A Shot in the... Dark?

My dh likes guns. He isn't that good with them, but he likes them. He doesn't go hunting or target shooting, nor does he shoot people or jack convenience stores. But he thinks they are handy things to have one or two or six of. He is real responsible with them, keeps them trigger-locked and the ammo separate and mostly keeps them locked in his old Army footlocker. But lately he decided that I should have a carry permit. Maybe one day he won't be around to protect me, LoL.

And since the local armory gives classes for the permit every Saturday for under $100, and since I am a good shot, I figured, ok. Also the local armory has "Ladies' Day" every Tuesday. Your bring your weapon(s) and ammo or buy some ordinance there and shoot away for no range fee. Yee-haw! Annie Oakley!

There is a girl he works with, (Jade, that one of my sons is enamoured with) who thinks going shooting with me would be a hoot. And my eldest daughter does too. Like we should make it a Girls' Afternoon Out. Here comes the Tombstone Gang... Doc (me), Wyatt (Des) and Morgan (Jade).

I have a Lorcin .380, semi-automatic. Nice weapon... Less than 4 pounds, 7 rounds in a clip, slide it once, flip off the safety and you're off and running. But if I am going to take the Tombstone Gang with me, I have to have more than one weapon. So Saturday he got out the trunk, unlocked it and showed me his flintlocks (2) and the Ruger .22 5-shot longbarrel. Nice weapon too, single-action revolver (you have to pull the hammer back each time before shooting) with a barrel only slightly shorter than Wyatt's Buntline Special. The hammer was back. I said, "Why is the hammer back?" He says it has to be back, to put the trigger in position to put the lock on. Ok.

Later on I am sitting in the living room knitting a fingerless glove for Jade (here's a pic, more about the gloves later), and Richie and our #2 son are in our room watching some Testosterone movie. Artemas had moved a kitchen chair into the middle of the room for his viewing comfort. Richard put the trunk up on the bed and decided to take the trigger lock off the .22 longbarrel and make sure the instrument was clean and not rusted from being in the trunk for several years. Apparently the hammer didn't click back down and he thought it was stuck. Next thing I know I hear CRACK!

He comes out and I asked him what he shot. He just looked like the cat with the canary feather hanging out of his mouth and said, "Nothin'! Shut up!" Artemas came out a few minutes later and I said, "What did he shoot in our room?" I figured the light fixture or something. Artemas says, "Let's just say it was a gift." I said if he shot the quilt my daughter made me, hanging on the wall in there, I was going to lock him out in the 22 degree weather!

Later when I went in to go to bed, I noticed little bitty pellets all over our sheets. I remembered that the case of cartridges for the .22 were birdshot. So I started to change sheets (I canNOT sleep in gritty sheets, no WAY) and said, "Show me where you shot the bed!" My DSIL and eldest daughter bought us this bed a year ago because our 10 yr. old mattress was so sway-backed we could hardly sleep on it. Well. I *had* been pregnant 5 times in that 10 years. While not all those were quite successful, they were still a lot of work. [wink]

Sure enough, in his side of the bed there is a LEEEETLe bitty hole. If you didn't know what to look for, you wouldn't find it. After all, a .22 is less than a quarter inch across. I suppose the bullet is still in the bed. I said, "Did you say to Artemas, 'Now son, let that be a lesson to you in handgun safety... never know when the hammer is just jammed or if it is up because there is a cartridge in the chamber...'" He said, yeah, words to that effect. I bet.

Glad it is on his side of the bed. Say, does this mean I can wear a holster and boots to bed? Yee-haw!!