There are certain events that we carry with us as memorable or defining moments in our lives. First bike, first kiss, first time you made love, first car, first job and so on. For me, there was one that I always remember:
My first gun show.
For background, as the blog states, I'm Canadian. Born and raised in southern Ontario in a medium-sized town not far from Toronto. For as long as I can remember, I have always had an interest in things military. My lifelong passion was planes, especially fighter aircraft, but anything with wings worked too. As I got older, I branched out into military history and equipment in general. 18th century ships-of-the-line, World War I in general, the Germans in North Africa in WWII, Cold War nuclear weapons, my interests were broad and ranging.
I had some exposure to different small arms in books that I had. Just pictures and some minor info. I liked the guns pictured within because they looked powerful and dangerous. What else would you expect of a boy? But beyond those pictures, guns were distant and unknown. Far away and never touching close to home. Other than curiousity, I was never fascinated with them in the ways I was with airplanes.
When I was 12, I joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadet corps. This is a volunteer thing that has no real equivalent in the USA. It is run by the Department of Defense. There were Sea and Army Cadets too. I joined the Air Cadets because of the influence of some early school counsellors and because of one of the fringe benefits: they took you flying.
For a 12 year old with a love of aircraft, this is a big deal. A chance to fly for free in an airplane?!? Sign me up and my parents did. I look back on those years I served in the Cadets with a high degree of fondness (many things I was not fond of at the time). In addition to allowing me to fly for the first time in my life (another memorable first), they have the honor of providing another first:
It was my first exposure to guns.
I had been in for about a year, gotten through my probationary period and was now eligible. Part of the component of all the cadet corps was exposure to military marksmanship. Even though each branch of cadets specialized in different areas, marksmanship was an all-around skill. Since it was a military organization, you got exposed to many aspects of military life. This was one of them.
For a 13 year old teenager, this was a huge deal. We got a safety class, told the basics of what we would expect and what we had to do. Like any recruit being taught to handle small arms, it was strict and regimented. Once we were done, we were taken downstairs to the indoor range (my cadet unit drilled in the city armory). In groups of eight, we were taken into the range.
Before me was the first rifle I would ever hold in my life. It was a Lee Enfield Mk.4(T). A bolt-action rifle converted to fire .22LR in single shots. The range was 25 yards long. We were each given 20 rounds in a wooden block and told to aim at the targets and shoot. We did. No instruction on sighting. Just on how to feed the ammo and shoot. On a distant circle I could barely see. I had no idea what I was doing beyond aiming and shooting. We did 20 rounds in light to familiarize ourselves. Then we cycled through a second time and did it in the dark by feel.
Looking back, I sucked both times (did not learn about how to use a peep sight until a few years ago). But, it was my first time shooting and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. My mother did not share my enthusiasm (did not like the fact then they taught me to shoot and doesn't like that fact today I own guns).
We did a few more range sessions in my time in the Cadets and I did a day on a military range during a cadet basic training course. Got to see my second rifle then, what Canada called the C1. Also known as the FN FAL. Again, I thought it was coolest thing in the world. It was then guns began to sit in the back of my mind and was now aware of them. And the fact it was possible to own them. Of course, I was a teenager and I knew that you had to have a FAC to get a gun. Since I was too young and didn't, all I could do was look at the guns in the case in the sporting goods section and dream.
Then life intervened. At 23, I moved to the United States and from there, nothing I planned for myself and how I expected things to turn out has come to pass. And indeliably set me on the course to where I am today.
One of the popular conceptions I had growing up of the States (as we call the USA in Canada) was how easy it was to own a gun. That pretty much anyone could have one. When I moved here, it was something I was aware of. I saw gun racks in the backs of trucks in Texas and was awestruck. Some even had guns in them. I became aware, dimly, of American gun culture.
And that is where it pretty much stayed. I knew things were different here but I didn't know how. Nor did I actively seek out to see for myself how it was different. I knew there were gun shops but never went in one. Even when one was in the shop right next door to the shop of a good friend of mine. I was curious but frightened. And I had no need. I knew that as a non-citizen, I couldn't own a gun so why bother? That and I was still holding onto the classic liberal Canadian view of guns. That there was no need to have one and who would want one if you didn't hunt?
If only I knew how much that would change.
In 1998, I moved to Virginia and in 2000, I met Tom. For what happened from then on in the arena of guns, the blame can be placed squarely and proudly at his feet.
I don't even know how it came about but he mentioned he was looking for a pistol. I asked him for what. He said for home defense since he and his girlfriend (now his wife) were getting pretty serious in living together. I said ok. I knew he was ex-military and figured he knew what he was doing. Then he asked me that memorable question:
"There's a gun show in Woodbridge this weekend at the VFW post. Want to go?".
Huh? A gun show? What was that? Did people go to a show to display their guns in a competition of some sort? No, he said. It was like a bazaar for people to go browse at and buy guns. And he was going to go look for a pistol to buy for himself. For all my lack of knowledge about guns in general in Canada, there was one thing that I did know: pistols were almost forbidden in Canada. And he was going to look for one like it was some casual event? I said "Yes.". I had to see this.
So, that weekend, we drove down to Woodbridge, Virginia and found the show. It was in this small post building not much bigger than a small community center. We paid our entrance fee and walked into the building.
And I stood in the doorway to the hall dumbfounded.
Before me were about 30 odd tables. On two-thirds of them were guns of every description. Rifles, handguns, shotguns, military looking rifles. And people milling around, picking them up and handling them like it was the most normal thing in the world. After a moment, Tom and I went in and began walking the aisles.
I just looked around left and right. I was speechless. Then I started asking questions to Tom. How did you buy one? What were the rules? As we got to the tables of handguns and military looking rifles, it became "Who could own one of these?".
The answer stunned me: "Anyone who passed the background check.".
Anyone?!? Just like that? By about the second table, Tom stopped and was looking at the handguns. Anyone could own a handgun? He picked one up. I asked him if I could pick one up. He told me to go ahead (not knowing then that is kind of bad behavior at gun shows. Now I ask permission). So I did. I was awestruck. I was standing here in the middle of the hall holding a handgun like it was the most normal thing in the world!
We kept wandering and stopped at another table, one offering what I now know are AR-15s. Tom picked one up and began regalling me about his time in the Air Force and how much fun the M-4 was and about how he wanted to get one of these. I learned then the difference between a machine gun and a civilian version of the same. I had been curious about such "military guns" since I was a teenager and here they were right before me! I could touch them. I picked one up and sighted down it. In theory, I could own one! Just like that!
It was like forbidden fruit and I was standing in the middle of the garden. I was hooked at that moment. I was grinning like a chesire cat. It was quite simply one of the most intoxicating experiences of my life. I knew at that moment what it must be like to be a drug addict as we moved along those aisles.
In the end, Tom didn't find anything he liked but in the process I got a crash course in American firearms, laws, ownership and the whole concept of having guns and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
Over time, I would settle down but I remember vividly those couple of hours at the show and my eyes probably as wide as saucers, grinning from ear to ear. My mother would have been horrified. But it didn't seem to be a big deal to anyone and I began to think of what it might be like to actually own a gun of my own. It was unbelievable!
Look at it from my perspective. My only exposure to guns had been as a cadet under military conditions. Civilian ownership was a foreign concept. Canada is, by culture, not a violent place and violence only occurred in faraway cities like Toronto and Hamilton where you expected such things. Growing up, my hometown maybe averaged one murder every five years and was so out of the ordinary to warrant special attention. That was in a town of 80,000.
And then I walked headfirst, unprepared and with all kinds of preconceived notions, into an American gun show and was faced with every sterotype I could imagine with regard to guns, their ownership, usage and need. And no one was acting like it was a big deal.
My friend John summed it up with one phrase: "A gun show is like porn for Canadians.".
How right he is! A naked woman could have been enticing me two feet ahead of me and I would have been looking right past her. Penthouse had nothing on the naked display of firepower before me.
That day was the beginning of the end of my Canadian liberalism with regard to guns. And I thought that was a big gun show.
Two months later, I went to the Nation's Gun Show in Chantilly, Virginia and had my perceptions permanently corrected. After that show, I was permanently hooked.
It was all downhill from there. My mother laments my interest. Why couldn't I just stick to models of weapons rather than the real thing?
Maybe because I'm addicted to "Canadian porn"? :)
Now if I can just get my best friend from back home to come down during a gun show weekend and see what happens to him. It's only fair of me to pass along the addiction and let him experience the raw, naked unairbrushed vision that is the American gun show.
Someday. Now, I need to head home and get ready for this weekend's show. Hey, even a porn peddler needs his fix!
My first gun show.
For background, as the blog states, I'm Canadian. Born and raised in southern Ontario in a medium-sized town not far from Toronto. For as long as I can remember, I have always had an interest in things military. My lifelong passion was planes, especially fighter aircraft, but anything with wings worked too. As I got older, I branched out into military history and equipment in general. 18th century ships-of-the-line, World War I in general, the Germans in North Africa in WWII, Cold War nuclear weapons, my interests were broad and ranging.
I had some exposure to different small arms in books that I had. Just pictures and some minor info. I liked the guns pictured within because they looked powerful and dangerous. What else would you expect of a boy? But beyond those pictures, guns were distant and unknown. Far away and never touching close to home. Other than curiousity, I was never fascinated with them in the ways I was with airplanes.
When I was 12, I joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadet corps. This is a volunteer thing that has no real equivalent in the USA. It is run by the Department of Defense. There were Sea and Army Cadets too. I joined the Air Cadets because of the influence of some early school counsellors and because of one of the fringe benefits: they took you flying.
For a 12 year old with a love of aircraft, this is a big deal. A chance to fly for free in an airplane?!? Sign me up and my parents did. I look back on those years I served in the Cadets with a high degree of fondness (many things I was not fond of at the time). In addition to allowing me to fly for the first time in my life (another memorable first), they have the honor of providing another first:
It was my first exposure to guns.
I had been in for about a year, gotten through my probationary period and was now eligible. Part of the component of all the cadet corps was exposure to military marksmanship. Even though each branch of cadets specialized in different areas, marksmanship was an all-around skill. Since it was a military organization, you got exposed to many aspects of military life. This was one of them.
For a 13 year old teenager, this was a huge deal. We got a safety class, told the basics of what we would expect and what we had to do. Like any recruit being taught to handle small arms, it was strict and regimented. Once we were done, we were taken downstairs to the indoor range (my cadet unit drilled in the city armory). In groups of eight, we were taken into the range.
Before me was the first rifle I would ever hold in my life. It was a Lee Enfield Mk.4(T). A bolt-action rifle converted to fire .22LR in single shots. The range was 25 yards long. We were each given 20 rounds in a wooden block and told to aim at the targets and shoot. We did. No instruction on sighting. Just on how to feed the ammo and shoot. On a distant circle I could barely see. I had no idea what I was doing beyond aiming and shooting. We did 20 rounds in light to familiarize ourselves. Then we cycled through a second time and did it in the dark by feel.
Looking back, I sucked both times (did not learn about how to use a peep sight until a few years ago). But, it was my first time shooting and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. My mother did not share my enthusiasm (did not like the fact then they taught me to shoot and doesn't like that fact today I own guns).
We did a few more range sessions in my time in the Cadets and I did a day on a military range during a cadet basic training course. Got to see my second rifle then, what Canada called the C1. Also known as the FN FAL. Again, I thought it was coolest thing in the world. It was then guns began to sit in the back of my mind and was now aware of them. And the fact it was possible to own them. Of course, I was a teenager and I knew that you had to have a FAC to get a gun. Since I was too young and didn't, all I could do was look at the guns in the case in the sporting goods section and dream.
Then life intervened. At 23, I moved to the United States and from there, nothing I planned for myself and how I expected things to turn out has come to pass. And indeliably set me on the course to where I am today.
One of the popular conceptions I had growing up of the States (as we call the USA in Canada) was how easy it was to own a gun. That pretty much anyone could have one. When I moved here, it was something I was aware of. I saw gun racks in the backs of trucks in Texas and was awestruck. Some even had guns in them. I became aware, dimly, of American gun culture.
And that is where it pretty much stayed. I knew things were different here but I didn't know how. Nor did I actively seek out to see for myself how it was different. I knew there were gun shops but never went in one. Even when one was in the shop right next door to the shop of a good friend of mine. I was curious but frightened. And I had no need. I knew that as a non-citizen, I couldn't own a gun so why bother? That and I was still holding onto the classic liberal Canadian view of guns. That there was no need to have one and who would want one if you didn't hunt?
If only I knew how much that would change.
In 1998, I moved to Virginia and in 2000, I met Tom. For what happened from then on in the arena of guns, the blame can be placed squarely and proudly at his feet.
I don't even know how it came about but he mentioned he was looking for a pistol. I asked him for what. He said for home defense since he and his girlfriend (now his wife) were getting pretty serious in living together. I said ok. I knew he was ex-military and figured he knew what he was doing. Then he asked me that memorable question:
"There's a gun show in Woodbridge this weekend at the VFW post. Want to go?".
Huh? A gun show? What was that? Did people go to a show to display their guns in a competition of some sort? No, he said. It was like a bazaar for people to go browse at and buy guns. And he was going to go look for a pistol to buy for himself. For all my lack of knowledge about guns in general in Canada, there was one thing that I did know: pistols were almost forbidden in Canada. And he was going to look for one like it was some casual event? I said "Yes.". I had to see this.
So, that weekend, we drove down to Woodbridge, Virginia and found the show. It was in this small post building not much bigger than a small community center. We paid our entrance fee and walked into the building.
And I stood in the doorway to the hall dumbfounded.
Before me were about 30 odd tables. On two-thirds of them were guns of every description. Rifles, handguns, shotguns, military looking rifles. And people milling around, picking them up and handling them like it was the most normal thing in the world. After a moment, Tom and I went in and began walking the aisles.
I just looked around left and right. I was speechless. Then I started asking questions to Tom. How did you buy one? What were the rules? As we got to the tables of handguns and military looking rifles, it became "Who could own one of these?".
The answer stunned me: "Anyone who passed the background check.".
Anyone?!? Just like that? By about the second table, Tom stopped and was looking at the handguns. Anyone could own a handgun? He picked one up. I asked him if I could pick one up. He told me to go ahead (not knowing then that is kind of bad behavior at gun shows. Now I ask permission). So I did. I was awestruck. I was standing here in the middle of the hall holding a handgun like it was the most normal thing in the world!
We kept wandering and stopped at another table, one offering what I now know are AR-15s. Tom picked one up and began regalling me about his time in the Air Force and how much fun the M-4 was and about how he wanted to get one of these. I learned then the difference between a machine gun and a civilian version of the same. I had been curious about such "military guns" since I was a teenager and here they were right before me! I could touch them. I picked one up and sighted down it. In theory, I could own one! Just like that!
It was like forbidden fruit and I was standing in the middle of the garden. I was hooked at that moment. I was grinning like a chesire cat. It was quite simply one of the most intoxicating experiences of my life. I knew at that moment what it must be like to be a drug addict as we moved along those aisles.
In the end, Tom didn't find anything he liked but in the process I got a crash course in American firearms, laws, ownership and the whole concept of having guns and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
Over time, I would settle down but I remember vividly those couple of hours at the show and my eyes probably as wide as saucers, grinning from ear to ear. My mother would have been horrified. But it didn't seem to be a big deal to anyone and I began to think of what it might be like to actually own a gun of my own. It was unbelievable!
Look at it from my perspective. My only exposure to guns had been as a cadet under military conditions. Civilian ownership was a foreign concept. Canada is, by culture, not a violent place and violence only occurred in faraway cities like Toronto and Hamilton where you expected such things. Growing up, my hometown maybe averaged one murder every five years and was so out of the ordinary to warrant special attention. That was in a town of 80,000.
And then I walked headfirst, unprepared and with all kinds of preconceived notions, into an American gun show and was faced with every sterotype I could imagine with regard to guns, their ownership, usage and need. And no one was acting like it was a big deal.
My friend John summed it up with one phrase: "A gun show is like porn for Canadians.".
How right he is! A naked woman could have been enticing me two feet ahead of me and I would have been looking right past her. Penthouse had nothing on the naked display of firepower before me.
That day was the beginning of the end of my Canadian liberalism with regard to guns. And I thought that was a big gun show.
Two months later, I went to the Nation's Gun Show in Chantilly, Virginia and had my perceptions permanently corrected. After that show, I was permanently hooked.
It was all downhill from there. My mother laments my interest. Why couldn't I just stick to models of weapons rather than the real thing?
Maybe because I'm addicted to "Canadian porn"? :)
Now if I can just get my best friend from back home to come down during a gun show weekend and see what happens to him. It's only fair of me to pass along the addiction and let him experience the raw, naked unairbrushed vision that is the American gun show.
Someday. Now, I need to head home and get ready for this weekend's show. Hey, even a porn peddler needs his fix!
6 comments:
My first gun show was a little different. I was manning a booth for a candidate and had some free time to walk around. I saw quite a few guns, but way too many "other items."
Seems to be the way things are going. Antiques, jerky, non-gun junk: bric-a-brac. Bleh. Just put out the guns.
BTW: the Navy has a Sea Cadet program. The AF and Army have the JROTC here.
That was a beautiful article.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I think people will be interesting in hearing that "our" normal is "Canadian Porn".
I'm going to throw you a link. If you would prefer I don't, let me know and I'll pull it.
Thanks.
Ride Fast & Shoot Straight
Great write-up!
My experiences are almost identical to your own, just without the move to South of the border.
Joined Army Cadets when I was a kid, got my FAC when I turned 18, worked armored car even for just shy of a year, but never took that step and bought a firearm until after I had been down to Texas to visit my brother and we'd spent a day at a gunshow, and then at his range.
Flew back into Canada after that trip, and went straight down to one of the local gunstores and bought myself a used and abused SMLE No.1 Mk.III from the consignment rack for $50.
It's been downhill ever since.
-GRIN-
Of course handgun ownership up here isn't quite as bad as you make out, I own three myself, along with a few "historically significant" long guns (M1 and SMLE), and naturally an AR15.
Anyway...for all that, I've been told that gun shows run up here fairly regularly, but I've yet to have been to one. I suspect it'd be a little disappointing after the gunshow in Austin anyway.
Excellent article. I know the VFW post in Dale City well. There was a show at the Chantilly Expo this weekend, BTW. Lots more gun porn to ogle.
I really enjoyed this article. Found it through google.
I live in Hamilton, ON. I too am disappointed by Canada's strict gun laws. I hope to be a gun owner someday.
PS. The cadets now use only .177 daisy pellet guns. :(
i would join the cadets ASAP if i could shoot a lee-enfield. (I am 15)
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