story by Jordan Berardi and Christina Elias, photos by Adrianna Ohmes and MCT Campus

Senior Natalie Rall

Senior Natalie Rall and her best friend of eight years, Notre Dame de Sion High School senior Maggie Keenan,  departed from Kansas City Aug. 30 at 3 p.m., their destination Great Bend, Kan., population 16,000. It was in this town, on Rattlesnake Ranch, an 800-acre ranch which Keenan’s family owns, that Rall shot a gun for the first time.

“I was a nervous wreck,” Rall said. “But I tried to suck it up.”

Keenan recalls her father, who was teaching Rall the proper way to shoot, picking up on her nervousness.

“My dad … kept saying ‘You know, Natalie, you don’t have to do this,’” Keenan said.

After “sucking it up,” Rall was successful in shooting a clay pigeon, which is a target typically thrown in the air to practice targeting a shot.

“She finally hit the clay pigeon and her face immediately lit up,” Keenan said.

Rall admits that after hitting her target, she liked shooting. However, she believes the pure danger of guns is the most “nerve-wracking” part of shooting.

“It’s scary, but I think everyone should try it as long as they’re safe about it,” Rall said. “I mean, you might as well try it out.”

Aside from the fact that she enjoyed it, Rall believes hunting and shooting guns is “not really a girly thing to do.”

“Honestly, it’s kind of gross,” Rall said.

Three days and several shots later, Rall headed back to Kansas City, population 2,243,008.

“We’re already joking about going back for goose hunting,” Rall said.

Senior Sabrina Salerno

The first time she shot a gun, she thought it would be a magical moment and she would finally be able to call herself a country girl.

But when she walked into Centerfire Shooting Range, the magical moment was far off.

“My confidence level slowly starts decreasing,” senior Sabrina Salerno said. “I saw more people sending the target on a rotating rope and they looked like they meant business. So I put on my big-girl face as if I was born doing this.”

Salerno’s dad helped her load the first shot and put on the ear mufflers and the safety glasses. After sending the target out, Salerno’s nerves were heightened.

“I pulled the trigger, it jolted and I nearly peed my pants,” Salerno said.

After the bullet was released and the kickback had scraped skin off her hand, Salerno set the gun down and proclaimed that shooting was not for her. But after watching her mom shoot a few rounds, Salerno felt determined.

“I went for it once more,” Salerno said. “I was surprised that I didn’t rip more skin off, but my target was better aimed. I was proud.”

Overall, Salerno enjoyed the experience.

“It reminded me that girls can do anything guys can do,” Salerno said.

Senior Beth Mitchell

Mitchell and her boyfriend, Rockhurst High School senior Austin Brown, prefer adventure over the “dinner and a movie” date.

“Oh, we’ve been dating for about a year and four months, now, I’d say,” senior Beth Mitchell said with a smile. “But we’ve only been to the shooting range two or three times, maybe.”

Shooting range?

“The first time I went to the range [with Brown] my dad drove me and stayed for a little while,” Mitchell said of the date. “[My dad] helped me load and reload the gun and practice my aim.”

Regardless of her father’s help in addition to Brown’s, Mitchell was still nervous her first time shooting.

“I wanted to do it, but you’re scared because you realize what you could do with that thing,” Mitchell said.

The consequences of one thing going wrong led to Mitchell’s uneasiness.

“I was thinking, ‘I have this responsibility in my hand and if I were to shoot someone, I would never forgive myself,’” Mitchell said.

Though Mitchell said she knows the responsibility when she holds a gun in her hands, she believes the lack of responsibility in others is what leads to gun violence.

“A gun is just a tool,” Mitchell said. “The person behind the gun is what can be dangerous.

Despite the stress of the situation, Mitchell was successful in hitting the clay pigeons.

“For a beginner I’d say I was pretty successful,” Mitchell said. “I probably hit four out of 10 [clay pigeons].”

Mitchell’s boyfriend, Brown, said he enjoys shooting with Mitchell because it “brings out her competitive side.”

“A bit of friendly competition can really make the sport more interesting,” Brown said.

Mitchell, though she enjoys shooting, said she does not think she would go shooting without Brown.

“It’s more fun with him,” Mitchell said. “I have never really had the feeling that I needed to go shooting, but when I have the opportunity to go with him, I’ll go.”

She’s a Pistol

A woman-owned gun shop in Shawnee, She’s a Pistol, LLC, targets a largely female consumer audience. Their website advertises their specialty “in providing a comfortable, non-gender-centric environment to learn self-defense techniques.”

Co-owner Becky Biecker commented that although the store focuses primarily on empowering and providing protection for women, they attract a male fanbase as well.

Biecker said that they can schedule self defense just for women, but anyone is allowed. Most women, according to Biecker, want their boyfriend or husband to accompany them for various reasons.

“Just like you have to learn to take care of yourself as you grow up and gain new responsibilities, you have to learn to protect yourself,” Biecker said.

“Life events very quickly show you that people can’t always be there to protect you, and over time you have to learn to do that by yourself,” Biecker said. “We saw that in the market most of the shops were catered towards male customers . . . so we sought to change that.”

The New York Times reported earlier this year that “a growing number of women are learning to use firearms.” In an article by Erica Goode, 73 percent of gun dealers reported an increase in female customers in 2011, according to a survey by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The article also stated that “women’s participation in shooting sports has surged over the last decade.”

Biecker said that there are a number of reasons why a women might want a gun.

“Maybe a spouse had passed away, or maybe they’re going through a divorce,” she said.  “Maybe they just live alone and something has happened to them that made them more nervous.  Sometimes it’s a news article, sometimes a personal event. Something happened. Some event triggered the reaction for them to want to be safer.”

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‘Unconstitutional’ gun measure overturned in Missouri Senate:

The Missouri State Senate failed to override Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of House Bill No. 436 Sept. 11. The bill would have nullified any and all federal gun law authority in Missouri.

HB 436 would establish the Second Amendment Preservation Act, a measure stating that state law enforcement officers would have the right to arrest federal agents enforcing national gun laws.

According to CNN, “Lawmakers had argued that what they were proposing was not only constitutional but essential to protect the rights of gun owners.” The news network also wrote that the bill “would have made it a criminal offense to enforce background checks or to publish the name and address of a gun owner in the state.”

According to The New York Times, “Mr. Nixon said the federal government’s supremacy over the states’ ‘is as logically sound as it is legally well established.’”

The Kansas City Star writer Yael T. Abouhalkah decries the bill in his opinion piece, “Missouri’s illegal pro-gun law gets bipartisan love,” as “inane” and “pettily absurd.”