Nightcrawler
Member
I don't know if this is snobbery so much as sexism. I took my student shooting once, an attractive young woman, to say the least. We were at the range during one of the M1 Garand matches, and all of the old Yooper bucks were there with their Garands and other pieces.
She and I set up at the 50 yard target slot and she shoots her .357 Magnum lever carbine. She's having trouble at first; she was unused to shooting at paper targets and that was longer ranged than much of her previous stuff.
We discovered that she was unable to get a cheek weld with her rifle. Combine that with the terrible spring-loaded trigger and crude sights, and she wasn't doing so well.
In any case, we were minding our own business, and a couple of these old guys come around.
"You don't seem to be hitting the target there, little lady!" accompanied with sarcastic chuckles. A few condescending comments later, and she was STEAMING.
Eventually, they went into the clubhouse to drink beer and we had the place to ourselves, and she cut her teeth on my CZ-97. Needless to say, if people like those "gentlemen" are representative of it's membership, it's no wonder the NRA has trouble recruiting women. And from what some TFLers told me after the incident, she wasn't the only female shooter to run into a little bias or obnoxious chuckles.
I don't ask for PC; in fact, I can't stand it. But there's a lot to be said for treating people with respect. All because she's an attractive blonde doesn't mean she's stupid. (On the contrary, she's a physics major and is easily the smartest person I've ever met. You don't realize it until she starts talking about what she studies, then it hits you..."wow, this stuff is WAY over my head"...)
She and I set up at the 50 yard target slot and she shoots her .357 Magnum lever carbine. She's having trouble at first; she was unused to shooting at paper targets and that was longer ranged than much of her previous stuff.
We discovered that she was unable to get a cheek weld with her rifle. Combine that with the terrible spring-loaded trigger and crude sights, and she wasn't doing so well.
In any case, we were minding our own business, and a couple of these old guys come around.
"You don't seem to be hitting the target there, little lady!" accompanied with sarcastic chuckles. A few condescending comments later, and she was STEAMING.
Eventually, they went into the clubhouse to drink beer and we had the place to ourselves, and she cut her teeth on my CZ-97. Needless to say, if people like those "gentlemen" are representative of it's membership, it's no wonder the NRA has trouble recruiting women. And from what some TFLers told me after the incident, she wasn't the only female shooter to run into a little bias or obnoxious chuckles.
I don't ask for PC; in fact, I can't stand it. But there's a lot to be said for treating people with respect. All because she's an attractive blonde doesn't mean she's stupid. (On the contrary, she's a physics major and is easily the smartest person I've ever met. You don't realize it until she starts talking about what she studies, then it hits you..."wow, this stuff is WAY over my head"...)