{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "K and I learned how to shoot guns today. It was interesting. And by interesting, I mean \u201cloud\u201d.\n There was some helpful safety...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/160111508043/", "html": "<p><a href=\"https://slatestarscratchpad.tumblr.com/post/160109820061/k-and-i-learned-how-to-shoot-guns-today-it-was\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">slatestarscratchpad</a>:</p><blockquote>\n<p>K and I learned how to shoot guns today. It was interesting. And by interesting, I mean \u201cloud\u201d.</p>\n<figure data-orig-width=\"540\" data-orig-height=\"405\" class=\"tmblr-full\" data-orig-src=\"https://64.media.tumblr.com/03a01e96ead3cd7f254b77ca3cf486a1/tumblr_inline_op5qyhXr4s1skdjyu_540.jpg\"><img src=\"/media/tumblr_inline_op60clYzT11qdlop9_540_292f61819df4.jpg\" alt=\"image\" data-orig-width=\"540\" data-orig-height=\"405\" data-orig-src=\"https://64.media.tumblr.com/03a01e96ead3cd7f254b77ca3cf486a1/tumblr_inline_op5qyhXr4s1skdjyu_540.jpg\"/></figure><p>There was some helpful safety training beforehand. But it missed the most important part, which is that the gun will eject the spent bullet casing in a random direction. Somehow I managed to live in a \u201cgun culture\u201d and watch a bunch of action movies without realizing this was a thing. When you\u2019re firing a gun for the first time and really nervous, and a bullet-shaped thing shoots out of the back of the gun and hits spectators in the face, this is NOT a minor point that you can forget to warn people about, even if it turns out to be nothing and everybody laughs that you were so worried about it.</p>\n<p>Otherwise everything went okay. I think if I ever have to write a story involving guns, I can use words like \u201cmagazine\u201d without sounding ridiculous to people who know what they\u2019re talking about. I think the friend who brought me was expecting that this was going to be some sort of revelatory experience where I realized that Guns Are Your Friends and so gun control was a vile lie, but I feel like if guns were *really* my friends then the person who held one at a slightly different angle than everyone else would not have had a big security guy run up to him and freak out and yell at him until he changed the angle back.</p>\n<p>Also, Ada Palmer (author of <i>Too Like The Lightning</i>) was at the shooting range and I got to get a picture with her!</p>\n<figure data-orig-width=\"540\" data-orig-height=\"720\" class=\"tmblr-full\" data-orig-src=\"https://64.media.tumblr.com/5c27fa58ed85129258deea4bb0ae44be/tumblr_inline_op5qw4G7W71skdjyu_540.jpg\"><img src=\"/media/tumblr_inline_op60clDTj11qdlop9_540_ad49d58a17e1.jpg\" alt=\"image\" data-orig-width=\"540\" data-orig-height=\"720\" data-orig-src=\"https://64.media.tumblr.com/5c27fa58ed85129258deea4bb0ae44be/tumblr_inline_op5qw4G7W71skdjyu_540.jpg\"/></figure></blockquote>\n<p>so there was this style of dual-wielding pistols in the \u201890s by holding them sideways, it came from HK gun-fu action movies, it was in the original Unreal Tournament, it was popular single-wielded as \u201cgangster style\u201d for a bit</p><p>and the thing is if you hold two pistols upright and they\u2019re not both rigged to eject brass outwards there\u2019s a chance one will eject brass into your eye or face</p><p>If you hold them sideways against gravity there\u2019s a chance they won\u2019t eject right and jam</p><p>in a gunfight facial burns are trivial, your gun jamming can be the end. on a movie set facial burns can spoil 2 days of filming and a jam just means you swap guns with the armorer and shoot another take</p>", "thumbnail_url": "https://kontextmaschine.comhttps://64.media.tumblr.com/03a01e96ead3cd7f254b77ca3cf486a1/tumblr_inline_op5qyhXr4s1skdjyu_540.jpg"}