The Gun He Used To Kill

Read Lee Hancock: I felt jittery and ridiculous lifting my hands toward the hulking silhouette. I told myself to squeeze. I stared at the paper target 20 feet away.

I jerked my index finger and jumped at an explosive flash and bang that sounded like a high-powered rifle. Yet my hands absorbed only a bump, and the barrel of the FN Five-seven barely bounced before leveling on the target. Soon, 20 holes riddled the paper man's chest. I felt a frisson of adrenalin-jacked amazement as I ejected the empty magazine, slapped in another and leveled the gun at the paper man's head.

After months of covering the Fort Hood massacre, I felt a compulsion to shoot a semi-automatic pistol like the one used…