Saturday, September 14, 2013

A Zombie Killer In The Making, Well At Least A New Shooter

I have a sister. She is not into guns - at all. She has a son, thus I have a nephew. He is about to turn 13. Somewhere, way back when, I promised him to teach him how to shoot. Could have started training him, legally, when he turned 12 but somehow it never came up around his last birthday.

Today, I received an email from my sister. Here are a couple of excerpts from it. First the opening reminder that his birthday is upcoming:

"It's that time of year again... Someone is gonna be a teenager in a couple of weeks! OMG I'm freakin old! Not sure if we're doing the party thing yet, he hasn't made up his mind..."

That was followed by a wish list for presents. I am not one to pay a lot of attention to wish lists in that while I may go shopping for one or two things on the list, if something else catches my eye that looks like a good present for whomever I am shopping, I will get that instead. I perused the list and all I could think was that the kid is not getting outside enough, the list was full of video games.

Then came the surprise closing paragraph:

"A note for brother dear... your nephew says that he'd like to learn to shoot. If i remember correctly, he can go to the range with you after he turns 13. If he's going to learn to do this, he may as well learn from you... you've had far more experience than anyone i know with firearms and i know you'll teach him the right way."

Wow - not only does he want to learn to shoot but my sister actually complimented me. That made those words double barreled nice to read. Of course, being it was from my sister, who knows me all too well, then came the restrictions, all in the same closing paragraph:

"NO, this is not an invitation to buy him a rifle or any other type of gun. I still don't want them in the house but he really should know what it's all about. Oh and no doomsday prepping, no zombie apocalypse training, blah blah and yadda yadda!"

Now read those last three sentences again because I just did and now I am none too sure it contains any restrictions at all. You see, first she says "...but he really should know what it's all about" and then after she says that she adds on all that stuff about "no doomsday prepping, no zombie apocalypse training, blah blah and yadda yadda". So, I ask myself: "Will I teach him what it is all about or not?". As she says: "...he really should know what it's all about". So, why should I, or would I,  cut out all the good stuff like doomsday prepping in anticipation of the Great Zombie Apocalypse?  I think she was just teasing me or trying to use reverse psychology to assure I actually do get him ready for TEOTWAWKI. I mean, is there any way one can do the first  - teach him what it is all about - without doing the second - like getting him ready to be a survivalist ready to deal with things like the Rapture, flesh eating zombies, and soul eating demons? Is there? Nah, it's impossible! She had to have been teasing me.

I think my young, soon to be teenaged, nephew may be finding things he never dreamed of inside the gift wrapping this year. (I don't think he even knows I have a blog so am pretty sure he will not find out here about these gifts.) I cannot give him a gun or ammo (I will loan those to him when he is with me at the range) but that still leaves a lot of shooty goodness I can give to him, for example, these things I just ordered:

 
Howard Leight Leightning L1 Shooting Muffs

and:

 Radians Revelation Shooting Glasses

and something to store them in to assure he cares for them well:

MTM Caser-Gard .50 cal Zombie Ammo Can
Of course, he needs something to shoot at that will prepare him for what it is all about. What better way to do that than with the following assortment of targets:

Both sets of targets from http://zombietargets.net/

I will supply the rifle and ammo and firearms training (including safety lessons and a safety test that he will have to pass before one round is fired by him). This way, he truly will learn about it all: firearms safety, gun nomenclature, shooting, gun gear care, doomsday prepping for the Great Zombie Apocalypse and how to have lots of shooty goodness fun.


Since he is nowhere near legal voting age, I am not too sure if I should also show him his first, and what should be every new potential voters' first, zombie training video. I'll have to think about it. though; I want to make sure he knows the comparison is only in jest. 



All the best,
Glenn B