A Day For Shooting Guns

Convincing Officer Genovese to drop him at the range had been... an adventure. For one, Officer Genovese had been super mega crazy busy lately. For another, Jude wasn't even allowed to own a gun. Trying to convince him that he wanted to go out and practice his aim with his boss was a whole other thing.

"This should be on company time," Angelo had muttered under his breath, but he had finally dropped him off a few minutes early, scooting him out and promising to pick him up if he needed a lift.

"Just a few minutes," Jude said when he spotted Zora. He was more casual than he was at work, wearing a simple jeans and a T-shirt. The only thing that was really out of place was that Jude already had hearing protection on, resting loosely around his neck.

"Alright, going from the start," Jude said as they checked him in, running through the basics. "Ever shot a gun before? Know anything about guns?"

So, going from scratch. In a lot of ways that was easier. No errors to fix. Or no errors in theory.

"Hearing protection," Jude said. "Guns are loud. Firing guns is loud. Repeatedly firing a gun will screw up your hearing, so when you're on the range, you wear hearing protection." He gestured to a wrack of them, letting Zora grab a pair for herself as he explained.

"So, basic rules. Treat all firearms like they're loaded at all times. That means your finger is off the trigger unless you're pulling it. Even if it's empty. Even if you know it's empty. Act like it's loaded. Don't point a gun at something you aren't willing to shoot. Know what you're shooting at, and know what's beyond it. The range here is targets, and then they've got stone wall behind it - enchanted, so the bullets stay there and don't ricochet. And again--finger off the trigger until you have your sight on the target."

Jude moved over to the side, out of the way of the entrance, but not quite near the range.

"Alright, what did he sell you?"

Glock was his guess, but you never knew.

That was a lot of guns in his world, and probably a lot of guns in this world too. But glocks were pretty common, and they were something Jude was familiar with.

"A glock's a good, solid gun. Commonly used, really boring to look at... kind of like a power tool. Utility, safe... Basically the big thing with the glock is the trigger. More or less it's two in one. Hold down the first trigger, pull the second trigger. No thumb safety to fiddle with, but it's not going to fire if you drop it."

Jude was doing his best to keep it simple.

"You bring it with you? Bring it out."

He was watching carefully for how she handled it.

Jude knew his way around guns. Even as young as he was, he'd grown up with them, and there was a practiced ease as he picked it up out of her hands, carefully going through his routine and inspecting it.

"This is a Glock 22," Jude explained. "Super ugly, super basic, extremely common and extremely easy to use. 19s a bit smaller, but the 22 is solid, and the big advantage of the 22 is that it's using a .40 caliber bullet. 9mm ammo is a bit harder to get, especially when people are buying ammo because things are tense."

Before they even got into shooting, Jude was going to have to go through the basics. The basics meant basic maintenance, and he glanced up to make sure Zora was watching.

"Guns are like cars," Jude said. "You can just use them, but if you just use them they're going to get gunked up. If you want them to keep working, you have to maintain them. Glocks are pretty good about this, which is one of the reasons they get sold to new people a lot."

Sliding over to a table, Jude started to strip down the glock, just to show her how, and then went into the basics of basics - lubing the gun, how to make sure everything was in working order, and all the basics she was going to need. Once he was done, he reassembled the gun, sliding it over to her.

"If I'm going too fast, let me know. I grew up with this stuff, so I might skip some steps by accident."

Realistically speaking, Jude doubted her entire situation was going to extend long enough to warrant maintenance. But it was better to start with the best practice, and then downgrade as needed, rather than having your gun screw up because you hadn't cleaned it in six years right when you needed it.

"The 19 and 22 are just model numbers," Jude clarified. "You've got more than forty different models which fire different bullet types, and have different requirements, but there's a fair amount of variance. Glock 17 is the original, it's got 17 rounds. 18 and 19 were variants of the 17, with 19 being a reduced sized 17. The 22, which you've got, fires .40 caliber bullets. You only get 15 bullets, but they pack more of a punch. Model numbers for guns are a lot like car part numbers--there's a method to the madness, but not one you'll figure out right away."

He made a point of demonstrating the way to strip it down a second time when she mentioned he'd done it quickly, taking more care to go nice and slow before sliding it over for her to try. There were a few things that tripped her up, but the second time around helped a lot, and by the end Jude decided she had enough of an idea she could fumble through it... maybe with a youtube tutorial to help.

"Alright, that's the basics. Now we'll get into firing. You test-fired at Damascus arms already, so I assume he gave you the 101."