L.A. Gun Club

L.A. Gun Club

You have your choice of target

By Sierra Feldner-Shaw

Going to a shooting range, as I discovered last weekend on my first foray to the LA Gun Club downtown, is a lot like going bowling - only sexier, and everyone behind the counter is packing heat.

The atmosphere is surprisingly laid back, with ‘70s soft rock coming over the sound system and groups of friends laughing and high-fiving each other. Instead of funny shoes, you get plastic safety glasses and blue and red protective earmuffs. Instead of a scorecard you get a paper target (you can choose from the child molester, the turbaned terrorist, the homey, or a more PC classic mid-century silhouette). Instead of a weighted ball you pick out a gat and take it to your lane, where you can discharge a semi-automatic weapon repeatedly, indoors, without fear of repercussion.

The L.A. Gun Club, also known as the Los Angeles Indoor Pistol Range, is located inside an imposing structure on an industrial stretch of East 6th Street just off Alameda that you could easily miss if you didn’t know what you were looking for (a neon sign on the side of the building reads “LA G Club”). I went on a Sunday with my friend, Tracy McMillan, memoirist and writer for the NBC television show Chase.

Everyone who comes to the range for the first time receives a lesson in how to handle their piece — how to load the ammunition, hold it properly, where to look when you aim, and basic shooting etiquette (don’t point it at anyone). David Arramos, 31, an ex-military man who’s been working at the gun club for six years, collected our information (including thumb prints) and showed us how it’s done.

“Oh, this is interesting!” Tracy said, as she released the magazine from a Beretta 92FS, the standard issue iron for sheriffs. “I’m on a show about US Marshals!”

“The one on channel four?” David asked, laughing. “Where there’s that lady running with her gun like this?” He demonstrated a limp-wristed way of holding a gun at the hip. “That is ridiculous! You would never hold a gun like that!”

He would know. Automatic weapons are illegal in the state of California without a permit, but you can get almost anything else - from the Kimber .45 (currently being used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan) to the 500 caliber Smith and Wesson, an enormous, ultra-phallic looking gun used for bear hunting and modeled by 50 Cent.

We took the Beretta and a 686 Smith and Wesson - which looks like an old fashioned Bonnie and Clyde gun - to our lanes and set up the targets. Tracy, who had never shot a gun before, immediately started hitting bull’s eyes, while I managed to puncture my target a total of three times, never anywhere near the center. Still, it was thrilling.

Jeff “Electric” Hartline, an electrician, student pilot, and drummer in the rock band Downtown Union, is a regular at the LA Gun Club. “I actually discovered the place when my father passed away about six years ago,” he said. “I hadn’t shot a gun since I was a kid, but that was something we did together. When he passed away I ended up with a few guns and, kind of as a way to remember him, I started going down there and shooting guns. It’s a great place for a date, whether it’s with friends or with someone of the opposite sex. I actually think of it as a kind of focus meditation. It clears my head.”

Eric Kim, who runs the downtown gallery and events space Human Resources, is also a fan. “I've been there maybe five times. Once was a date. It was very awkward and uncomfortable the first time, but always accompanied by anxious excitement.

“You get to understand that guns are definitely designed to kill people, which explains my fascination with them, and probably most other people’s as well,” he said. “Not that I want to kill people, of course. It probably just has to do with being able to engage in a violent act without actually being violent.”

In other words, power. After about an hour we left, exhausted but high. Despite the inherent scariness of handling a gun, the pain in my shoulder from a shooting stance that I could never get right, and the ringing in my ears, I would definitely do it again. Next time I’ll bring a date.

The Los Angeles Indoor Pistol Shooting Range is open Monday through Thursday from 3 PM to 11 PM and Friday through Sunday from 11- 11. Located at 1375 East 6th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021. 213-612-0931. BYO firearms, if you have them, or you can rent guns and buy ammunition there. Happy hunting!

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