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I had a kid I know go on and on about how he could hit a target at 1000 yards. I was curious, so I invited him to go shooting. He couldn't hit beer cans at 50 yards. After hearing that my Win 70 was junk, he dropped the comment that it was easier on his game. He had never touched a gun in his life, but felt he was a sniper, and had nothing to learn. I feel video games ruin any chance of becoming proficent with a firearm the same way Qbasic ruined a generation of computer programers.
Sounds less like a videogame problem and more like an arrogant kid problem. Or are we going to start blaming electronic data for people's conduct now?
You run into this "Elitist" attitude all the time, along with "I work in a gun store, and you don't, therefore I know more than you" attitude all the time..
I was lucky enough to have had a Father that was a competitive shooter, he was pretty darn sharp when it came to pistols and revolvers. I went with him to matches and weekly team practice from a very early age.. Some of those old guys took me under their wing because it's true, being polite doesn't cost nutthin, but it payed me in spades.. The guys at the Police range took me under their wing and taught me ALOT... how to shoot, really just building on the basics that Dad taught, and adapting it to their style of shooting, ( I kind of thought the 2600 Bullseye competition a little too stiff and disciplined, where the PPC and IPSIC was more "real world" in my mind )
I spent a lot of time at the range, soaking up knowledge like a sponge. My case was rare, today, even harder to do.. In my day there were no video games, but a lot of TV..
When it finally came the day for me to start applying my knowledge as an instructor, and coach, I found, almost universally, that Women were easier to teach.. Why? I can only offer that they did not spend all their time playing Cowboys and Indians, imitating the Lone Ranger or TV and Movie moves that they had done all their Action adolescent lives in the neighborhood lots.. I spent more time breaking bad habits from that, and poor or improper initial instructions than anything.. Women that had never touched a gun, didn't have any bad habits to break... they came in with no preconceived notions.
Today's youth are at a disadvantage, Bad people portrayed as heroes, every thing in the movies, games, and other electronic media are not properly used, displayed or portrayed, everything as been edited or portrayed with "Artistic License"
Old codgers (such as myself) have little use or time for the tattooed knot head with his pants down around is butt and his cap on sideways, who wants a Glock so he can "buss a cap in" what ever, or these so called movie, internet, and video experts... as described earlier...
With the advent of "box Stores" such as Walmart, Best Buy, Auto Zone, Home Depot, you can't find ANYONE who knows ANYTHING about the products that they are selling.
Example, go into a Big corperate owned lumber yard, with a set of plans, and see if there is anyone there that can read them and put together a material list... not gonna happen... Try a chain auto parts store.. I have gone in WITH THE PART NUMBERS... and they still want to know "What does it fit?"... Try in my hand...
When I went to high school, we had a rifle range on campus, a full machine shop... a full wood shop, with lathes, table and chop saws.... When I was a teenager I was drilling and tapping scope mounts, cutting dovetails and doing trigger jobs on Smiths, squaring bolts.. why, because I learned the basic skills in school... Now, it is illegal to let anyone under the age of 18 run those types of machine tools...
We are dumming ourselves down to the point of helplessness... In the 40's when this country had it's back against the wall, we had the resources and the mindset to build our way out of it.. America went into WWII in the Great Depression, we came out of it the greatest industrial nation the world has ever know...
I forget who stated it but a quote that seems to fit here is... "If you want to defeat a nation, you reduce its ability to make war"... Unfortunately, lately we have built a Society that is more geared towards service (read: "You want fries with that?") rather than the attitude of "Whaddya mean that can't be done? I got a mill and a lathe, I can build anything you want!
This video sniper is a by-product of that.. (I'll get off my soapbox now...)