Yeah--this is the guy who should set gun policy

Where does the Huffington Post find these people?

Click goes the hammer under your thumb. A clammy forefinger starts to pull back on the trigger. You suck in a deep breath and...Ka-WHAM! Everything from your belly button to your scalp shudders with the recoil. Organs jostle. Eyelids involuntarily blink. Your brain sloshes around in your skull, convinced an F-16 just broke the sound barrier inches from your face. A dragon's breath of muzzle-flash momentarily blinds you through your goggles. Endorphins flood every capillary in your being. Your nostrils fill with the smell of cordite. You gasp, finally letting the air escape your lungs. Then laughter bubbles up through your throat - giddy, uncontrollable laughter. Your arms slacken. The laughter subsides, replaced by a plummeting jaw, an overwhelming sense of wonder at the sheer power and violence of it all.

Granted, he's apparently talking about firing the .454 Casull (although he calls it the ".454 Magnum"), which is rather a lot of gun for one's first time shooting since a .22 at Scout Camp--but still, if he's that freaked out, I would probably not want to be at the same range he was.

Actually, though, we soon find out that if Beau had his way, I wouldn't need to worry--because there probably wouldn't be any shooting ranges for the public.

Now let me come right off the bat and say that I'm a strong advocate of gun-control. In fact, I'm the NRA's worst nightmare. I don't merely advocate heavy gun regulation; I'm for outright prohibition. I think all handguns and assault weapons should be outlawed, reserved exclusively for the military and police. As for rifles and shotguns, I think they should only be allowed for purposes of hunting and self-protection from wild animals in rural areas. Any argument along the lines of "Guns don't kill, people do," is bogus as far as I'm concerned. People couldn't kill other people with guns if they didn't have guns to begin with. And the 2nd Amendment is an anachronistic relic of a bygone agrarian society that feared Native-Americans and invasion from larger countries - it simply doesn't apply to 21st century America.

Hmm--"the NRA's worst nightmere," Beau? Mighty impressed with yourself, aren't you? My guess is that very few NRA members--probably very few NRA board members--have even heard of you, let alone had any "nightmares" about you. Anyway, I give him points--a few--for being honest enough to come out and admit his agenda of all out bans, rather than trying to hide it behind "common sense gun control" doublespeak.

He drones on and on (the things I read, so you, dear reader, don't have to--you're welcome), but there were a couple "highlights."

With a little time to reflect, I must say that despite the visceral pleasure I enjoyed at the gun range, the experience only strengthened my anti-gun beliefs. The damn things are just way too deadly and powerful...and way too fun. The closest thing I can describe it to is smoking crack, of which I have first-hand knowledge (don't worry - I've been sober for nine years).

I don't think I really even need to comment on that little revelation.

Maybe the funniest part for me came when he talked about having flown back home to Bloomberg's New York City, and getting curious about repeating his L.A. gun range experience (emphasis mine):

It's slightly less rigid outside the city limits, but not by much. I looked up the gun laws in neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut and found them rigid too. If I wanted to repeat my experience in LA closer to home, I'd have to head to Pennsylvania, which has some of the more lax gun laws in the country, even more lax than California.

"Even more lax than California"--funny guy, that Beau Willimon.