Tags
1 round, baby steps, bullet, clearing, comfortable, don't be afraid, empowering, fun, ladies, magazine, nervous, new to guns, one round, practice, range, regret, scared, slide, starting out, taking the first step, women, women and guns
I got my pistol early last year but it had remained in its box until spring of this year. I was excited that I had received my pistol permit but didn’t know where to start and honestly I was afraid to handle the gun. I didn’t want to do anything wrong, to break it, or have it accidentally go off.
I now know that this is complete ridiculousness but keep in mind I’ve never owned a gun in my 36 years of life…this is all new to me so have a laugh and bear with my newbie gun ownership moments. I want to share my story because I know that there are other beginners out there just like me and I want them to know that they are not alone and to not let anything hold them back from learning how to use firearms.
I finally decided that I was ready to learn but was anxious about joining a range. I was afraid that I’d look like a fool because I really wasn’t sure how to “really” use Walther at all. I was afraid that I’d do something wrong. I was afraid to take the first steps.
Enter my hubby, the love of my life for the past 19 years. I told him about my reservations of going to the range and he reassured me that with little practice I’d be ready to go, no worries. He was right.
For a few weeks each night he would have me practice clearing Walther, dropping the magazine, loading the magazine with one bullet (yes just 1 bullet), hitting the slide release, clearing it. I did this process over, and over. I was nervous at first but after doing this exercise each night by the end of 2 weeks I was very comfortable and felt ready to take the next step of actually going to the range.
All of my fears were unfounded of course and I’m now feeling a bit silly for waiting so long to pick up my gun. Learning to use Walther and going to the range were not as scary as I thought, in fact it was not scary at all it’s actually empowering and quite fun.
I’m comfortable with taking baby steps…what is most important is that I took the first step. My advice to newbies like me: don’t be afraid to start. You won’t regret it.
