A rat snake? sounds.....furry
Ahaha when I read the bit about shooting I was like "what? Eich can shoot? He has a license?! What?!" And then I remembered: "America, aaaaah." ;P
Then again, I would've had a similar reaction if you'd mentioned paintball (it's banned here :/)
Once there was a tiger snake in our garden that I found when I was hanging out the washing, and my dad and our (at the time) French farmhand came speeding over to get rid of it, it disintegrated (splattered into tiny invisible pieces) and the French guy was like "can I have a go?!" And I said "uhhhh not really?" At the same time my dad said "sure kid!" And he nearly shot the neighbors because he didn't think it had that far a range O__O to which we replied "what did you think the telescopic stuff is FOR?" D8 so y'know, if you miss, you REALLY miss, because it just keeps going hahehaghhhh good thing we're in a valley O__O my gosh.
Oh, yeah, they just eat the rats, haha, and it wasn't a proper hand cannon, just a .22 rifle. And I know almost nothing about guns.
Never had any shooting accidents before. I've only been shooting once, when my dad was teaching me how to handle firearms. My buddy at work is about to get his concealed carry license, and he's an officer in our school's gun club. He's got freaking AK-47s and M9s in his apartment.
Still, he's one of the most responsible and level headed people I know, so if anyone's going to have a gun fetish, I'm glad it's him. Also, my mom packs heat. It's kind of weird, but she's a crack shot; she Robin Hoods her targets a lot. Not sure how I feel about that. It's kind of awesome that she can be so badass, but kind of freaky because her personality is sooo not badass.
All that said, I'd love to learn how to shoot at range. It seems like it would be fun to be able to go out and lie down for a while to take a few shots at a far off target. Might even be relaxing.