Actually, a number of friends of mine are gun nuts (Joel Rosenberg, for example, who was my gun consultant on The Wild Swans). And I have always been baffled by their fascination. I would only do target shooting, for the specific reason that I hate guns, but would try to stretch myself to find out about something I know nothing about.
It reminds me of the first time I walked into a gay bookstore, in order to do research for Swans. I was so absurdly scared, thinking, this world is just not my world at all. But I learned so much, and found parts of that world that I really enjoyed (e.g., the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which I love). I realized that gay rights is the cutting edge of civil rights, which is a topic that had always fascinated me. And by entering the gay world, I met so many people who opened my thinking about things.
So: I would learn to fire a gun to learn about a new area, which interests a different class of people than the kinds of people I usually associate with. It would be trying to master something new. It would be an experiment with developing hand-eye coordination, which is certainly a skill which can be applied to other areas of life.
Yes, I did hear the segment in This American Life you mention. In fact, I discussed it at length in my earlier entry about starting a Life List. I thought it was a very intriguing story.
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Firing a gun
Date: 2003-03-08 04:02 pm (UTC)It reminds me of the first time I walked into a gay bookstore, in order to do research for Swans. I was so absurdly scared, thinking, this world is just not my world at all. But I learned so much, and found parts of that world that I really enjoyed (e.g., the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which I love). I realized that gay rights is the cutting edge of civil rights, which is a topic that had always fascinated me. And by entering the gay world, I met so many people who opened my thinking about things.
So: I would learn to fire a gun to learn about a new area, which interests a different class of people than the kinds of people I usually associate with. It would be trying to master something new. It would be an experiment with developing hand-eye coordination, which is certainly a skill which can be applied to other areas of life.
Yes, I did hear the segment in This American Life you mention. In fact, I discussed it at length in my earlier entry about starting a Life List. I thought it was a very intriguing story.
Peg