How it all started

Sebastian, by way of Jeff has a post up about how he got started shooting. Since I steal a lot of links from him, I’m going to steal this one as well.

  1. I grew up in a house full of guns, Father Ahab was Deputy Sheriff with LA County and he enjoyed shooting.
  2. I didn’t really get “into” the gun culture until I was at the Academy.
  3. I got my first BB gun with I was 13, and my first real firearm when I was 16.
  4. To this day I do not own an AR-15, AK47, or even a 1911. I once owned a 10mm Glock which I profoundly regret selling.

When I say that I grew up in a house full of guns, I mean full of guns. I at least knew were dad kept his guns, and where he kept the ammunition. However, I was raised at a point to believe that touching dad’s guns without his permission would lead to sudden and instant death – so I left them alone unless I had permission.

My best friend growing up was seriously into muzzleloading, and we would go to the range a lot with his family and shoot muzzleloaders and my .22 Magnum. This sparked my interest in shooting during my high school years; which lead me to research competitive shooting.

When I started as a 4/c at the Academy, I joined the pistol team in my freshman year and starting shooting competitively. This is what really got me into the shooting sports. There were some really good people on the pistol team, but the one person that really got me into shooting was a guy named Bill Kotowski, or just “Ski”. He was a junior during my freshmen year, kind of took me in a bit and kept me out of too much trouble. Beyond that, he also went shooting with me outside of the Academy during my sophomore year.

After the Academy and while I was in the Reserves I kept shooting. I had a couple of memberships here and there. I really got back into the sport hardcore when I moved to Virginia and had access to the NRA range. It really exposed me to a whole different side of the gun culture; and it was during that time that I became interested in the actual right to keep and bear arms.

Now that I’m back in Indiana, I’m (obviously) still shooting a lot and very active in the pro-gun movement. I’m guessing that my story is pretty similar to that of a lot of people – raised around guns but not too aware of the actual right to keep and bear.