SOFIA – After three days at a gun range in the outskirts of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, the weight of an AK-47 Kalashnikov no longer feels foreign in David’s hands.
Sweat trickles beneath the seal of the military-grade respirator cinched across his face as he slams a fresh magazine into the gun. It’s all part of a tactical firearms course featuring exercises to prepare for everything up to chemical and nuclear weapon scenarios.
Only weeks earlier, David*, a British father of two, had been in a bar with a friend, each nursing a pint while discussing the US-Israel war on Iran and Russia’s grinding invasion of Ukraine. Their conversation drifted to an uncomfortable question – what would normal people do if conflict spilled further across Europe?
Shorts
“We both did not know what to do if a situation arises,” he tells The i Paper. “I suggested we get some basic training. I have had tactical medical training, but I would not know what to do with a weapon.”
