[knlje]

I went to the army and spent many days at an outdoor range shooting at targets with an automatic rifle. I was a pretty solid shooter and earned some medals. Yet I fail to see where is the "cool" part. Shooting is just another skill you practice in order to kill.

[gao8a]

Thank you for your opinion and service. I too served and was privileged be trained during relative peace time but also had the liberal budget thanks to the GWOT. Our country doesn’t really give out medals for just shooting, but my competence and appreciation in marksmanship is owed to the wonderful cadre I had teaching me, and their passion in marksmanship in addition to the weapon system.

I’m not going to deny your point on killing. That is one application of firearms, also a powerful one, but I don’t feel that’s a reason to absolutely prohibit them for the common folk. As we’re both on HN I’m sure you also don’t “get” why folks just love some things like I do.

For me it’s the history, appreciation of the engineering, and my now civilian hobbies of hunting and competition shooting. They are one of many things that bring me joy that I would hate to lose in my healthy years.

[ARandomerDude]

Military training will suck the fun out of pretty much anything. I've been on both sides and can honestly say I enjoy shooting a .22 with my kids way more than an automatic weapon in the Army.

And it doesn't have to be about killing. We play shooting like people play darts. Hit the target for fun.

[chrissnell]

This is so true. Non-military friends talk about going to the gun ranges in Vegas where they can shoot M249s for absurd prices. All I can think about when I hear these stories is being on a broiling hot range in Oklahoma in the middle of July and having to go through cases of 5.56 because we sure as heck aren't going to go through the hassle of trying to turn unused ammo back in.

[dymk]

I shot competitive trap for years, and it was pretty cool. Nobody died (except for lots of clay pigeons).

[zepto]

> Shooting is just another skill you practice in order to kill.

True if you are a solider. Not so for most other people.