Last weekend I took my mom shooting. She won’t go unless someone goes with her and I’m the one that has stepped up to make that happen. So when she asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told her that time with the people I cared about was more important to me than “things”. I wanted to book a weekend to come visit her (she’s 4 hours away from me), to take a side trip that was important to both of us, and to take mom shooting. She seemed excited about that. I looked at the calendar and just before Christmas I gave her the dates for the trip.

Last weekend I went down to honor that commitment. I took my .22 target pistol as she feels more comfortable shooting that than the .38 Special the fellow at the local gun store sold her. I also brought my 1911 so I could get in some practice with the gun I’m competing with.

Sunday morning she asked me to take a look at her computer. I do tech support for a living. I will bow out of working on friend’s computers because I do too much of that at work, but my parents ensured I got a good education and helping them with their computers feels like a small payback for their contribution toward helping me develop a very marketable skill. While I was dealing with that she said she’d pack up her gear to go to the range.

She came to me and told me that she could not find her gun. Really. I’m not making this up. I wish I was. What good is a gun when an intruder busts in your house if
(a) it’s not loaded and
(b) you can’t find it ???

Another 15 minutes and voila! We found her revolver. Then we had a discussion about how much good a gun will do you if you can’t lay your hands on it instantly when there is a threat. I told her to remind me to show her some bio-metric hand gun safes when we went to the local range. We found one at the range where we shot so now she understands that option.

We headed to the local range. I’ve shot their with her once before so I knew that all I needed was a driver’s license (ID) to book a lane. Mom lives in a different state and the range closest to her house requires no test or confirmation that you know how to shoot safely. Just ID. That actually freaked me out the first time we went…. because I was so new to shooting that I still felt like a “poser”. But the fact was I knew enough to be safe since Mom would listen to me and we had a good experience on our first trip to this venue. That was Mother’s Day 2012. Yes, I took my mom shooting for Mother’s Day. I consider that a truly inspired “gift”.

I skipped the safety briefing this time as I’ve gone over that with her several times now. We got a lane, laid out 3 guns: her .38 Special,. my 22. target pistol, and my 9mm 1911 competition pistol. I noticed that one of the grip screws on my 1911 was missing… and wasn’t too happy about that.

Mom shot my .22 and her .38. She never shoots much and you can tell she’s pushing herself to shoot the .38, but she was significantly more accurate than the last time I took her shooting. I was really proud of her!

I put about 70 rounds through the 1911. The rules at that range said that I couldn’t draw from a holster so I worked on keeping my grip strong and not adjusting my hands between shots. I also worked on longer distance shots.

After shooting we split a pizza and than headed back to her house. Mom told me she could clean her revolver herself and asked if it was ok to wait till the next day. I often procrastinate on cleaning my guns so I’m the last one to insist on immediate cleaning. I also knew she’d only put about 12 rounds through her revolver, so I told her tomorrow would be fine. I didn’t plan to clean my guns till the following weekend.

I headed back home and felt pretty good about my choice of Christmas gifts: because Mom is building her confidence and I’m happy to help with that.