The Jakarta Post

Fun with Guns

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 03/28/2008 1:35 PM

What better way to let off steam than with some target practice? Andrew Whitmarsh gives it his best shot.

I hold the heavy pistol between my tightly gripped hands and draw a bead. I flip the safety off and slide my trigger finger into position. My hands tremble slightly as I close one eye, zero in, take a deep breath and squeeze. The gun kicks, casing flies, a puff of smoke floats from the barrel and 10 meters away the earth explodes just behind my intended target.
“Jimmy’s down,” my assistant says solemnly. I casually flick the safety on, stride up to the target and examine the hole. Jimmy wasn’t dead but he was certainly injured.

Welcome to the Club
Aries Shooting Club is a place where you aren’t actually allowed to kill anything but you can certainly pretend. Conveniently located in Central Jakarta, you can swing in on your commute home, rent a gun, buy some bullets and unleash any pent up frustrations you may have.

Frequented by a solid mixture of military personnel and members of the public, both men and women, it’s not out of the question that you’ll run into your next-door neighbors here, each with their own Colt .45, blasting away gleefully at human-shaped targets while the kids are attended to by the nanny.

As might be imagined there are some serious weekend warriors who take this stuff quite seriously. Watch out for some of the club’s long-time members who go by nicknames like Guided Missile, Bolt, Loco, Falcon, Grizzly, Elephant, Magnum and Puma. These guys take part in competitions like Rapid Fire Pistol, Air Rifle Hunting, Center Fire Pistol and Free Rifle Prone. Names of national champions are proudly displayed along with Asian and world-record holders.

Playing Cops and Robbers
There is a pleasant outdoor arena with chirping birds, shade trees and benches -- great for hanging out on a Saturday afternoon and perfecting sharp-shooting skills. This is where I run into Eddy Susilo, a policeman and regular at the shooting range. He is there with a few other police buddies getting in a bit of target practice before an afternoon meeting. He waves me over and quickly offers to let me fire off a few rounds.

“Have you ever shot a gun?”

“Not since I was nine years old,” I reply.

“No problem,” he says with a smile.

In principle, I am a staunch anti-gun advocate, but it only takes minutes for me to become Dirty Harry blowing away the bad guys. There is certainly something empowering about holding a two-pound, locked and loaded handgun and blasting away with impunity. My new law enforcement friends seem pleased at my accuracy, and like drinking buddies in a bar, continued to refill my clip with more bullets to fire off.

Eddy takes the gun back, leads it and in a blur of motion fires off 12 bullets in 12 seconds – knocking down metal plates, shredding paper targets and dropping metal human silhouettes. He grins and explains he is preparing for a world shooting competition that will be held in Bali in October.

Dressed to Kill
Moving back indoors, one can visit the gear shop for holsters, belts, Vietnam Vet shirts, face masks, combat boots and more. Once you look the part you’ve got to get your cannon. Across the way is the gun shop where you can choose your hardware. Now that you look like a mercenary and have a weapon to prove it, you need to decide whether you want to practice in the 10, 25 or, for those eagle-eyes out there, 50-meter range. You can either shoot at a standard square target with a bulls-eye or aim at little metal goats, rabbits, pigs, squirrels, quails or chickens.

Newspaper clippings on an announcement board show off hunting trips the Aries Club leads into the jungle. Displayed are giant wild pigs, shot by men and women with big smiles and even bigger guns. Oversized Jeeps, camouflage, bullets and blood are the makings here of a good weekend. Also announced is the occasional shooting competition.

At one point my attention is drawn to a group of sharpshooters who had paused to reload and had sent a young boy onto the range to reset targets. With him only five meters out a shot rang out from one of the marksmen.

The boy jumped in surprise and shot the group a dirty look. He continued to walk and another shot rang out. The shooting club has advertised on the walls “running targets” as one of their competitions – but who knew they meant adolescent boys?

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Taking up Arms
If you too want a cool nickname and are looking to unleash your inner Rambo, call Linda at 081310005991 or visit Aries Club on Jl. Gelora Bung Karno, right next to Hotel Mulia. It is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you are already a proud gun owner the price averages Rp 44,000 for two hours, excluding gear rentals. Renting a .38 with 50 bullets will run you Rp 500,000. Train-to-kill private instruction courses are available.

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