http://www.techtv.com/xplay/features/story/0,24330,3544299,00.html
Morgan twitches her trigger finger at the shooting range.
By Morgan Webb
Being of left-coastal origin and generally embracing the city life, I had never before shot a gun. I believe guns can be a useful and viable tool for those of the hunting persuasion, but for a city girl who won't even carry mace because she thinks it's dangerous, the thrill of firing a gun is not something I'd actively pursue.
But I'm up for anything. They ask me to go fire a gun, I say "sure." They ask me to fire an automatic weapon, I say "sure" again. I figure I can get some good pointers to hone my fps skills and learn what it would really be like to run around with my finger on the trigger.
So I find myself at the The Gun Store in Las Vegas, shooting flaming rounds into the poorly photocopied visage of Saddam Hussein.
Firing an Uzi is nothing like I would have expected. These are machines of war, and they do most of the work for you. It's easy to clean in the field, has much less kick than I would have expected, and you can see the flames shoot out the sides as you aerate the flimsy paper target. The flames were the best part.
Shooting an M16 indoors feels like a really stupid thing to do, but the guys who ran the store were great, and you could tell they felt really comfortable with a gun in their hands. For some reason they had enough trust to put one in mine, though I am glad to say no one was hurt in the filming of this episode.
I enjoy first-person shooters a lot. In fact, they're probably my favorite type of game. It's the fast pace that really draws me, and it allows my repressed hunter to surface momentarily (grrrr!). Shooting a real automatic weapon, however, was very different, especially for a city girl. The gun, in real life, was dangerous, a thing to be feared. You could tell by the body language of everyone around it. No one was running around with 27 real weapons on their back, shooting wildly in hopes that a stray shot might hit their target.
The Gun Store didn't really improve my gaming, but it made me appreciate the difference between real guns and videogames. They are two totally different things. I'll stay safely at my computer with my videogames, thanks!
Morgan twitches her trigger finger at the shooting range.
By Morgan Webb
Being of left-coastal origin and generally embracing the city life, I had never before shot a gun. I believe guns can be a useful and viable tool for those of the hunting persuasion, but for a city girl who won't even carry mace because she thinks it's dangerous, the thrill of firing a gun is not something I'd actively pursue.
But I'm up for anything. They ask me to go fire a gun, I say "sure." They ask me to fire an automatic weapon, I say "sure" again. I figure I can get some good pointers to hone my fps skills and learn what it would really be like to run around with my finger on the trigger.
So I find myself at the The Gun Store in Las Vegas, shooting flaming rounds into the poorly photocopied visage of Saddam Hussein.
Firing an Uzi is nothing like I would have expected. These are machines of war, and they do most of the work for you. It's easy to clean in the field, has much less kick than I would have expected, and you can see the flames shoot out the sides as you aerate the flimsy paper target. The flames were the best part.
Shooting an M16 indoors feels like a really stupid thing to do, but the guys who ran the store were great, and you could tell they felt really comfortable with a gun in their hands. For some reason they had enough trust to put one in mine, though I am glad to say no one was hurt in the filming of this episode.
I enjoy first-person shooters a lot. In fact, they're probably my favorite type of game. It's the fast pace that really draws me, and it allows my repressed hunter to surface momentarily (grrrr!). Shooting a real automatic weapon, however, was very different, especially for a city girl. The gun, in real life, was dangerous, a thing to be feared. You could tell by the body language of everyone around it. No one was running around with 27 real weapons on their back, shooting wildly in hopes that a stray shot might hit their target.
The Gun Store didn't really improve my gaming, but it made me appreciate the difference between real guns and videogames. They are two totally different things. I'll stay safely at my computer with my videogames, thanks!
