Welcome to the strange and exciting world of firearms! If you’ve gotten to this part of the book, you’ve digested about a decade’s worth of gun knowledge, distilled into an easy-to-understand format by someone who, not so very long ago, was in a similar position to yourself. (Or maybe you’re reading it in reverse—I do that all the time.) If your only point of reference thus far has been Hollywood and the usual media outlets, you may be experiencing a little head spin at this point. As Chris points out, much of what we read or watch on flickering screens bears little resemblance to reality when it comes to guns.
America has a longstanding and vigorous culture of responsible firearms ownership, which is something that should be cherished, defended, and promoted at every opportunity. By legally owning a firearm, whether you like it or not, you’re making a political statement that transcends the stereotypical party boundaries. I’m proud to count as shooting buddies people from all affiliations, orientations, ethnicities, and religions. In some cases, about the only thing we have in common is the fact that we each own these curiously shaped pieces of metal and enjoy using them to launch projectiles with the hope that they connect with something downrange. When you think about it, this a pretty bizarre connection.
Despite this somewhat tenuous link, it’s proven to be the basis of long-lasting and rewarding friendships between people who otherwise would never have moved in the same circles. That’s an excellent illustration of why it’s never a good idea to rely on stereotypes when it comes to guns, people, or life in general. This odd, unifying property of firearms has nothing to do with the actual guns themselves. How can it? They’re inanimate objects with no innate properties of their own. Rather, they’re a cipher, a symbol of independence and freedom that scares the bejeezus out of petty tyrants and midlevel government functionaries in cheap suits the world over. And that reason alone is worth the price of admission.
When I started shooting, it was in a not particularly permissive environment. England is notorious for its draconian firearms laws, and once the government decided to hang law-abiding gun owners out to dry over the actions of a sociopath, I decided it was time to leave for pastures new and become an American citizen. Before 1920, Britain had zero firearms laws—as in nada, zip, bupkis—and the number of violent crimes could be counted by a first-grader. In less than a lifetime, restrictions on private ownership of firearms was gradually ratcheted up until they reached their logical conclusion of a total ban of fun, useful stuff, such as handguns and semiauto rifles. Oddly enough, the criminal element never got the memo and in the two years after the government confiscated all legally owned handguns, armed crime more than doubled. Conversely, firearm ownership in the United States is currently at an all-time high, and the criminal use of guns has been steadily dropping in the last few decades to a level that hasn’t been seen since the 1950s. Do you think there might be a connection there?
Having experienced first-hand what can happen when gun ownership is marginalized and channeled outside of the mainstream, I decided to do everything I could on a personal level to demystify firearms and introduce new people to the legal use of firearms. Top Shot fitted nicely with that mission. As a recruiting tool for the firearms community, it’s probably brought more people into the fold than any other TV show. It also demonstrated that using guns can be safe, responsible, and above all fun, which is probably why the majority of us own them in the first place. So I have to ask a big favor of you, my newly minted, firearm–owning friend. Please, don’t keep this awesome knowledge to yourself. The next time you go shooting, take someone else with you and show them what you’ve learned. Demonstrate the responsibility that comes with exercising your rights, teach them the four rules of gun safety, and then show them the incredible amount of fun you can have just putting holes in stuff.
—Iain Harrison
Iain Harrison with the author at a firearms event.
Iain Harrison is a former British infantry officer who immigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. After a decade of swinging a hammer for a living, he applied to and won a goofy reality TV show, Top Shot, that launched his career in the firearms industry. To date, he’s appeared on every season of Top Shot, hosted Rapid Fire, a show with absolutely no social value but lots of machine guns, and is the editor in chief of RECOIL magazine.
Harrison continues to compete at national level on the 3-gun, USPSA, and precision rifle circuit, where he’s known for taking new shooters under his wing and offering his own performance as an example of what not to do, while giving ill-conceived advice in a difficult-to-understand British accent.