So we had Marion’s family Christmas party recently, the yearly gathering of about 75 family members. It’s always a lovely time and a great sign to each other of a loving family that makes their relationship as family a priority.
We stayed with our cousins at their house which was really nice of them to offer their home to us. Carolyn and Eddie and their two children, Monica and Eddie, are loads of fun and really made us feel welcome. Monica even offered us her room for the two nights and she slept on a couch in another room. (Now that’s hospitality! Thanks!)
Before the party we had some time to kill in the morning. Eddie Sr. thought that the guys should do something fun together in the morning that I ordinarily wouldn’t do. “Hey Eddie,” he called, “Ya wanna take cousin Mike skeet-shooting? He’s probably never done that!”
OK, usual readers, I can hear you laughing. I indeed have never fired a gun in my life and wasn’t all that comfortable with doing it now. But it’s only shooting clay disks, and as I thought about it I said, “Well, this WOULD be an experience that I probably wouldn’t do in general. So maybe this is something I should experience.”
As we got to the range, there were a bunch of guys there from central casting for gun-totin, rifle range rats. Plaid jackets and ear muffs with uncocked guns over their shoulders. At first I was nervous around all those firearms and had visions of Dick Cheney shooting my face off. But they really seemed to value safety and I knew that my cousin Eddie also really valued safety and taught that value to his son. We went over the basics of safety and watched Eddie shoot first.
The idea is to shoot 25 clay disks out of the air. Young Eddie had an off-day and got only one out of the 25. Ed Sr. knocked off 4 of the 25 but in fairness, he got some coaching from a guy clearly from central casting for “Gun enthusiast.” After a lesson he knocked off 4 in a row.
OK…you’re all asking by now. Did I even step up to the range? Well here I am…safety googles, ear muffs and ammo belt and all…
How many did I hit? Goosegg, zero, nil, zilch, none! Apparently, I just missed one or two flying right underneath them. If one flew to the right I had no shot of hitting it. To the left a better shot, but really I only had a real chance of hitting those straight ahead of me. So my carrying card as a pacifist is in tact and the Army isn’t calling me to the front lines anytime soon. It will be Bambi’s safest day in the forest, if I ever go hunting.
We were shooting a small 20 gauge shotgun (I think), which is the lowest intensity rifle you can shoot. Let me tell you, if this is a small kick-back on a gun, I don’t want to know what a high range kick must feel like. It didn’t hurt me or anything, but you could feel the power that a firearm certainly holds. It was indeed humbling to know the power that it could wield. The noise that little shotgun makes could awaken Lazarus and was probably the most discontenting for me. I flinched probably every time I heard that “BLAM” and I thank God for whoever made ear muffs. Even the smoking smell of the powder gave me a bit of pause.
There was also some room for some spiritual reflection here as well. Knowing what a small rifle like that can do, allows us to realize that the number of people who use guns illegally have a real problem not with guns but with arrogance. They aren’t humbled by the power of the firearm, as my cousin and his son obviously are, but rather they are aroused by it. They transfer the ability to hurt others from the gun’s shadow side to the hurtful intentions in their own sick minds. They show no sense of responsibility.
On the other hand, my cousin had the right attitude about guns. It teaches you a bit of responsibility and even a bit of humbleness. They go out infrequently and they don’t talk about it much after that. It’s a bit of healthy competition in the open air as opposed to the computer screen. I don’t begrudge anyone their right to own a gun, but I do think extensive background checks should happen.
Honestly, it wasn’t for me. I won’t be hunting anytime soon. But I was much more comfortable out there than I thought I’d be. And that leaves me comforted that I was led by two guys who put safety first in a controlled environment–which may have upped my own comfort-level. But it also left me a bit fearful too. If I could be that comfortable around a simple firearm, a guy who is not comfortable at all around even the thought of a gun…then what about someone who has bad intentions? How quickly could they get “comfortable” around them and not really think about the fact that they could really hurt someone else?
And perhaps that is something to pray for this week. That as we move further into Advent and remember that God came into our often broken world, where peace (or even cooler heads) don’t always win out, we might realize the power that we all have as human beings to give life and to take life away. Let us pray for a renewed vision for peace, but more importantly for justice–against those who wield power unjustly.
All in all, a good experience, that gave me something to consider. Enjoy the shooting range, guys! Maybe next year, I’ll actually hit one. Oh, by the way…a big thanks to Cousin Christine too for hosting this year’s party. And Happy Advent to the family and enjoy the upcoming Christmas season.