Apple a Day
Member
My mother's half of the family is from Cuba. They've escaped in dribs and drabs over the years. I've gotten to take a few of them to the range with me. A close friend of the family's daughter's fiance' made it out recently and is in the process of getting certification here to resume his career as an oral surgeon. He's a very smart guy, very nice. The only thing he's having a hard time with is English and he's working hard on that.
Back in Cuba he had to do some military training like everybody else so he's had the brief familiarization course with the AKM. He'd never fired a handgun before. Naturally, I took this as an open invitation to introduce my recently escaped friend to the great American pasttime of recreational shooting.
We did the usual safety speech and familiarization with revolvers versus bottom-feeders, etc... He was polite and asked plenty of good questions. Sometimes it was tough finding the right synonyms of words or phrases for things in English he'd already learned. He got it, though.
Off to the range we went, an indoor range which we had all to ourselves. I started him out on a .22 revolver and worked up to a .38 and then a 9mm. Man, he got into it. His favorite was the CZ-75. He did very well especially for never having handled a pistol before.
On the way home he had lots of questions about American gun laws. It was hard for him to grasp that you could buy what you wanted (not uncommon, my grandmother freaked the first time we took her to the local supermarket. She really thought it was a trap and that men were going to come and get us for buying all that stuff, especially the meat.) and that you only needed licenses like concealed carry, at least where we live. He seemed more comfortable after we talked about filling out paperwork and background checks.
There's no real point except that I am always refreshed and gratified when I see relatives and friends who have escaped Cuba enjoy a freedom here that they've never had before. It might sound corny but it makes me happy and proud.
Back in Cuba he had to do some military training like everybody else so he's had the brief familiarization course with the AKM. He'd never fired a handgun before. Naturally, I took this as an open invitation to introduce my recently escaped friend to the great American pasttime of recreational shooting.
We did the usual safety speech and familiarization with revolvers versus bottom-feeders, etc... He was polite and asked plenty of good questions. Sometimes it was tough finding the right synonyms of words or phrases for things in English he'd already learned. He got it, though.
Off to the range we went, an indoor range which we had all to ourselves. I started him out on a .22 revolver and worked up to a .38 and then a 9mm. Man, he got into it. His favorite was the CZ-75. He did very well especially for never having handled a pistol before.
On the way home he had lots of questions about American gun laws. It was hard for him to grasp that you could buy what you wanted (not uncommon, my grandmother freaked the first time we took her to the local supermarket. She really thought it was a trap and that men were going to come and get us for buying all that stuff, especially the meat.) and that you only needed licenses like concealed carry, at least where we live. He seemed more comfortable after we talked about filling out paperwork and background checks.
There's no real point except that I am always refreshed and gratified when I see relatives and friends who have escaped Cuba enjoy a freedom here that they've never had before. It might sound corny but it makes me happy and proud.
, but he was a good guy. He passed away several years ago, but I always remembered how much he loved this country.
