Free Holding Their Own: A Story of Survival by Joe Nobody Page A

business has slowed down . Why don’t we take a few of the shooting lanes and make a pistol training area out of them? We can give private lessons as well as provide Concealed Handgun License classes if we get a certified instructor.”
    It was n’t long before Bishop was on his way to firearms school in Dallas, learning to become a state certified handgun instructor. The new offering by Northside brought in customers. Not only did the range do well, but sales in the gun store increased, too. Richard paid Bishop a share of the profits.
    Bishop was working on the range when a number of serious-looking gentlemen showed up to shoot their pistols. Bishop had never seen weapons like theirs and struck up a conversation. It turned out that they were competition shooters and were in town for a match. He heard them call their pistols “speed guns” and decided to watch the matches the next day.
    He drove to a competing range where the matches were being held and was surprised when he had trouble finding a parking spot. He watched several different types of competitions and wanted very badly to join in. This is so cool , he thought.
    He went to work the next day and told Richard abo ut his experience, emphasizing how busy the competing range was. Richard was a big fan of NASCAR and decided that Northside needed its own competitor so the shop could plaster their man with advertising as if he were a racecar. He purchased Bishop a very expensive “speed gun” and told him to “get real good” with it.
    Bishop had always been a good shot as his father taught him the basics early on. As he got older, he could finish his chores on the ranch before it got too hot. Without much else to do, he spent countless afternoons exploring the washes and canyons on the property with his rifle. When school was in, he didn’t have as many chores, so the late afternoons were spent stalking anything that moved in the west Texas mountains.
    Bishop was bored to death at the range and did not often get a chance to sell rifles, so he put all of his energies into practicing with the pistol. He had been hard at it when Richard said, “We have to do something different. You are using up all my profits in ammunition. I want to do this, but we need to figure something out.”
    “How about reloading?”
    So Bishop learned how to reload ammunition and found that it not only saved money, it was therapeutic as well.
     
    With his sore ribs and troubled state of mind, Bishop went to his garage and began reloading a batch of rifle rounds. He was so involved in his task he didn’t hear Terri come home. When she realized he wasn’t in bed, she knew exactly where he was. Terri never understood how someone as smart as Bishop could spend hours pulling a handle on a machine, doing the same thing over and over again. She started to open the garage door and paused when she heard him whistling. She stopped and listened to him for a bit and decided to leave him alone. Oh well , she thought, if it makes him happy .
    Bishop finished reloading and was hurting a bit more than what he would ever admit . He still couldn’t bring himself to go back to the bedroom, so he planted himself on the couch and started watching a documentary on the First Gulf War. Terri fixed a nice meal and brought it into the TV room on a tray. As Bishop reached for the food, Terri snatched the remote control and playfully teased, “You fall for that every time.”
    “Damn ,” was all he could think to say.
    Terri was hooked on a show called Celebrity Dance Hall. The show featured a myriad of celebrities partnering with professional dancers in a contest. Bishop didn’t like the program and would have normally occupied himself elsewhere while Terri watched. He considered the bedroom, but decided watching the show while eating was the lesser of two evils.
    As the first team finished their routine, Bishop could not help himself and heckled the contestants. A little later, he made additional