Just me, my gun and my mission

Flora Kupsch, one of the world's best shooters, gave me some simple advice before I donned ear guards and safety glasses and entered the firing range.

"Just relax and have fun," said Kupsch, the Canadian female champion in cowboy action shooting and the fifth- best woman in the world.

Relax? Oh, sure. I had a full body tremble going as I opened the door to the range. Despite the ear guards, the loud, sharp crack of gunfire freaked me out.

Every time someone fired a gun, I jumped. Combined with my uncontrollable body shiver, I was quite the sight.

Ontario recreational shooter Aaron Burns, in Edmonton last week, read my recent column acknowledging the ineffectiveness of the federal gun registry and invited me to join him at the Wild West Shooting Centre at West Edmonton Mall.

Can you convince someone who's terrified of guns that wrapping your hands around cold steel and blasting away with a .22-calibre Ruger, a semi-automatic pistol and a .38 special is fun? Even thrilling?

Well, yes, but first my patient instructor Ian Smith, the centre's range officer, had to get me to stop shaking.

It's one thing to warn a virgin shooter to always point the muzzle in a safe direction and always assume the gun is loaded.

But what if you're so nervous you're afraid of dropping it?

Smith calmed me down by showing me the mechanics - how to hold and load the guns, the correct posture and how to use the sights.

I couldn't help noticing, however, that he was missing the end of one finger. Oh, God, I thought. He shot his finger off!

Not really. "Industrial accident," explained Smith, a cabinetmaker.

Reassured, I focused on the task at hand. Within minutes, I no longer jumped when other shooters fired their weapons.

I thought about Kupsch, 98 pounds and five-foot-nothing, who grew up fearful of guns amid the free-for-all gun mania in the Philippines.

When her brothers fought with neighbourhood street toughs, she'd hide her siblings' guns in the tall grass outside the family home. When she emigrated to Canada two decades ago, she never wanted to see a gun again.

Then, in 1997, she met her husband, Ken, who owns the Wild West Shooting Centre. She got bored accompanying him to competitions and decided to take a shooting course.

"I didn't think I would like it. I was afraid," says Kupsch, 44. "By the end of the day, I was into it."

Shortly after, she began competing in cowboy action shooting, a timed sport where competitors use firearms typical of those used in the "Old West" to shoot steel targets from mock 19th-century stages.

Contestants also wear old western-style costumes and use aliases. Kupsch, who has consistently won or placed in regional, national and world matches, is known as Kanada Girl.

Well, after two hours, I was "into it," too. Much to my surprise, my emotional response to being around guns shifted quickly from fear to the visceral thrill of hitting the target.

In the seconds before I fired, everyone around me seemed to disappear. It was just me, my gun and my mission: don't embarrass myself.

From the results, it looks like I put in a decent performance. By the end of the evening, my shots were all grouped together, tearing up the target.

"Next Christmas, forget about jewelry," said Smith. "Ask for a .38 special."