Day Four – Friday 18th
April
Gun Store
and Red Rock
(Me holding a target at the Gun
Store)
The world
famous Gun Store was certainly a fascinating and extremely American place. Only
in America could you go to a shooting range and get to pick between firing
every gun imaginable, if you are willing to fork out the cash of course, from
the smallest of pistols through to the most brutal of machine guns. I opted for
a SCAR semi-automatic assault rifle, and as you can see above, chose the
hostage situation target which feature the faces of real people, instead of the
plain target or one featuring zombies. Now looking back at it the idea of
shooting at the faces of real people should be extremely disturbing, but
perhaps because of first-person shooter games I have become desensitised to violence
as has American society clearly if it’s socially acceptable for gun ranges to
sell targets featuring real faces.
The Gun Store like the rest of Las
Vegas is selling fantasies, in the form of the targets allowing punters to
imagine they are in say a zombie apocalypse fight off waves of the undead, or
in my case a U.S. Marine rescuing people from a hostage situation – even if my
shooting needs a bit of work. Without actually having to be in the dangerous
settings that go with these fantasies, as well as the dangers of the guns
themselves, since the instructors are there to make sure you don’t injure
yourself and are themselves armed to keep people from trying to actually use
the guns in a deadly manner. While it presents itself as giving you the freedom
to go down and shoot whatever weapon you want, it is a very controlled
environment.
Similarly the Calico Tank trail in
the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which is under the authority of
the Bureau of Land Managed, was a very controlled environment, because while it
suggested a sense of freedom by exploring the outdoors, it is a man-made trail,
constructed for the purpose of public used, one which is managed and maintained
by the BLM.
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