: : I was out some where recently I should've been, well if I wise, I was keeping the wrong kind of 'left-wing' company again, and I was in the company of some people when a gun was produced, now I not talking the nice legal variety but the illegal as fuck sort.: You lead an interesting life, Lark.
That's NI for you. Friend of mine went to uni there; there were places you just didn't go at night back in the early-mid '90s.
: : I didnt think the gun was nice or that the guy who had it was having his rights infringed by the states prohibition of this variety of weapon, I was just scared, now I reckon that's the righ sort of reaction, I dont know where this 'that's a nice peace' mentality comes from.
: The first time I fired a handgun I was shaking like a leaf. The things are just so damned dangerous!
Same here. I was a cadet for four years; learned to shoot 3 different rifles, two different handguns and a light machine gun. If you failed to brace yourself properly while firing the .303 SMLE, the recoil would break your shoulder. They ain't toys.
They ain't funny, either. I don't like guns.
I'm not afraid of them; they're machinery; but I feel a sort of disgust towards them.
: What was even scarier, though, was how I stopped worrying and learned to love it.
I never managed to dissociate myself from the fact that these things were designed to kill people; the fact that we were using World War II vintage weapons probably had something to do with it too.
It's the thought that you are holding something that has been responsible for thousands of deaths; a sort of unclean feel.
I don't like violence; I never have done (which made me a pretty odd cadet; I got made Signals Officer double-quick...).
Farinata.
(Ever since I left the cadets, I've been a confirmed pacifist; it's a matter of some satisfaction to me that I haven't had a serious fight in my adult life.)
