SQJ Taipei

That’s what my brother-in-law’s Glock 22 said to me the other day… and I was happy to oblige.

My family was the fishing/canoeing/camping type… but we were never the hunting type. I’ve only fired a gun on 4 occasions… the 2 times I’ve gone to the shooting range with my brother-in-law… once at scout camp… and once with my second cousins (Carl Ray’s boys) at their place in Wyoming. The latter 2 we used .22 rifles. I don’t remember my prowess at scout camp, but I do remember my cousins were impressed that I could kill ground squirrels from a bit of distance…

Shooting with Greg was the first chance I’ve ever had to fire a handgun. They always look so cool and I’ve always wanted to not only fire a handgun… but learn something about them in general and also learn how to fire them.

I’m not going to join the Olympic team by any means… but it has been fun to learn that I’m a pretty good shot… once again the phrase “jack of all trades and master of none” comes to mind. Last Saturday I fired almost 150 rounds at distances from 7 - 25 feet and put almost all the rounds close together although I definitely pull slightly left and down a little from where I think I’m aiming. I think I’d be able to fix that if I practiced more often. Since we are heading back to Taiwan in less than a week… I guess I won’t get that additional practice for a while!

Glock is estimated to be in use by about 65% of police departments in the USA… and the most common models are the 9mm Glock 17 or Glock 19 or the .40 caliber Glock 22 or Glock 23.

I really respect our law enforcement officers and my opportunity to shoot with Greg and to also join him for a 12 hour police ride-along a few weeks ago only raised my level of respect.

I shot well, but was not under any pressure… didn’t have to draw my weapon… was in a controlled environment… was wearing earplugs… and was shooting at paper targets… but the real officers are out there in the fray every day where they might have to use their weapons against real bad guys. Their training is more difficult than my outing… where the most difficult things I did was try to learn to fire 2 times in rapid succession and drop one clip and reload the other without looking too closely or taking too long.

Thanks, Greg, for giving me yet another great memory of our 2006 Home Service and for being my shooting instructor! I only regret that we didn’t get to go to Gaucho’s after my lesson!