Last weekend I went to H&H Shooting Sports and bought myself a new pistol. I did some research beforehand, then looked over the top options at the store and went with my first choice, a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm.

Today I went back and spent some time on the range shooting the gun. I put 150 rounds through it and am convinced I made the right choice. I haven’t shot pistols all 

that much; the only ones I have besides this one is a .22 revolver and a .380 that I hardly ever shoot because it’s a Lorcin and the reputation for those guns is horrible. To be fair, I’ve only fired maybe 16 rounds through it and haven’t had any trouble, but it still makes me nervous. Anyway, here’s my target from the first 17-round magazine. I was closing my left eye and aiming with my right. I suppose that explains why the shots are mostly on the target’s left side.

I’ve never had any training, so I was making it up as I went based on stuff I’ve read or seen on TV. Aiming with the left eye was a little better. Some of the best shooting, though, was when I went for the target’s head and didn’t spend time trying to breath and firing after the inhale or exhale. Just pointed and pulled the trigger. The head was well ventilated.

Here’s the last of my five targets, with the last 17 rounds of ammunition I had. It’s not perfect, and one shot was really high, but I think I got better. All my shots were at about 12 feet or so. To qualify for a concealed carry permit you have to shoot from 3 and 5 yards. I’ll visit the range a few more times before I start that process.

And yes, I chose to buy a new gun now because of certain elements in the government that want to challenge our Second Amendment right to own them.