My son introduced a peer to shooting this past weekend.

I’ll call the kid “Spence” because, that’s his name. He wanted to shoot trap, actually, at age 19 he mostly wanted the experience of shooting something, anything. He had never fired a gun before. My boy introduced him to me in the driveway, as they were leaving. Clean cut, vibrant, as only a 19 year old can be, kid. Off they went.

They didn’t use doubles, they used my son’s A5 and his Mossberg 500 pump. When they came back, I invited the kid for dinner, new favorite around here is Jamaican jerk meatloaf on the charcoal grille, smoked in applewood. Spence didn’t even let me finish the sentence to answer “I’m in”.They played some video games while the wife and I put dinner together.

At dinner I asked a few questions about his home life. He doesn’t have a father. His mother enlisted a sperm donation to have kids. She is a successful sports coach, has two kids from that method. His family is vegan. He made it perfectly clear to me that he is not. Further, he and my son are even more conservative than me. He told me he harbors an addiction to toxic masculinity and feels a bit deprived that that he has missed out on things like shooting, cars, motorcycles, fishing, hunting, anything, really that he would have participated in with a father or father figure. I didn’t ask if mom dated, or if she was hetero, because, I suspect she isn’t. He did say the lack of distractions probably helped him maintain the 3.7GPA he has going. But, he is ready for more from life. He is very troubled by how liberal everyone at his college is.

He runs track at college, got a bit of scholarship money to do that, and told me the school doesn’t have a trap league, but, his mother had thrown a fit when he wanted to participate in high school.

He is a genuinely good kid.

I watched him drive away from my home, and wondered, honestly, “boy, how did you get here in one piece”?

I did tell him he was welcome back any time, and I’d make time to coach him a little bit at the club if he wanted.

“I’m in”, he said.

Best,
Ted