Now that I'm remembering, when I finally stopped living on UC property, I started to pursue an interest in guns. Mostly pistols (ie handguns) at first. Went to ranges with friends, bought a gun on the day California started a ban on >10 capacity magazines.

Used to go to Lytle Creek, back when this was allowed, and shoot up random objects. Old modems, rotary phones. Shot my first large caliber there, a friend's SKS. (I had shot a .22 rifle I think as a kid, but had been uninterested at the time in shooting my dad's revolver.) I still have two shot up 14" disk platters that I harvested from the Comp Sci Dept's trash once. Once my kid got one of them stuck around his neck, but that's another story.

Anyway, I got into black powder (muzzle loading) firearms. They are truly for Hackers ---very hands on, many variables to play with, because you're loading the powder, ball, percussion cap, etc. Very cool, the boom is larger since the mass of the powder is much more than you'd use for modern smokeless (nitrocellulose / nitroglycerin) powders. In fact, you can make great booms with no bullet at all, just a wad of tissue to hold the powder down.
More than once, when shooting BP, I'd set off some yahoo's oversensitive car alarm. That was quite funny.

Of course you can't shoot BP inside (eg in a range) but the most fun is outdoor shooting. Many ranges don't let you draw, or double-tap, either. And I've heard that now you have to take some course to shoot.

But I think BP is much more amenable to hacking, although of course one should be versed in (and own) modern weapons.