Oh my goodness!

Saucy Trollop bought a gun! On the 16th. She missed Buy a Gun day by 24 hours. Not bad.

She really wants a S&W 629 of some sort, someday. Saving her pennies. But she wanted something now that wasn’t too expensive. I told her the XD fit the bill, or some decent revolver. The gun has a trigger I like, and she agreed when dry firing. It’s a bit more than a Glock, but not too. At least in plain Jane form. And Springfield’s reputation for service after the sale is excellent.

She didn’t know what caliber she wanted, so I told her the choices for the XD were 9mm, .40, and .45, really. The 9mm is cheapest, and good for casual range fun. Which is her purpose for this gun. She’d never fired 9mm, but she had fired .38 special and knew what that felt like. She also fired my .40 Sig, and .45 1911. The recoil was fine with both, and the only reason she wasn’t considering those models was expense, and the fat grip of the Sig was a bit much for her.

The choices, now, in her mind, came down to the a model 10 S&W or a XD-9 or XD-40. I thought that was some sound thinking. She dragged me to 2 different gunstores and I was just riding in her wake, she was a woman on a mission.

First was a store in Glen Burnie that was quite charming. Bart’s Sports World. Nice little store. The guy that helped us was the most pleasant gun dealer I’ve ever had the pleasure of chatting with. The pistol selection was ideal for Trollop’s mission, though. And she wanted to check other price points, too. What interested ME there was the 2 Colt Pocket Hammerless on display. One SHINY chrome. He had a Colt Diamondback .22 that was almost TOO nice. Plus a S&W 617 that I wanted to follow me home. His store had LOTS of higher end shotguns. That seemed to be the specialty.

We ate dinner at Five Guys and she still had a hankering to gun shop. So, we went to the range, OnTarget, next. OnTarget has a huge pistol selection, including a few XDs. Trollop played around with the slides and fondled 9mm and .40. Even the XDM with their very comfy grips. But price was a major factor. No trijicon sights for her. No fancy trigger work. She liked the XD-40 2-tone with a 4-inch barrel most.

So she bought it.

Wow. It happened so fast.

She had to watch the Maryland gun safety video. The state requires you view a 25 minute safety video to on top of other paperworks to purchase a hand gun or Sport Utility Rifle. Plus a lot of state forms to fill out to go along with the form 4473. You may have to watch that safety video to get a bolt action .22, too, I don’t know. I was never required to do so because I had a DD214, which is military discharge paperwork. Still, it was good to watch over Trollop’s shoulder to see what everybody else had to do.

Maryland has a form that looks like the 4473, but it’s theirs. Since Cho’s Virginia Tech massacre they have used a separate medical records release form to check to be sure you aren’t bughouse material. There is a fourth form of some sort… All but the Crazy-Paper are in triplicate and you have to press hard with a ballpoint pen. I sat twiddling my thumbs while she did all these. Then a credit card swipe and BOOM! Come back in 8-10 days.

She will most definitely get a small gun safe for it, first thing. She has a supply of foam plugs for hearing. I’m trying to get her to do better than glasses for eye protection. A boresnake and some breakfree for cleaning and that’s about the extent of her purchases. Maybe a padlock to transport the case to and from the range to be in compliance with MD law. The trigger lock it comes with is fine, but a locked case is more convenient, in my mind.

The safe she is eyeing will hold her new purchase, AND a .44 magnum if she gets one of those, later.

She will settle into gun-ownership. She is not TOO comfortable about keeping ammo in the house. She has no problem with buying ammo before a range day, shooting it up, and taking the gun home with nothing left to shoot. This gun isn’t for immediate self-defense, clearly. Not yet. It’s just for fun. If she had a specific concern she might re-consider. And there is no waiting period for ammo, and now she’ll have a gun. So only anticipated emergencies. That’s fine. Baby steps.

Oh, I almost forgot… The XD-40 has an under-rail for a flashlight. So now I have a Christmas Gift idea…