You can call me a flaming liberal, but I’ve always seen guns as things that cause much more harm than good. I’ve never been around guns very much, and I certainly never thought that I’d be at senior Nate Barringer’s house shooting what he referred to as “the Cadillac of guns.”

In light of the recent tragedies in Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut, guns have become a major part of social commentary in the United States. It didn’t seem right to rant on and on about gun owner’s rights when I hadn’t even held a gun before, so Nate and his father, Dave Barringer, offered to let me shoot my first gun.

According to Dave, the Barringer family has about 20 to 25 guns at their house, either in the house or in the garage. The entire time I was there, the necessity of safety was impressed upon me. Not only are all the guns locked in safes without the keys readily available, but they practice open breech policy, meaning that if the gun is not being used, it’s not loaded, even if the safety is on.

While Nate explained all of the safety rules, I was nervously eyeing the guns he had gotten out for me to shoot. I wasn’t entirely sure how risky shooting a gun was, but I started getting more and more anxious as we took a 20 gauge semi-automatic shotgun down to a field where we wouldn’t be shooting around anything important.

Nate showed me how to load a gun and turn the safety off. When he fired the first round, my stomach dropped. I was almost positive that I was going to end my own life in some way, because somebody as accident prone as me should not be using firearms.

As he turned the safety back on and handed me the gun, I tried to keep my hands from shaking, for obvious reasons. He helped me aim towards some trees, showed me one more time where the safety was, and told me what to yell before I shot.

I took a deep breath, turned the safety off, yelled “Ready? Fire in the hole,” and pulled the trigger. The loud bang hung in the air and my cold fingers were jarred by the vibrations. A burning smell lingered in my nostrils and I opened my eyes again, realizing I had shut them right after pulling the trigger. I felt a little off balance because of the slight kick, but mostly I felt exhilaration at the fact that I had successfully shot a gun.

I can now say that I’ve shot a semi-automatic weapon, and I can also say that if everyone cared as much about safety as the Barringers do, gun control would not be an issue for the country. They are supremely responsible with locking up their guns and treating them as the dangerous weapons that they are while loaded.

While I haven’t turned into a gun junkie and probably won’t be seeking out guns to shoot, I understand how guns can be used safely and responsibly.

 Martha Schick is a Multimedia Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.