There is a HUGE difference between what After Effects (AE) can do and what Premiere is designed for (note, there is Premiere CS 5.5 and Elements, the latter is a low cost alternative to the more pro CS 5.5 version).
For one, Premiere is what one would consider a timeline editor, great for sequencing video clips, adding some effects, audio etc. Really designed for long form editing, example a TV show or movie. When you have hours of footage to work with, timeline editors are the way to go, but to perform precision FX on specific video clips, you need to go with something such as AE (could be pricey for a hobbyist but well worth it), or Motion for the Mac (actually quite affordable). They are designed for short form generation and manipulation of motion video. Not to mention, there are hundreds of AMAZING plugins or free tutorials from sites such as www.videocopilot.net that can help you create whatever you can dream up, and yes, EVEN "gun shooting and action-like things", and when you don't have time to create your own projects from scratch, you can go to site such as www.revostock.com and purchase AE ot Motion project files (templates) to help you get going.
In essence, one should not view Premiere and AE as competing products but rather look at them as complimentary products (long form - timeline focused / short form - effects focused), hence the reason why Adobe offers CS suites bundled with both Premiere (Pro not Elements) and AE.