It’s not every day you come across an Asian research
technician who listens to country music, wears Wranglers and shoots
guns. Then again, Jeff Ma is from Inglewood “¦
I recently had the privilege of first receiving instruction and
then joining Ma, his pals, a friend of mine and a Canadian trauma
surgeon for a day of shooting. The event, which took place at
a Huntington Beach-area shooting range, was an attempt to combat my
previous bad history with firearms.
Here’s some background: When I was younger, I cried when
my parents refused to let me buy a toy gun. Instead, I walked
around the backyard with gun-shaped twigs making shooting
sounds.
As a 12-year old, a family friend purchased a BB gun and let my
brother and me borrow it for a few weeks. We were out shooting
coffee cans off the fence when I was instructed by big brother to
go fetch something in the neighbor’s yard.
On the way back over the fence, something jumped up and bit me
right on the neck. And by that I mean my brother shot me with
a BB gun.Â
To this day he claims that I should not have been
trespassing.Â
When I told my father I was going to experiment with guns for
the third time in my life, he left the following message on my home
answering machine: “Son, the second amendment of the
Constitution of the United States of America grants us the right to
arm bears. Guns do not kill people; people kill people. I will
give up my gun when you pry it from my cold, clammy, lifeless
hands. I’m proud to be an American.”
The thing is, my dad does not own a gun. Aside from some small
details, he was right on target.
Even Ma, owner of several firearms and a huge advocate of gun
safety, said: “We left a gun on a table for a week once, and
it never got up and killed anyone.”
Samuel Slomowitz, a senior who is a pre-med student at UCLA (I
brought him along just in case), the Canadian and I sat through a
two-hour lecture on gun safety. Not surprisingly, gun safety
is mainly common sense:Â Don’t point a gun at anyone,
including yourself. Keep your gun unloaded at all
times. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to
fire. Well, duuuh.
Nathan, an instructor and longtime gun owner, summed it up
nicely: “Your primary safety is your brain on top of your
shoulders.”
The fact that my hat size is 6 7/8 was suddenly very
relevant.
As you know, sports fans, mistakes are common in our
world. In baseball, if you crowd the plate against Pedro
Martinez, you are going to get plunked. In basketball, if you
start a fight with Doug Christie, you are going to get beat down.
In football, if you catch a pass over the middle against the
Buccaneers, John Lynch will turn you into a bobble-head doll.
“If you screw up in shooting, someone dies,” Ma said
before we headed to the shooting range. Thanks, Jeff. That was
very comforting to hear before my first experience firing real
guns.
Obviously, nobody around me made any mistakes, nor did I; my
experience on the shooting range was fantastic.
We fired a .22 caliber semiautomatic and a .22 caliber revolver,
a .38 revolver, three .9 mm semi-automatics and a semiautomatic
shotgun. Everything went pretty much according to
plan:Â Sam and I were terrible shots, the instructors knew
their stuff, and the Canadian said “Eh.”
Then Ma, who has taken several courses in tactical shooting
(comparable to SWAT team training), took out his semiautomatic
12-gauge shotgun. Holding an unloaded shotgun is like seeing a
big red button in front of you. Firing it is like pushing
that button and having someone punch you in the shoulder. Only way
more fun. Â
I’m proud to know about gun safety. And yes, Dad, I
too am proud to be an American. I guess the third time is a
charm.
Speaking of firing, Karon once got fired from a volunteer
position coaching a flag football team. Email him at:
ekaron@media.ucla.edu