Does this scare you?

Don't worry, I was closely supervised. That's me preparing to fire an Olympic Arms AR-15 carbine under the guidance of Joe Huffman, a local gun-rights activist and an NRA-certified instructor. (I never asked him what the NRA had certified him to instruct. For all I know he's an NRA-certified CPR instructor.) I first fired a Ruger Mark II semi-automatic pistol. That went pretty well. I did OK with the AR-15 from a range of ahemhursmrt yards. But since your face is close to the weapon with a rifle, my reflexes kept telling me it was going to kick back and smack me in the face. It didn't, of course, and I imagine that's something you would get used to. I was photographing Joe for a newspaper story about semi-automatic and automatic weapons, and how people feel about them. Then he let me and the reporter try shooting. I've never really shot anything other than a BB gun and paintball gun, so it was fun to try. And it just made me feel like a *real* Idahoan. ;) But I have enough expensive hobbies, so I don't plan to get one of my own.