Target Practice with a Semi-Automatic Rifle or "The Jug is about the Size of a Human Head."

Trip Update....

I talked to the wilderness travel folks running the trip today and basically they have decided Algeria is too dangerous to cross. Even though the majority of my group (wow.. who are these people?) voted in favor of going through the country, the company conferenced with other expeditions groups and the consensus was even with "an armed escort" ( I always find traveling with one useful on vacations ...don't you?) it was still to dicey. The French are still going through....and a few Brits...but apparently with Iraq and the war in the Middle East, Americans are at the bottom of the totem pole in terms of human value and at the top of the pole for prize targets. So the option is to get on a plane in Tunis and fly over Algeria/Libya and land in Niger and go from there...leapfrogging the upper part of the Sahara. It sounds logical but in a way..I feel very disheartened..losing that upper part of the Sahara is significant to me...irrreplacable culture and sights....and how am I going to write a book about going through the heart of the Sahara when I simply played around in its spleen? Perhaps there is a marketing niche for failed or almost made it adventure trips that I don't know about. I'm supposed to ponder the change over the weekend..... Interesting isn't it?....we think the war is over there or someone else's problem....but in small ways like my trip or in significant ways like the loss of a loved one....the effects ripple throughout the system that connects communities.

And Speaking of Wars.......

Do you know what really surprised me when I held that semi-automatic in my arms in yesterday's picture? How perfectly simple it was to use...(probably the point...). With less than a few minutes instructions.....you can see how the bullets fit in the case, you can see how the case fits one way onto the gun, you cock the gun , you push the safety down....and you're set to go. Even I could do this.....and you only have to shoot the gun once or twice to understand the beauty of and the desirability of an automatic weapon. A semi-automatic pauses....and it helps to aim....but if you have an automatic gun that fires continously.........tat...tat...tat...tat...tat..tat ..tat ...you can pepper an area with bullets. Ideal protection ...Ideal killing power.

Dan did something interesting when I shot that Valmet. If you can believe this...he had lined up a few milk jugs and filled them with water. "Go ahead ...go ahead...see if you can hit it." And I did. My first shot hit the jug. It exploded and leaped up into the air. Dan was so excited for me. "Great! Great! Good shot! Do it again." But he wanted me to wait a minute so he could realign the jugs. He picked one up and put it on his shoulder. " Look the jug is just about the size of a head." He grinned and posed with the jug against his face...then put it down. My next shot blew the jug apart. You can imagine what I was thinking. "Is that what happens to a head?" I asked Dan....he's a forensic pathologist and thinks about these things for a living. "Not quite...you skull is stronger than plastic....but let's just say....you can lose chunks of your head."

Chunks.

Gina's Got a Gun....A Very Big Gun

Guns but no Roses....

I think we have a rifle/shotgun in the house maybe two. My husband was born in Idaho. At birth, families place a tiny rifle in the hands of their baby boys and replace them each year with bigger and bigger models. When your first pubic hair sees daylight, around age 12, a boy is given a shotgun. Chin hair is rewarded with a rifle...for deer hunting, squirrel hassling and bird mayhem. My husband doesn't hunt now but there's no use telling a man he should rid himself of his birth right so I know his old guns are around for "home protection" and I'm quite sure they will be quite effective as long as a burglar makes an appointment well in advance of his anticipated heist.

So my experience with guns is limited to a passing glance at old weaponry in my house which is why this weekend I asked a friend to show me how to shoot a gun--- specifically a semi-automatic. Guns are prevalent in Africa. Every travel book I've read from Theroux to Tayler to Salek mentions folks toting guns. Military folks, bandit folks, regular folks, friends of Hezbollah folks (An AK-47 graces the official Hezbollah flag) and anyone left not in those categories. I even read that some men in Africa are named Kalash in honor of Kalashnikov who created that famous gun. One day after I received a booster Polio shot (admittedly something that I have only a very small risk of acquiring in Africa) it occured to me...perhaps I should get a gun immunization....a little taste of gun safety and use.....to cover me in the event that I might have some contact with them or someone carrying one of them.

Dan is a great guy with lots of acreage and lots of guns. He finds them "fun." I watched him pick through his safe stacked with guns and rummage under his sink through his duffel bags of ammunition for his guns and pull out gray atheletic socks harboring guns....and believe me...that's exactly what I thought...oh boy ain't this fun.

He set me up with a 1917 Colt revolver and told me to take aim at a black chimney cap about 30 yards away. I squinted and took deep breaths and carefully pulled the trigger--wounding a fine oak tree. My second shot hit the target....to everyone's surprise. Someone in the background (husband, friend, or one of his familiy members) mumbled something about "Annie Oakley" which I am ashamed to admit filled me with pride.

The weaponry kept coming and kept getting bigger in size....until he handed me the Valmet semi-automatic which I have cradled in my arms in the picture above. I'll save that part of the story for tomorrow because the wilderness travel company just called and they want to have a talk with everyone Friday. It doesn't sound like good news.