[r/TIFU] TIFU by instinctively shooting a truck

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Obligatory not today but around three years ago.

I am a professional shooter and have been since I was old enough to hold a gun. On average I have trained somewhere between 4-10 hours a week for the last three decades. I’ve been to Olympics qualifiers four times and have competed in the actual games once.

As you can tell, I love shooting, but I love it as a sport. Without getting too political, I don’t think every Joe (or Jane) Shmo should have a firearm. I especially feel this way as a new father who will be sending my child to school in a few years. However, three years ago I moved to a more dangerous part of the city, and after I was brutally mugged and beaten I reluctantly decided to get a concealed carry for protection purposes.

Around the same time as when I started “packing heat,” I qualified for a tournament which was extremely competitive. I really wanted to win this one so I was putting in a lot of time at the range, on one occasion hitting ten hours in a single day.

One evening I was waiting for my wife to pick me up after a long day of training. I was very tired and hungry and sort of delirious. As I was standing there, a Target truck pulled up in front of me with its hazards on. I had shot so many targets that week, as soon as my eyes caught sight of one my brain told my body to shoot for bullseye. So without thinking, I whipped out my concealed carry and shot the image of the Target dog right in the eye.

Thankfully no one was hurt. Unfortunately, though, I had hit a barrel of photo development chemicals which ruined a lot of freight on the truck. Obviously, I was arrested. Long story short, I pled guilty and served some time. As I should have.

I still feel incredibly stupid for the whole thing. I’m just thankful to now be free and to have been given a second chance.

TL;DR I’m a trained shooter who saw the target dog on a truck after a week of intense training and shot it