We sat them down and asked what they felt about guns - any nervousness? A bit, but the interesting thing was they all said they wanted to feel the power of it. To me, that kind of speaks to what firearms represent to them, maybe.
One of them thought that if you were driving around, you had to be very polite, or an American would shoot you. Another thought that if you went to Texas, anyone could shoot you for any reason. We tried to dispel that - imminent death or serious bodily injury only, and all that.
The Russian seemed a bit more reserved about the whole topic; the Spaniards a bit more open.
We went over the 4 rules and why they're important. They're swimmers, so I asked, "When you're at swim practice, do you just splash around and float on your back, or do you train the way you'll compete?" That seemed to help with the idea of why we follow all 4 all the time. Incidentally, one of the Spaniards had competed in the Olympics for Spain. Had a tattoo and everything.
We split them up on 2 ranges - one shotgun and pistol, one rifle. I ran rifle. I had 2 .22's set up as Liberty Training Rifles - one with Tech sights and one with a scope. We were shooting steel at about 70 yards because that's what my buddy's range has. They got lots of hits which was satisfying.
Then I brought out the Mosin, so they could "feel the power."
You should have seen the eyes light up after the first shot for each. It's an M38 with original sights, but some of them were still ringing steel with that. One of them shot down the support. It was getting toward dusk with the second group, and they were catching the fireball on video.My buddy's son had a CETME. It was having sight trouble, so I'm not sure they got any hits with that. He was directing them shooting that while I was behind the line. But, each student got to shoot a rifle from his homeland.
We talked to them all in a group afterwards. They all had fun. They felt more comfortable.
The University they attend is about a mile from my house. I told them that if they want to go shoot handguns indoors, let their ESL teacher know and she'd get ahold of me. I'd provide handguns, ammo, targets, and range fees. One of the Spaniards said, "How about tomorrow?" I he may take me up on it, and he may bring the other one.
All in all, a good day.
