I participated as an instructor in a Boy Scout Merit Badge training class.
There were 11 shooters. In spite of approximately 8 hours of training, none of them qualified. Qualification involved shooting 5 consecutive groups of 5 rounds from a bench rest at 50 feet. The groups could be just over an inch center to center.
They failed primarily because none of them had any appreciable shooting experience prior to the class. I mean no experience with BB guns, not with pellet guns, not with .22 rifles, NOTHING!
What makes this even more amazing is that the class took place in what I would call suburban to rural North Texas.
I'm in my middle 30's and when I was the age of these kids, ALL of my friends had BB guns or pellet guns, and some of them had their own rifles and shotguns. By highschool, at least one of my schoolmates had a .357 revolver.
What this means to me is that my generation is not teaching their kids to shoot. Furthermore, it would appear that the traditional means of learning to shoot (airguns) are becoming rare with the advent of zero tolerance and political correctness. That means that what little the kids are being taught about guns is negative.
Remember that THIS was a class of kids whose parents had agreed to let them shoot rifles--not a bunch of kids whose parents were antis.
The more I think about this, the more I think we're seeing the last gasp of gun rights in the U.S. When my generation starts to die off that's the beginning of the end...
How's that for depressing. I've been brooding about it for a few weeks and I thought I would share.
There were 11 shooters. In spite of approximately 8 hours of training, none of them qualified. Qualification involved shooting 5 consecutive groups of 5 rounds from a bench rest at 50 feet. The groups could be just over an inch center to center.
They failed primarily because none of them had any appreciable shooting experience prior to the class. I mean no experience with BB guns, not with pellet guns, not with .22 rifles, NOTHING!
What makes this even more amazing is that the class took place in what I would call suburban to rural North Texas.
I'm in my middle 30's and when I was the age of these kids, ALL of my friends had BB guns or pellet guns, and some of them had their own rifles and shotguns. By highschool, at least one of my schoolmates had a .357 revolver.
What this means to me is that my generation is not teaching their kids to shoot. Furthermore, it would appear that the traditional means of learning to shoot (airguns) are becoming rare with the advent of zero tolerance and political correctness. That means that what little the kids are being taught about guns is negative.
Remember that THIS was a class of kids whose parents had agreed to let them shoot rifles--not a bunch of kids whose parents were antis.
The more I think about this, the more I think we're seeing the last gasp of gun rights in the U.S. When my generation starts to die off that's the beginning of the end...
How's that for depressing. I've been brooding about it for a few weeks and I thought I would share.