My Uncle Bought His First Gun
Just last Sunday during my uncle's farewell party before his deployment the following week (he is a Merchant Marine), he took me upstairs and showed me a used Beretta 96 .40 S&W pistol that he recently bought at a pawn shop but have not yet fired it at the range, although he has some experience shooting Beretta 92Fs before for gun quals. There are some shortcomings that he had such as the pistol being costly ($600) for a second hand, not being test fired for reliability/performance tests, having only one 10-rd. magazine, no carry case or box included with it (wrapped in a plastic bubble wrap), and no instruction manual. He also has no idea what to buy for cleaning supplies and also didn't buy gun oil. Although I am proud of him taking the initiative to protect himself and his family, he should have consulted me first, which I told him before. Had he consulted me, he should have picked a gun for a reasonable price as well as a caliber that he is comfortable with. He also keeps the bubble-wrapped pistol in a conventional small safe that requires the use of a key to access it. He even did not load his 10 rd. magazine with Federal Hydrashock HPs and I had to load it for him and told him that keeping the mag unloaded is not a smart idea. I also showed him handgun basics, including gun safety as well as drilled him on ethical gun laws and deadly force. Well, once he comes back from deployment, I am going to take him to shoot it to the range, help him buy cleaning equipment for it as well as how to disassemble/clean/oil it and help him choose a more accessable pistol safe. For now, he gave me about $50 and wanted me to look for a pistol case and spare mag, which I recommended. And today, I successfully found and bought the 11-rd. extra Beretta 96 mag and a foamed pistol case. And, as an extra, I gave him some of my unused .40 S&W snapcap rounds so he can use them for dry-fire practice. It will be an honor grooming him like Lefty Ruggiero did with Donnie Brasco (lol).
