Foreigners have a hard time understanding America’s gun fetish. I admit, I have a little trouble with the craziness myself but that didn’t stop my wife from entering a local charity’s gun raffle. It’s like 50 bucks and they draw a winner once a month for a year. CT’s number came up and we are now the proud owner of a 17-round (with one in the chamber), plastic, meth-dealer’s friend, a Smith & Wesson 9mm.
The thing is a bit cheesy-looking with the plastic and all. Berk assures me it’s a good weapon and that it won’t explode in my hand. I’m a little leery of automatics as they give no easy indication of their status. Is it cocked? Loaded? Who knows? Give me a revolver any day.
When we picked the thing up at the Ace Hardware (they still sell guns at the hardware store in New Mexico) CT was entered into the store’s computer and in seconds the gun guy knew her entire life story. It was a bit creepy but I guess that’s the price we pay to keep tyrants at bay.
Coming from a revolver perspective the quantity of ammunition this thing holds is incredible. 16 rounds fit in the magazine, henceforth known as a clip just to piss off the gun nuts. Not only that but you can plop one in the chamber giving a total of 17 rounds! That’s nearly three reloads on my Smith revolver. It’s a lot of lead and with my aiming ability I need all the chances I can get.
We bought 50 rounds of ammo when we got the Smith and the clerk gave me a look that screamed Piker. “Is that all? Sure you don’t want more?” The S&W 9mm came with a nice plastic case that included the manuals and a second clip, meaning I can pack 33 rounds ready to go in a large jacket pocket. You won’t run out of ammo and have to throw the gun at any survivors with a Smith 9. This kind of legal firepower is what makes America the greatest country in the world. I better go pick up another couple hundred rounds of 9mm.
The Smith 9mm came with three different size grips to custom-fit the gun to your hand. The whole package is well thought out and it will be interesting to see if we can hit anything with all that ammunition. A trip to the gun range for a familiarization session is in order. CT will be taking a gun-specific class to learn about the new gun from shooting it to disassembling, cleaning and reassembly. I’d show her how to do all that stuff myself if I knew anything about it and didn’t yell all the time.
Check out our other Tales of the Gun stories!
Congrats Joe and CT. Its a fairly nice gun and may come in handy around the ranch. Do take a basic class and do practice. Its important you know how to use it properly. And yeah, one box of ammo is like buying one stick of gum. You should be buying 500 round cans. If local gunshops are too expensive or don’t have them you can buy on line and 9mm is one of the cheapest center fire rounds available because they make more of it than anything else and economy of scale is really reflected here. There are several web sites for buying ammo and one that compares all the prices and shows you who is giving the best deals. Have fun and look out coyotes!!!
Don’t worry. Just hold on to it. I hear there will be mandatory gun buybacks in a couple of years, so you can just get rid of it then.
Another good Gresh read. As previously stated, you’ll want to buy ammo in 500 round lots (or more). Practice, practice, practice until it’s muscle memory.
This is funny… remember a few weeks ago when you noticed my holster and asked: “Do you carry a gun?”
Now here you are all loaded up and ready for fun!
There’s lots of good safety advice out there. Here’s one I tell my kids:
“Complacency Kills”…. never assume….. treat every gun like it is loaded and ready to fire.