i attended the phoenix pink pistols saturday shoot today, and i wore my smith & wesson “yeah, i shoot like a girl” tank top. the range was pretty busy, though there were only 5 of us there. i tried out my .38 jacketed hollow points which performed flawlessly. made by hornady, i expected nothing less, especially considering what i paid for them (more than twice the price of standard .38 ammo). i’ll say that hornady ammo has lived up to its high end reputation.

 

(the bullet on the left is the hornady .38 jacketed hollow point)

 

i also found out that one of the other women, who i’ve known for several months now and have shot with several times, is trans.

i had no clue.

we all met at copper star coffee after the shoot and were sipping coffee talking about this and that, and she mentions that she’s going in for surgery, probably by the end of the year. thinking that she had some kind of ailment, or perhaps she was going in for a hysterectomy or something, i gently probed for a little more information. she looked at me and said, “you know, *the* surgery”. i had a blank look on my face, as i had no idea to what she might be referring. i started thinking that maybe there was some kind of girl thing about which i hadn’t yet received the memo. then she said “srs”.

at first i thought she might be making fun of me.

but no, it turned out she’s trans, and pre op. i remember thinking to myself “but i thought you were a real girl!”. and i caught myself and realized how bad i was for my poor use of language, even in my own head. i also caught myself shifting my perception, and had to remind myself that this bit of news really changes nothing, other than finding myself offering to help with her recovery, since i’ve been through it myself.

just…wow.

oh, and here’s a pic from the handgun basics class a few weeks ago of me trying on an AK-47 for size. they’re ugly rifles, aren’t they.