January 17, 2004
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Cathy's New Toy
Cathy bought herself a new Beretta. Unlike the car from Chevrolet that she bought many years ago, this one is 9 mm and fits in her purse.
After she brought it home, she spent a couple of weeks repeatedly taking it apart and putting it back together. She wanted to be able to do so almost automatically or at least effortlessly. She also wanted to work out some of the stiffness from the new mechanism, to get a little initial wear before starting to use it.
Cathy has a friend who is training for a career in law enforcement. They shoot together. Cathy has been either borrowing a weapon or using the .32-20 revolver I gave her some time ago. But .32-20 is an uncommon size and the ammunition is expensive. Ammunition for either 9 mm or .45 is much cheaper. Cathy wanted a quality weapon in which she could use inexpensive ammunition.
On her first trip to the range, Cathy used up three 50-round boxes of ammunition, which cost her much less than one box of the revolver ammunition would have. She showed me her very first target with the new arm. One shot missed the silouette by about three inches. Of the cluster of five shots in the head area, all were in the black and one might not have been fatal; three of them formed one ragged hole. The four remaining shots in the chest area would probably have been fatal: two dead center and two just to the right of center, in the heart area. Yes, the heart is on the left side -- when the person is facing away from you -- but when that same person is coming toward you, you want to hit the chest just to the right of center.
I've made sure that Cathy respects her weapon, knows how to handle it properly and is aware of the damage it can do. But I didn't teach her to pamper it the way she does, making sure it remains clean and in good condition. When she isn't using it, cleaning it or taking it apart, she keeps it locked away somewhere, I don't know where, in a locking pistol box she got for it.
Cathy is only dangerous when she wants to be.
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