My report on a different, eye-opening experience in Vegas
 

On my last trip to Vegas, my best friend and I spontaneously decided to go to "The Gun Shop" and shoot guns. We had NEVER fired a gun before. It was just a random Vegas decision.

I recommend it, just once. The whole experience was surreal. After choosing our guns (.22 for me) we selected a target to hang up and fire at, received a (brief) tutorial on loading and firing, and off we went. There were several guys shooting machine guns -- they were really into it. A bit odd.
Aiming a gun is difficult. I now have even more respect for police officers. Shooting the gun was disturbingly easy -- I felt very removed from the whole experience. I can see why people can get used to firing a gun and not connect the act of firing to the damage it does.
I have to admit that the time and the bullets flew by. It was truly a learning experience. After we finished shooting, my friend and I saw a bride, groom, and wedding party pull up outside. Yes, it's true, they came FROM THE CEREMONY to The Gun Shop and the groom was going to shoot a few rounds. My friend got a photo of the bride sitting outside, in FULL bridal regalia, under a big "THE GUN SHOP" sign. Only in Vegas.

I still don't plan to buy or keep a gun. But I feel that firing a gun at The Gun Shop was worth doing. Plus it was a pure Vegas decision, like "let's do something we'd NEVER do at home!" It's good to expand your horizons.

I've done it once, not in Vegas, and I agree: this is an experience you'll remember.

What was the $$$

Wow sounds great Tansy! Where in Vegas is the Gun Shop? We are avid shooters but always at outdoor ranges here in Pennsylvania. We will be Vegas in April and would love to try the machine guns!!!! What a blast that would be.

Lily

You can usually find a place like this in your local area. I would never have a gun in my house, but I've gone to the shooting range two or three times over the last ten years and it's a blast.

The Gun Shop is on Tropicana Avenue, but it's a ways off the strip. The cost was around $20 per person for the gun and about 100 bullets. We found it because there was a coupon in one of those Vegas booklets you get in the cabs -- the coupon was something like "$10 off use of ALL machine guns!" which we found hilarious. That started us on our long, strange journey.
Only negative is that you sometimes have to wait awhile for a cab once you're done. Make sure to have the guys call a cab as soon as you finish firing, it took about 20 minutes for ours to get there.

Can you create and carry in your own picture of what/who you want to shoot at?

Travleis, you gotta start your own business selling pictures of those who people want to shoot at! LOL

They offered standard police targets (each area is worth a certain # of points), and pictures of Saddam, Osama, and other "celebrities."

Thanks so much for the info Tansy! I can't wait to tell my husband. Here in North Central Pennsylvania many of us own guns and know how to use them, but it is a very rural area and we just don't have indoor ranges like you have described.

Lily

Have fun LilyLace!

The Gun Shop experience has given birth to a new tradition for my friend and I . . . we want to do something new and (perhaps) out of character on each annual trip to Vegas. This September we're thinking of doing the racecar driving or riding at the Nascar track.

Now why didn't Brittney Spears think of that when wanted to do something crazy she would never do at home!? Instead the silly girl got married!