joe yang
30th October 2001, 23:38
We finished a two day "training session" in firearms today, for a rookie class of Corrections Officers. SCARY. I long ago decided that we aren't training anyone to shoot. We are just weeding out the shooters from the non-shooters. The problem is, with each passing year, fewer and fewer people come to us knowing how to shoot.
I learned the traditional, rural American way. I grew up around firearms, hunting and an extended family that re-enforced all the traditional safety rules. That way of life is gone. My kids never knew it. As they grew, I tried to distill a lifetime of experience for them. They can shoot and handle guns. But it isn't the same. Grand Dad, the cousins, uncles, great uncles are gone.
It seems like the kids who need to know how to use guns today, our future cops, etc., are clueless. They are getting firearms light. A lot of practical tradition and common sense are getting lost to the KISS principle so favored by administrative bean counters. Techniques I take for granted are anathema today.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but "legitimate" handgun training is starting to look more and more like bad budo to me.
I learned the traditional, rural American way. I grew up around firearms, hunting and an extended family that re-enforced all the traditional safety rules. That way of life is gone. My kids never knew it. As they grew, I tried to distill a lifetime of experience for them. They can shoot and handle guns. But it isn't the same. Grand Dad, the cousins, uncles, great uncles are gone.
It seems like the kids who need to know how to use guns today, our future cops, etc., are clueless. They are getting firearms light. A lot of practical tradition and common sense are getting lost to the KISS principle so favored by administrative bean counters. Techniques I take for granted are anathema today.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but "legitimate" handgun training is starting to look more and more like bad budo to me.