I remember the first time I shot a gun. It was exhilarating and also eye opening for me. The actual force of a gun kicking back was tremendous and really made me feel so badass. In the movies they make it look so easy. Always quick to load, easy to aim and shoot, no real hesitation in most movies or shows, and the target almost always being hit. Man do they give the actual action of it a tremendous surprise. I never realized just how much of it was skill, practice and patience. You have to use breathing, strength, core, and precision. The tiniest bit of wind can throw it off or maybe the shift in your seat can make you uncomfortable and shake. Eyes need to be sharp and alert just in case of the target gets moved by a hair, and breathing needs to be slow and calm. All of that goes in shooting the actual weapon and if you did it good enough you may hit your target. At the age of twelve I didn't really know much about it. I tried my best to shoot and I had to really get used to the idea of being in charge of such a thing. Right off the bat my dad trained me on the right way to hold a gun and the wrong way. He told me how to take a gun from someone and to always have them open the chamber to see if it is loaded before you take hold of it. Your finger could easily pull the trigger and hurt someone. He made me aware of how a gun is stored and where. He told me laws about guns and the yes and no's if there is an emergency.

With everything I knew, I quickly had become good at it. I had gone to camp a few times and there they had an area where we shot bows and arrows as well as BB Guns. I was near the top of my cabin. Seemed that at the age of twelve I hadn't lost my touch. After A couple of years of shooting sessions at a range we got invited to a friends house who owned enough land to shoot across a small beaver pond and get to the target. There I got to meet the bad boy. The AR 15. Quite a beauty and honestly empowering.

With a little lesson on how to shoot it, reload, holding position while lying down, and extra ammo I layed on the grass and grasped this beauty. I'm about five three and at the age of fifteen this beast was quite a workout to hold correctly. Taking my time I made sure to find a comfortable way to hold her up, finger far away from the trigger. She was loaded and I didn't want to be one of those people who just accidently slips and hurts someone. No thanks. Positioning the AR correctly I could my target quickly. All the way on the other side of the pond, it was tiny but A little visible. Breathing slowly in, holding, and exhaling I let out a shot. Instantly the kick was in my shoulder socket and loud making the vibration go up my arm.

"Wha-"

My brain clicked and the adrenaline went up me. This.was.awesome. I pulled the trigger again. *BOOM* Vibration up my hand and to my elbow. A smile emerges. Again, Pulls the trigger and I swear my hand just decided to do its own thing. My finger went down on the trigger and like a machine gun the bulls went flying out of the chamber, one after another, I thought I had met my new favorite toy or something. It felt so damn good to shoot in that moment and my holy mother was I going to enjoy this. So I shot and shot and shot until the round was empty. Smiling, out of breath, and satisfied I pulled back from my sight to see.....smoke. My gun was officially smoking. I had done the one thing that people like me think of doing at least once and that is to smoke out their own gun just to see what its like. I did that, that day and I loved every second of it.

Sometimes you just need to let it all of your emotions out in a frenzy crazy but safe shooting.

And yes, I was supervised and shot all the shots at the target so nobody was hurt in my stir crazy moment of blazing glory, just the paper.