A Straight Shooter

4. Know what's behind the target. In case you're a complete idiot, allow Dr. Guns to point out what you should already know: A firearm releases a hard, pointed object into the world at speeds over (usually) a thousand feet per second and up to 4,000 feet per second. People think they know so much about guns from TV and movies, but the media almost never communicate the power of the bullet and its ability to penetrate, bounce, do insane things that no Caltech grad student could predict, much less replicate in a lab. Thus you must be responsible in understanding the ultimate destination.

Since most shooting in this urban area takes place under controlled range circumstances, that's not a problem. But no gun should ever be discharged outdoors, upward, into darkness, at fields or trees or even traffic signs. (I put a coupla .25s through a "SLOW" sign on Waukegan Road in Glenview, Ill., in 1967, so I know the temptation to irresponsible young men.)

Dear Dr. Guns:

What gun should I get?

Puzzled in Potomac

Under D.C. law, you're pretty much limited to revolvers. The revolver has these advantages: It's reliable, it points well, it requires no fumbly protocol of hard-to-remember steps to get it into action, it can be left at rest in a non-volatile situation, it fits most hands and can be adjusted, via aftermarket grips, to fit most other hands. It will shoot anything from the most powerful .357 hunting rounds to the softest wadcutter target round; uncocked, it's difficult to accidentally misfire, and for the ranges at which you'll be shooting, it's quite accurate.

I've said this before, but the most dangerous gun in the world is the gun as object of shame that must never be acknowledged. It's loaded and forgotten, and no one knows how to unload it. This is a tragedy waiting to destroy somebody's life.

You have to reach out to it. You have to get to know it. That means you have to shoot it to know it; you have to clean it to know it; you have to be responsible for it in order for it to be responsible to you. If you don't let it down, it won't let you down.