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Monday, August 09, 2021

Shots Fired: A Reporter Visits Vermont’s First Indoor Gun Range

I'm not a gun guy. I haven't handled a firearm since I squeezed off a few rounds from an old .22 rifle at summer camp more than 35 years ago. 

Nor have I felt the impulse to own a gun for personal protection, whether due to privilege or delusion or both. I've also figured, rightly or wrongly, that owning a gun — statistically speaking — would tend to make my family's home less safe, not more. 

So when Henry Parro opened the state's first indoor shooting range in Waterbury in late June, I didn't pay it much mind. 

Then one novel feature caught my attention: firearms for rent. I've rented cars and skis and stand-up paddleboards — even a snowmobile once — but I'd never heard of a place where you could walk in, plunk down a credit card and minutes later be firing an assault rifle. 

That is, however, exactly what I found myself doing one morning last week.
-WiscoDave

34 comments:

  1. I felt like I was gonna start my period after reading that.

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  2. LOL, the recoil from an AR was hurting him. My 12 year old doesn't wine like that when he shoots.

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    1. Yeah, but does your AR go BA-BOOM!!!!!?

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  3. Oh, I hope he'll soon be able to move his shoulder in a few days. The PTSD might take a bit longer.

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  4. [rocketride]

    My first flippant comment was going to be 'The PUSSY is strong in this one." and leave it at that. But he at least tried it and wrote a non-scathing review of the establishment. Maybe subsequent inoculations will bring him around.

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  5. "I'm not sure what scared me more..." True colors right there.

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  6. Parro's is my neighborhood gun store and Henry along with his entire crew are absolutely first rate.

    Seven Days is just the local leftist echo chamber weekly. I have no idea who the writer is but I'm certain he will catch much negative feedback for even writing this in the first place let alone the almost positive things he wrote about firearms. In fact I'll bet that some rabid progressive will call for him to be fired.

    Henry Parro and his gleaming new store will be a huge success in spite of the folks that have attempted to thwart him.

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  7. AR-15 style rifle? Guessing .223, maybe 5.56 and he almost wet himself? I give him credit for trying and continuing after he got scared though. Definitely should not own something you are scared of

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  8. I'm always amused that the AR-15 pattern rifles are, without fail, referred to as high powered rifles, invariably the referencing the recoild and shock. I'd hate to see these folk pick up my Marlin in 45-70 and fire off a round of Buffalo Bore.

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    1. That would put Mr. LimpDick in a fetal position for a month ...

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    2. When one of my sons was in high school his 17 yr old 95 pound girlfriend wanted to learn to shoot a big rifle having never fired a gun. We took her to the range and started with a Henry .22 and worked her up the Marlin Guide Gun with Buffalo Bore 405's. We taught to hold it correctly and manage the recoil. She fired it and let out a "Whoop!", ejected the round, shoot her head a little and said "shit"!. Then she asked for another round and went again! I sent her home with an empty shell case and told her she was a member of the "Big Bore" club.

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  9. Hey, Kevin - your mangina is showing!

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  10. I've never seen such a nice and large gun store but renting guns at a firing range is very old news - all 4-5 of the indoor ranges around me offer lots of different guns to rent - I do that so I don't have to transport or clean my guns afterwards and rent the same models I have at home.

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  11. Did somebody hand this guy an AR-10? Perhaps one with an aggressive brake on it. No way he would know the difference. Maybe some 'modified' muff type hearing protection?

    I know indoor shooting is more intense far as noise goes. Never shot anything other than handguns indoors but many FAL matches with a covered shooting line with 10-15 shooters up at the same time. That gets intense.

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  12. It is difficult to describe the impact — physical and personal — of that first shot. It felt like a meteor had struck the earth in front of me. A deep shock wave coursed through my body, the recoil rippling through my arms and right shoulder with astounding power. Being that close to an explosion of such magnitude — controlled and focused as it was — rattled me.
    What the fuck was he shooting ? an 88MM FLAK Cannon ? I've never laughed so hard at someone who has no man card ! What a vagina !

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  13. Just guessing here . . . the guy prob'ly has never

    1. Been through any sort of military basic training
    2. Been hunting for quail or pheasant with a shotgun
    3. Been in a bar-room brawl with Aussies
    4. Been trap-blocked in a football game
    5. Been in a COD cat or arrest on a carrier

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    Replies
    1. Never had a knuckle-sandwich to his cock-holster, that's for sure...

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  14. He gets owned by a 14-year old girl:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CokG0AlmRds

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  15. I have seen youtube videos of little girls shooting AR's. And loving it, without as much as a flinch. But like others, I have to give props to the guy for a somewhat fairhanded article. At least, the review of the gun shop was favorable, and the shop itself is impressive.
    I hope that it does well, and thrives there. May the BATFE bunch not make it a failed venture.

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  16. I tried to read this, I really did but this guy's ? style of writing and it's just not worth the time feeling I stopped and clicked return to this page. Maybe it's wrong for me to feel this way but fuck him and fuck his feelings on the subject. Piss off prick
    JD

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  17. Could it maybe be he was pimping for the rental aspect of the business? or maybe at $3500 it wasn't a 5.56. Trying to give him an out

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    Replies
    1. HK: We'll Rob You Blind and NOT Sell You Parts.

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  18. I've never been in a shop where the hand guns weren't locked in a case in or behind the counter, but then I haven't been in many shops outside of michigan.

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  19. some people just don't need to own firearms. if a person is over 20 and has never fired one, well, its just to late for them. it's a skill that is learned in your youth.

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  20. Is this the same cum swallower that previously wrote a story about how he got ptsd from shooting an AR-15?

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    1. No, that was the unfortunately (but appropriately) named Kuntzmann.

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  21. At least the light loafer called it a magazine instead of a clip although I'm sure the piece was proofread by a pro in nomenclature, etc. Ohio Guy

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  22. Kevin McCallum, please return your Y chromosome.

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  23. It sad that such a rural state could be so socialist. I've spent a fair amount of time there as my mom grew up on a farm in Poultney, Vt. It's beautiful, but the fucking New Yorker's ruined it.

    It's nice to see this guy doing his thing. I wish him great success.

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  24. "Nor have I felt the impulse to own a gun for personal protection, whether due to privilege or delusion or both"

    The money quote

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  25. .223 is a medium powered cartridge at most. My mother, last trip to the range before she passed, fired my rifle from the bench in her late 70s.

    From the pictures, if he hadn't stuck his finger so far through the trigger guard, and used his fingertip, his accuracy would improved immediately.

    Last comment, if you've lived such a privileged life that the idea of personal defense never crossed your mind, you need to go walking in the evenings in Boston until events change your mind.

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