At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson, as chair of the D.C. Council’s committee on public safety and the judiciary, is the guy pretty much responsible for writing the the city’s new gun laws in the wake of the Heller Supreme Court decision.

And Mendo, it will come to no surprise to anyone, is not much of a gun guy, having, by his own account, fired a weapon only twice in his life. So he decided he needed to, ahem, give it another shot.

Last weekend, Mendelson ventured out to Maryland to visit an outdoor firing range at the invitation of Ricardo Royal, a D.C. native and local firearms safety instructor who had testified at one of Mendelson’s committee hearings on the gun bill earlier this summer. (Read more about Royal.)

Mendelson says he fired 10 rounds from a .22-caliber revolver. His impression? “The gun was too heavy!” he says.

Come on, Mendo. We’re not talking a Dirty Harry .44 here.

In any case, you can see the results above, which LL found yesterday posted on the door of his Wilson Building office. Mendelson said he went shooting in search of “understanding” about guns and gun safety programs—-he completed a brief safety class before shooting.

What struck Mendelson most about his excursion? “There were about 17 people [at the range],” he says, “and 14 of them were women.”

So does Mendelson have plans to purchase a newly legal handgun to protect his Cleveland Park domicile? “Not at the moment,” he says.