"Shooting Dad"

What is the significance of the title?


Sarah and her father argued and disagreed a lot with each other because they had many differences, one was that they believed in separate political parties; she never mentioned who was the Democrat and who was the Republican although it was pretty obvious.
Sarah’s father was a gunsmith, with an obsession and passion for firearm. He spent years inventing and building guns. Sarah did not agree nor liked the idea of guns or any kind of firearms for that matter. She had realized that when she was six years old when one day her father had taken both her and her twin sister Amy, who calls herself “the loneliest twin in history”(21), to the backyard to shoot a pistol. Sarah didn’t experience it too well, at least not as well as Amy who was also much more like her father. Since that day, Sarah decided that she did not like guns or any sort of firearms.
One day Sarah’s father finished building a cannon that took him two years. It was considered his most “ambitious project”(22) he’s ever done compared to all the other guns he built. It was a replica of the Big Horn Gun, as Sarah mentioned, which has a whole special meaning and significance to the American history and the family history according to her father when he speaks of her great-grandfather John Vowell. 
Sarah decided she wanted to go out to Montana to watch her father shoot off the cannon. It was strange to him to hear that she wanted to go because she had never taken interest in his work before. As they spent the day out in the mountains, Sarah realized how much she was just like her father despite their differences, she described them both “smart-alecky loners with goofy projects and weird equipments".(439) 
Her father had an idea of what he wanted done to his ashes after he dies. Sarah had volunteered to be the one to do it. The Idea was to burn his ashes, pack it into paper bags, go to the mountains on opening day of the hunting season together with the family along dragging the cannon, plunge his bags of ashes into the barrel, point into the hills and shoot his remains so he could take his last hunting trip. 


Sarah Vowell wrote this unique story about her childhood. As I read the story, I found it very intriguing and eager to find out why Sarah had titled her story “Shooting Dad”. At first I thought it could be that Sarah and her father argued so much because of their differences, and waiting to see if she may have shot her father, but the end totally made sense as to why she had given its title. Because of the title, it held my attention as I read the story, waiting to see if her father was going to be shot. It simply was about her father wanting his ashes shot out of the cannon when he dies. It shows how much he had loved firearms. Guns was basically his life. Especially to want his remains spread into the hills to make him feel like he is hunting for the last time. It's funny because my husband has told me to do exactly just that if he should pass. He loves outdoor sports, especially hunting because of the adrenaline feeling when he shoots his shotgun.