@rowenaz Someone needs to show you how to shoot rubber bands. It’s a life skill you’ll use until you can no longer point a finger. Buy a pack of #16 band for $2.00 and spend a hour while you are watching TV. With a little practice you will be able to get mosquitoes, spiders, flies, from 3 feet away without throwing “books and boots and anything within reach”.
Place the band over your pointing finger and pull back along the finger with your opposite hand. Point at the target and let fly. Don’t use the more inaccurate method of looping over the thumb or pulling perpendicular to the finger.
I have been practicing for many years. It’s one of the more valuable lesson I learned in college. I once shot a Flintstone vitamin off my 4 year old’s head à la William Tell.