I’ve never handled an actual firearm.  I found it uncomfortable to even use a BB gun at a target-shooting booth at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition. The closest I’ve ever been to a real gun was when my grandfather retrieved the old wooden box where he keeps a 40+-year-old revolver and showed it to us on the front porch.  I don’t know why he retrieved the box that day, but the show did not involve removing the unloaded gun from it, and I don’t remember even seeing ammunition.  I and my siblings were intrigued, as we weren’t familiar with the design, but the rest of the family seemed to regard the whole spectacle as uncouth and unhealthy and wanted the ancient device returned to hiding as soon as possible.