I am an avid rifleman and pistolero. My friends think that I am border line obsessive. But for all of you out there who share this ailment I have a story for you. I recently took one of my non-believer friends to the rifle range with me. He had never shot rifles before. I took along my 10/22 and shot 10 rounds through it. As we were walking towards the target, my friend asked why this is fun to me. He questioned the practicality of it all saying "if someone broke into your house you would not have a nice supported bench to shoot him with." I explained to him that it was relaxing to me and fun. Great stress reliever, don't you all agree? Well I managed to get him talked into it. I showed him how the 10/22 functioned and briefed him on safe handling of the firearm. He settled down onto the bench, dry-fired the gun a few times, then inserted the magazine. He pulled the slide back and released it. He then fired the first round, was amazed of the puny recoil, and then commenced to demolish the middle of the target (paper plate) at 50 yards. He shot a 2" group smack in the middle of the plate. I was impressed. Well, as we were walking down range, he was grinning like a child. All he had to say was that it was "cool". Eventually that day, he worked up through my 25-'06 and my 30-'06. He liked the high-powered rifles because of the recoil and muzzle report. He said that he liked the power of it all and really enjoyed it. As he dropped me nack off at my house, he commented to me that if I ever needed a rifle range partner again, that he would gladly go. I was happy. Just last night in one of his college classes, his professor got into a discussion on gunlaws. The professor said that guns are made for one thing-to kill people and animals. They serve no other purpose. That was when my friend interjected by saying that this was not true. He told the professor that if the conversation would have happened a few days earlier, he would have agreed. But then he related the story about our trip to the range. He told the class that there was just "something" about the power behind the kick that comes from the rifle. It was relaxing and fun to aim at the target and hear the loud boom of the rifle. At no time did he ever think about killing something while he was having fun shooting the paper plate. He is now even talking about taking a hunter education class and going hunting with me. Slowly maybe we can convert them all. What do you all think?! 
