We found a little fallen tree and put cans of orange soda on it. Francesco had never fired a gun before, and he was a dead-eye. Sammy had, and he didn’t do as well, but not bad. He said he shot guns in vegas, shot Arnold Schwarzenegger themed firearms, the sort of favorites from his movies across the eighties and nineties. I thought that was incredibly funny and cool, and a surreal introduction to the hobby. Mostly how awesome and rare and weird and cool those firearms are is totally lost to someone as new to them as he was. 

But what showing Francesco how to shoot taught me was that none of us are really uneducated about guns. They are simply too central to our cinematic and cultural experience to be ignorant of. He knew a fair bit and was comfortable, and he’s not even American at all.

We chatted in the woods and we roasted a chicken and everyone was very kind and polite and it was nice. They’re good boys, and I hope I am too, though I don’t feel as nice as they feel, at least not to me.