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This weekend Charlotte and I went to the Chabot Gun Club. We shot a total of about 60 rounds through my new Beretta M9 pistol. We both had quite a lot of fun. And it was a beautiful drive. Now it sits, safely locked in a Gun Vault next to the bed.

I’m disappointed that I never got to fire the Keltec SU-16CA or the Bushmaster AR-15 I had previously owned. A few things conspired to make that happen.

• When moving to CA, I got the Keltec though I really wanted something smaller. Just as I was moving here, San Francisco was voting on, passing and then having struck down a handgun prohibition. I was interested in getting a handgun but decided on the Keltec in the interim. I almost got the Ruger Mini 14 but… didn’t.
• NJ has a ban on “assault weapons” so I couldn’t very well bring the AR-15 to the range when I lived there. It sat in storage for several years.
• In Boston I never felt a need to practice with the AR-15. Having it was enough insurance for me. I went to a range once and fired (one of) Trav’s AR-15s and confirmed that it is a very easy gun to navigate. I recall vividly at the indoor range that I kept hitting tight groups 1 1/2 inches below the bullseye. Eventually I figured it out. It’s an indoor range only about 50 yards long. The sight is 1 1/2 inches above the barrel. I was hitting exactly what I was aiming at. Had my target been at 200 or 300 yards, I would have put holes right in the center of the paper, but at 20 and 50 yards, the bullet is still rising. Of course I could eventually do better but 1 1/2 inches is plenty close enough for a start.

(PS. I photoshopped the serial # off my Beretta in the photo)