Texas native Lauren Harrison is no stranger to guns. (Joe Kohen for The New York Post)
In strappy sandals and a flouncy blue dress, the pretty Demetria Chappo couldn’t look more out of place with a rifle in her hand. As she aligns her arms, positions her head and straightens her back, she goes through a mental checklist to ensure her body is in proper position.
Then she takes a deep breath and pulls the trigger.
A second later — smack! — her bullet hits the bull’s-eye.
“It disturbs me to say it, but it felt pretty natural and organic,” says the 33-year-old Boerum Hill resident, who is a marketing consultant, ceramic artist, longtime yoga enthusiast and now, amateur markswoman. “It’s similar to yoga in a lot of ways. You have to be grounded and targeted — for lack of a better word — which is the same way I feel when I’m working on a yoga pose.”
Chappo says she came to the Westside Pistol & Rifle Range in Chelsea with a girlfriend to let off some steam. “I’ve been going through a lot of changes recently, and I remembered that I really liked archery when I was a Girl Scout,” she says. “When I got an e-mail about this event, I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”
Twenty-one rifle-totin’ mamas showed up for last week’s event, which took place at the very same range where Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle maniacally fired his guns in “Taxi Driver.” The soiree was organized by Urban Girl Squad, a social networking group that offers New York women a shot at adventurous activities like pole dancing and horseback riding.
The Rifle Range event, which blasted off three years ago, is now one of its buzziest activities, says Urban Girl Squad founder and CEO Amanda Hofman.
She says the class fills up faster than a speeding bullet; there was a waiting list 30 deep for last week’s blowout.
The next session, in November, has already started getting requests from a slew of wannabe Annie Oakleys.
“[Girls] may have always wanted to shoot a gun, but they wouldn’t necessarily do it on their own,” Hofman says.
“With us, they know they will be with a bunch of women just like them, and that it won’t be all sketchy and weird.”
That’s right. Girls’ night out is now more gunslinging than cocktail-sipping.
Lauren Harrison came to the range sporting an elegant tweed jacket and practical heels, which did not impede her aim as she pumped bullets into a target like a pro.
“I’m from Texas, and I did it as a kid,” says Harrison, a 30-year-old attorney. “This was not my first time at the rodeo.”
Her friend, Lisa Rines, a 30-year-old therapist, says that shooting a gun was on her “bucket list” — which she promptly crossed off by hitting 10
bull’s-eyes.
“It felt great,” she says, cheeks flushed and smelling of gun smoke.
“I was a little nervous about it, but when I was firing, I felt really powerful and strong.”
Darren Leung, the owner of the range, says he’s noticed a jump in the number of women walking through his door in the past few years.
“They want something more interesting to do than the standard weekend stuff,” he says.
Plus, he says, “I think more and more women feel like they should be responsible for their own safety.”
And in his expert opinion, as first-timers, women are better shots than most men.
“Every man used to play cowboys and Indians or soldiers or whatever when they were kids, so they assume that they know how to use a gun, whereas women will ask what to do before firing,” he says.
“They’re more patient. There’s just a maturity level there.”
Meredith Robbins, 28, a teacher from the Upper West Side, says she wanted to learn to fire a gun after being the victim of an assault last year.
“It was sort of a Take Back the Night thing for me,” she says happily.
Before they get to pull the triggers on Ruger 10/22 rifles, the women receive a brief training session from a kindly instructor named John, who warns them that they would be perfectly safe if they followed his directions — but that he wouldn’t be responsible for anyone breaking a nail loading the chamber.
During the giggle-filled lesson, John explains the basics using a wide array of references — “Use your right hand to hold the gun, put the butt of the rifle on the curve of your shoulder — and bend the left elbow, just like Cleopatra walking down the Nile,” he says.
“Pull the trigger, and the bullets will just keep coming out,” he says, explaining that the rifles are semiautomatic.
“It’s like ‘Rambo,’ where bullets fly until the movie ends. Same thing here.”
Nijaah Howard, a social worker from Queens who wore shiny silver rings, signed up for the shooting session as a present to herself. The following day was her 33rd birthday.
“I’ve been wanting to do this since I was in my 20s,” she says.
“I’ve just always wanted to experience what it felt like to hold a gun. It gives you so much power and so much strength. When you’re standing there, holding the gun, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I am in total control here.’ ”
With 10 bullets, Howard hit seven bull’s-eyes, no sweat. Then she put the gun down, turned around and started dancing and jumping with glee while the others girls cheered.
“I got so hyped, I just started dancing,” she says. “I didn’t care who was watching!”