I have been consciously reminding myself that I am going home next year. For sure I am going to miss a lot of fun stuff in the US (like skydiving?). Firing a gun is one of those that if I don't do it here I don't get to do it in Malaysia kind of thing. It has been on my to-do list for a while, and got crossed out last week. A bunch of us, mostly first-time shooter, went to Milpitas shooting range after work.


Not a very good photos but that's the gun i shot. Forgot the name of it but it's a beginner gun. Despite being relatively lower power, the firing of it's is scary enough for me. My expectation was that of gun is dangerous and so a "formal" training should be given before a newbie can shoot one. Much to my surprise, the so-called "training" was merely a 15 min video-watching that talked about basic safety and common-sense stuff like don't point a loaded gun at someone etc. And before i knew it i was already holding a real gun. Loading a magazine was a bit challenging, as pushing in the bullet one by one against the magazine's spring wasn't effortless. Pointing to the target, pulling the trigger, "bang!" and i had my first shoot.

The trigger was softer than i thought, and it's very easy to fire a shot. The recoil was manageable. I fired about 30 shoots and called it done. Certainly a new experience but I didn't like it that much. Partly because of the loud blasting sound, or the inherent danger of guns that made me worried about something might go wrong, I was uneasy throughout the shooting. Needless to say, it taught me to respect firearm, and lives too.