myself
• Arranged, via the interwebs, to meet a buddy at the range
• Broke in the new .22
• Let my buddy shoot my 9mm
• Surprised the crap out of my buddy by letting him shoot my .357
• Returned home
• Engaged roommate in hour-long discussion about the practicality and mechanics of capturing a passing comet with a gravity tractor and parking it in orbit to provide water to spacecraft and orbital industry

I’m a gun guy.  Frankly, I’m sort of a gun nerd, if that’s possible.  “Gun nut” is the term used by a number of my friends, but that has connotations of good ol’ boys in compounds and scruffy dudes in surplus camo.  I’m not a survivalist, and I’m not a “prepper,” a relatively modern title for a nutcase who is convinced the end of the world is coming and has stockpiled enough food to feed themselves for the rest of their lives.  Hell, I’m not even a member of the NRA.

But I do like guns.  I collect ‘em, I shoot ‘em, and I know quite a bit about ‘em.  Most of my interest is “practical;” that is, I don’t shoot in competitions, and I pretty much never shoot at a traditional “bull’s eye” target.  I mostly shoot pistols, but that’s largely due to convenience: the best range in town, and the closest to me, isn’t rated for rifles or shotguns.

I don’t hunt.  I have nothing against hunting, mind, but it wasn’t something I grew up doing.  I’ve been on a handful of rabbit or game bird trips with friends, but I’ve never stalked a deer or hunkered down in a duck blind.  I *do* have a bird gun, a long-barreled traditional pump shotgun with a limited capacity, but I don’t have a scoped deer rifle or anything like that.

Most of the time, I get funny looks from people when I tell them that I’m a “gun guy,” but that I don’t hunt.  Usually, they ask something like, “then why do you have all those guns?”  To which I reply, “…to shoot?”

Shooting is fun.  It’s extra fun if you’re shooting objects (pop cans, especially when full, burst nicely), but even poking holes in paper can be extremely entertaining.  It’s a good way to relieve stress, it builds hand-eye coordination, and, frankly, I’m pretty good at it.  Not great, mind; I don’t plan to enter Top Shot or anything, but I’m a solid practical shooter who can reliably “address targets” at reasonable ranges.  And, unlike a lot of gun owners, I’m equally proficient with a large number of platforms.

And that’s where the “gun nerd” title comes in.  I do a lot of firearms research.  I try to keep up on the industry and keep track of what various manufacturers are rolling out.  And, like any good nerd, I have strong opinions.  Like a Star Wars vs Star Trek debate, any argument over which manufacturer is “better” is less a matter of facts than of preferences.  And, as in debates over those classic series, little of the information being argued comes from the original material; much more comes from anecdotal accounts and things read on the internet and the general mythos which has grown up around any given company.

And, yes, I have my favorite gun companies.  And, yes, I’d be happy to argue about them.  But that’s a topic for a different post.