[camera film clicking] [piano note]
[Boy] Dad, can you hear me?
[Dad] Yeah, I can hear you now.
[Boy] Do you know how old I was when you took me shooting?
[Dad] I’d say you were probably 9 or 10.
[bullets shells clinking]
You were too young to be shooting a 12 gauge shotgun.
[film reel clicking]
[shooting target clicking]
So my thought process was, oh you know
I probably should teach you
some of the basics of how to respect a weapon
because one of the problems
is kids grow up not having a respect for it.
You don’t play with it, it’s not a toy,
that type of thing.
You often read about a young kid,
who accidentally killed his brother.
Or it happens like that.
You’re telling me that these Russ or
these Germans, PD guys are shellacking people.
124 grain like NATO, speck FMJ.
[phone rings]
Yeah, but a shotgun is inhumane.
How dangerous, is that like in an urban environment.
Well you know.
[Man Answering Phone] Hello, how can I help you?
Its not a big deal, we’ll take care of you.
I know brother, all right see you in a bit, all right, bye.
The dude you don’t like has one of those Lee jumpers.
Oh, what’s his face, Carl?
Yeah. The nine mil, I think just has one roller.
I mean, it really doesn’t need any more.
I wonder if it had two on the ten mil version.
[child running]
[Child] I wanna hold that, I wanna shoot it.
You wanna shoot it? that’s a little big for you.
[Child] Can I get on your shoulders?
I wanna hold it after.
That’s a nice one.
[Boy] This one?
Yeah.
Look at that one.
[Boy] That ones super small.
You think it will fit in your hand?
[Boy] Yeah, and it will be smaller than my hand.
It’ll be smaller?
[Boy] Yeah [boy laughs]
Look at that one over there, on top.
[Boy] Yeah, I see it.
Its nice, huh?
[Boy] Yeah, its nice.
Nice antique shot gun.
Similar to what we have.
He mentioned it was his first time today.
Do you want me to go over like basic gun safety?
Yeah that might be good.
Sure that’s no problem I can cover that.
So this trigger is going to be really important
during our shooting session.
We’re not gonna allow our trigger finger
onto the trigger until we’re actually on target
and ready to shoot.
These things can hurt or kill you very easily,
these are not toys.
So rule number one is we’re going to treat all these guns
like they’re loaded, even though we know they’re not.
I know for a fact that this gun does have ammunition
in it because I can literally see.
But I’m not going to point it at you guys.
I’m not going to point it at anybody else.
Cause I’m treating it like it is loaded.
Remember never put your finger on the trigger okay?
Never point it. Okay?
[Boy] okay
[gun shooting in the background]
[Gun clicks]
We should be good.
[Boy] Yeah
Point it down.
We should go down to the range, put you headphones on.
Did it recoil and hurt your arm at all.
I don’t think I even fired.
I remember being excited, but also scared.
But as soon as you took the first shot
my ears were ringing so loud
that I was just really freaked out.
And I think we decided to leave.
Maybe, I just fired it.
I just said, you know
that was a dumb thing for me to do.
[Guns shooting]
[Loud gun shot]
[Child] There’s a rabbit down there.
Your rabbits down there
other way
So you can point it
and just squeeze the trigger and fire it.
Or you can call back each time and fire it.
[Gun shoots]
[Gun shoots]
Ready.
So hand goes back here
we’re not ready, we are not, we are not
you’re going to push all the way out with this hand,
push all the way out
and then pull back with this one.
Pull back,
don’t put your finger on the trigger until we’re ready okay?
Are we ready.
[Child] yeah
I’m going to pull back, ready?
Shoot em’
what, what you doing?
Oh, you want two fingers?
[Gun shoots]
Did you get him?
[Child] No
No, get em
[Gun shoots]
Okay, now pull it back again.
Fingers off trigger.
[Guns shooting]
Mind your side on the front, okay?
[gun fires]
[Target clicks]
Look you hit right there, right there, right there
these are yours.
These are mine, look up, one, two, three, four
[gun fires]
[slow guitar plays]
Were you upset that I didn’t develop
the same interests?
I probably regret that I’d never trained you properly.
But I thought if this is something you truly like to do.
You would take that up as a,
as an adult.
That brings back a memory.
My father did take me out when I was probably
at that your age, to shoot the shotgun.
The memory I remember sort of in black and white,
not in color,
often times because you looked at old photos
you see things in an overly romanticized fashion.
But I think my father didn’t tell me, Oh
really watch this weapon
because it will recoil back into your shoulder.
And I got a bruise on my shoulder.
Like I said, the memory of it is so faded
It’s almost like in black and white.
[slow guitar music plays]
