Hot Shots

When we had lunch at one of our usual places today, we were somewhat unnerved by the presence of heavily armed soldiers on patrol. You don’t usually see machine gun totting guards at a shopping mall. It didn’t help matters that the book I’m currently reading at home (as opposed to in the library!) features Islamic terrorists running amok in a shopping mall! Anyway, they must have been acting on some sort of tip-off or else a big shot was in the vicinity. Either way, we didn’t dally (I ate fast, even for me!!) and got out of Dodge early doors.

Little did I know that, just a few hours later, I would be totting that very same hardware, and then some! After lunch, we headed off to a careers fair at a much bigger mall (with thankfully no armed soldiers on patrol!). The fair was crappy enough really. The army did have a fairly impressive stand, complete with all types of kit, including a load of guns to try out for size (without ammo, obviously!!).

This is probably one of every (straight!) boy’s dreams – to hold a real gun! Since I haven’t fully grown up, you can count me in that group! So, I queued up for my turn and thankfully I wasn’t the only “adult” doing it! Although I had already had tried out my American cousin’s real handgun (he’s a cop), there were sniper rifles, machine guns and pump action shotgun to be played with here!

I use these weapons all the time in computer games (refer to not fully grown up part above!), but I must say it is (obviously!) very different in real life. The first thing you notice is how heavy they are! Man, that shotgun weighs a ton! However, using the pump action makes it worthwhile! The sniper rifle is almost as heavy and even the Uzi type machine gun is much heavier that you’d imagine. Soldiers, police, terrorists etc. must have to work out a lot these days!!!!

p.s. this is the third post in a row named after a film! I don't know how much longer this streak can go on for though!!