Finding a gun in the United States is exactly as hard as I thought it would be. Buying a decent one on the other hand is going to be nearly impossible. I have no background to check and no passport to present. I can't even prove that I'm in the country legally. Certainly there are places I could go to pick one up illegally but I doubt getting one at all is going to go over well with my mentors. I'd rather stay as much within the bounds of the law as I can.
I do want one, though. Just as a backup in case I have to fight something ring proof or if I run out of power in a combat zone. Lantern Jack Chance would have been a dead man if he hadn't kept his gun after his recruitment and that particular piece of outside the emerald box thinking earned him my admiration.
I don't know much about guns, but I believe that revolvers are more mechanically reliable than magazine based pistols. I neither need nor want a large calibre weapon. Spare ammunition or 'fast-loaders' would be similarly pointless. This weapon is to cover my retreat, not initiate an attack.
Maybe I can get Mr Scott to buy one on my behalf? I suppose he might already own one, it didn't occur to me to ask. I don't remember anything from the comics about his attitude to firearms, but I hope that he is rational enough to realise that if you trust someone with a power ring you'd sound a bit silly saying that they can't have a gun due to how dangerous it is.
The other part of the gun issue is training. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of occasions on which I have seen an actual gun in my life and I've never fired anything more dangerous than a low powered air rifle. I don't remember where I first heard the phrase 'a weapon you don't know how to use is a weapon that belongs to your enemy', but I am inclined to believe it.
Which is why I'm now standing in the West Side Pistol and Rifle Range being shown how to load what I'm told is a Smith & Wesson Model 63 .22 revolver by a chap named Christopher. It's past their normal closing but a combination of uniform and gold bought me a few private sessions. He wasn't exactly impressed by my choice of weapon but when I pointed out that a) I'd never touched a gun before and b) there was no human produced gun that equalled a power ring he dropped the subject. He insisted that I wear earmuffs and goggles, despite me pointing out that the ring would not allow me to be deafened or blinded.
Oh, great, the comedian has decided to put up an alien shooting range target. Very funny. Alright, eight bullets loaded, safety off, feet planted, both hands on the gun, aim, trigger.
Yep, that's loud. After the first shot the ring glows and the sound of the second shot drops to nearly nothing while other sounds are amplified. I can actually hear the rustle of the target paper as the second bullet takes the target in the seventh tentacle. After the third shot clips the target the ring gives up on my aiming and gives me an augmented reality view of where the shot is most likely to go. I focus on my goals and it disappears. The whole point of this is to learn to fight without ring assistance. The rest of the bullets follow -more or less- in the direction of the first, and Christopher pulls the lever to reel in the target. Not too bad, though the distance was short. Three in the central area, and all of the other five hit the paper somewhere. Guess all that time spent playing Time Crisis wasn't a complete waste.
Christopher is less impressed. Apparently I'm over-correcting and worse, holding the gun too tightly. I'm also holding it too low and my arms are just generally wrong. And so are my legs. No, they actually don't teach this stuff in Lantern school.
Okay. I take a stance he is less unhappy with. Open the revolving bit, gently tip the spent… Urm, bullet left over thingies… Onto the counter, reload, shut it back up again raise it -higher? Like this?-, aim, and fire.
Better this time? Oh? Well, your ten year old probably has more experience than me.