A Trip To The Firing Range Can Make A Saturday Night Special

by Allison Carter
10/08/2007

Sure, going downtown, to a movie or to a concert are good options for a night in Athens, but those choices are just too common to be called adventure. Next time you find yourself yearning to spend a night outside of the box, go exploring down Atlanta Highway a bit past the strip malls and stumble upon... a firing range?!? A firing range, indeed! However skeptical you might be about shooting guns, I suggest you try it before you knock it.

I grew up where hunting and guns are popular. Even my mother has begged me to go to a shooting range with her on more than one occasion. Each time I said no because of my firm dislike of guns, as well as the violence I thought they brought with them. My strong prejudice against guns has been changed, however, since an outing with Athens Exchange crew to The Firing Lane.

The building looked like I would assume any other indoor firing range would; it was quite similar to a gym, with metal exterior walls and a metal roof. Inside there was minimal decoration, save the guns for rent and targets to sell.

The few people in there were a surprise, though. I expected the typical stereotype: rednecks wearing camo practicing to improve their hunting skills. As it turned out, not a one was sporting camo. There were six of us - two guys and four girls.

The first thing we were asked to do was fill out a form, giving the employees our driver's license numbers or social security numbers and names. Before we could go into the actual firing range to shoot, we had to clad ourselves with eye and ear protection, the latter causing me to feel as if I was underwater throughout the shooting. We had loaded magazines for our weapons at the office, but for safety reasons did not load the firearms until we were inside the range.

We had an AK-47, a Mossberg 500 A 12 (a 12-gauge shotgun), a CZ 75 9mm pistol, a .22 revolver and a rented Colt SMG. The guys loaded the .22 revolver, a small handgun suited to hands that have never fired a weapon, and offered it to the first shooter. We four girls stood there, staring awkwardly at the loaded gun.

Despite my cold feet, I finally volunteered to go first. As I stepped up to fire the gun, I was suddenly reminded of the scene from The Untouchables where they recruit Andy Garcia into their gang-busting unit. I am told that I immediately began to smile.

After the first gun came the CZ 75 9mm, an automatic, which was quite similar to firing the .22. Shooting an automatic would be much more efficient in real life situations, but if you don't know how to shoot, the bullets fly everywhere except the target. The bullets went quickly with the CZ 75 9mm, since another bullet is ready to fire immediately after you pull the trigger.

The third gun, the Mossberg 500 A 12, qualifies as an assault weapon in at least three ways identified by the Assault Weapon Ban of 1994-2004. However, simply taking one glance at this weapon would let anyone, with or without knowledge of the ban, know it was an assault weapon.

The first firing of this 12-gauge shotgun almost knocked me off my feet, which garnered some laughter from the other people at the firing range. Even though the kick was quite powerful, I figured out to point the barrel down at first in order to hit the target. If you are looking for visual satisfaction while hitting the target, the Mossberg is a great gun for you to shoot. The Mossberg uses buckshot, which is typically used for shooting large game, making it a lot easier to hit the target. The buckshot is a big confidence booster, and it shreds a paper target.

You'll be hooked by this time, if you'll ever be. I certainly was; I never knew shooting a gun could be so thrilling. However, as much as I liked it, one girl in our group was not at all excited about shooting guns. It seems to be an activity not for everyone, but who likes it and who doesn't will surprise you.

Our next gun was a Colt SMG. SMG is an abbreviation of "submachinegun," a fully automatic weapon. We rented it from The Firing Lane (no one in our party happened to have a license for or own a fully automatic weapon). Surprisingly, it wasn't the most memorable of all the guns I fired that night, but one aspect was: each time I heard the "snick" from ramming the clip into the bottom of the gun, I felt like a character from The Boondock Saints or Scarface.

Lastly, but certainly not least impressive, was the AK-47. This gun had to be taken into another room, the rifle range, to be fired as it used more powerful cartridges than the others. It was the heaviest of all the weapons. I had to pass the gun on before emptying the magazine because it was too weighty for me to hold.

After years of complaining that guns were all bad, my opinion was changed in one visit to the firing range. By the end of the night everyone was cracking jokes about me going to The Firing Lane everyday to shoot. We'll see about that.

If you don't have your own already, guns can be rented at The Firing Lane. The cost to fire, information about renting guns and the address to The Firing Lane can be found at their website.