Actually, I used to enjoy handguns to quite an extent.
I had a stainless-steel .357 magnum Smith & Wesson, with a 4 inch barrel, Pachmyr grips, red ramp sight, and it had had the action worked over by an S&W certified gunsmith.
I liked it because you could shoot .38 special target round bullets through it, which were about $4.75/per 50 when I bought them from a friend who re-loaded.
Shooting a 4-inch barrelled handgun at a standard pistol target, firing double-action, was actually pretty Zen-like.
The breath control, the focus, the rhythm of your shot pattern, were all a heck of a lot of fun.
My main goal was to put as many of my six shots in the scoring circles as possible.
Before my current business occupation, I was a 911 operator for seven years. When I showed some of my target groups to the local cops, they were quite impressed.
But, one thing led to another, and soon I became involved in Lionel toy trains. Considering the cost of ammunition, the fact that I had to drive 20 miles to shoot at a nature area with a gun range, an hour of cleaning after each session, and my desire to have in my possession a really boss engine from the 1950's, I wound up selling it.
One of the neat things about guns, is that if they are properly cared for, seldom do they actually lose a lot of value.
I shot it for several years, had a lot of fun with it, and made 25 bucks on the deal.
I don't really miss it, as I love my toy trains and online sim flying now, but I did have a really great time with it, and it was more of a concentration/relaxation thing than it was a carry-around-and-hope-to-shoot-someone-legally-someday thing.
I just hope that it can be understood that pistol shooting is kind of like archery...a study in concentration, skill, and total focus on trying to put'em all in the scoring rings. It didn't really have anything to do with the possibility of shooting human beings.
Anyhoo, just me two cents once more, and this being spoken from a bleeding-heart liberal.
Mk
