Saturday, October 13, 2007

The Next Step in Match Production?

Two of the five clubs in the Columbia Cascade Section (CCS - NW Oregon) have established the practice that permitted IPSC match competitors to pay and extra two dollars and NOT have to break down stages and haul the props back to storage after matches.

This isn't presented as an 'option'. Everybody pays their regular $15 match fee plus an extra $2 'clean-up fee' (I made that up), and NOBODY has to lift a finger after they've completed a match. You can sit around and shoot the breeze, wait for the scores to be posted, pick up your ribbon for Third Super Senior (my most common recognition), and then you're off the the pizza parlor to share gossip and match stories.

At the Albany Rifle & Pistol Club (ARPC), the pickup is usually done by the Junior Team. They get to add to their own fund which pays for ammunition, equipment and trips by putting in a half-hour of work each, one day a month.

At the Dundee club, the pickup is done by the club members, who are rewarded for the setup (most of which they do themselves, often the day before the match) and for their time.

I think both of these results are absolutely wonderful. This aging Geek can get through most matches without running out of energy, but humping Pepper Poppers back to the storage trailer takes it out of me quite quickly. Also, of course, the fact that I am inherently clumsy has caused a number of minor injuries ... smashed fingers from steel plates, bruised from tripping over gravity turner stands in the close (and dark) confines of the trailers, etc. I'm old, I'm fat, I'm soft. I never liked shooting one day, then aching for two more days.

The match set-up is another story.

At most club matches in these parts, there's an 'incentive plan'. The 9am match is preceded by the 7am setup crew. Usually these are competitors (not always club members) who show up two hours early for the match and do the work of reading the stage setup notes, then hump steel targets, stands, sticks and targets plus a bunch of vision barriers and props out to the stages and set them up. It's a period of frenetic activity, and the usual reward is that the workers are allowed to shoot for a greatly reduced match fee. For example, paying $5 instead of $15 to shot the match.

The Next Step:
Friday of this week, I (along with a number of CCS competitors) received an email from Mike (Mac) McCarter, Executive Director of ARPC:

Albany Rifle and Pistol Club is taking the next step in match production. We now hire the major part of stage setup and the match is already set to go for tomorrow. If you planned on helping setup, please sleep in a little later (KC McDonald) then come shoot the match. I do not want to hear a word about not starting at 9am.
Since I'm still recovering from the flu, I didn't shoot this match. I have no idea how well the plan worked out, but I'm impressed that Mac has once again taken the lead in match production by initiating one more incentive for people to complete at the range which has benefited so much by his contribution.

(I have to admit to my disappointment that Mac didn't win the USPSA Presidential Election; he is so full of new ideas for a local club and section, there is no telling how much USPSA could have benefited from his vision.)

Oh, a bit of explanation is in order for the reference to "KC McDonald".

The McDonald Family is becoming legend in CCS. Father Mark, elder son Chad and younger son KC have been huge contributors of labor at ARPC. They invariably show up for the 7am setup, except that younger son KC has as much reluctance to getting up early as do I. KC takes a lot of ribbing about this, and accepts it with a grin and little comment. They've even convinced Mark's wife, Jan, to start shooting -- which adds a certain amount of elegance to any match.

We really like the McDonalds, who volunteer their efforts not because they need to save money on the match fees but because they think it's the right thing to do.

That's the same spirit Mac demonstrates; month after month, year after year. This club's IPSC program was in trouble for a lot of reasons before Mac accepted the responsibility of spearheading the program. In the years since, ARPC has become one of the premier ranges in the country for IPSC matches. I've talked before about the range improvements which have been effected at ARPC under Mac's guidance: bays have been graveled (instead of becoming slipper mud-pits, they are all-weather surfaces); concrete pads poured and 3-sided steel buildings erected in the squad area of 7 bays. New, large bays have been added to make this a range which is able to provide a 13-stage major match venue.

Tens of thousands of dollars for improvements ... literally ... made available through IPSC match fees, have puffed up the financial coffers of this club and attracted even more match fees from major matches.

This is the role model of business plans for a shooting range, and I still marvel that nobody has contacted Mike McCarter to help them build up their local range in an attempt to emulate this success.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

The Truth Laid Bear

Someone mentioned last month that I was GunBlog #84 at The Truth Laid Bear.
(A "Links only" ... no original content ... wbsite.)

I found that mildly interesting, and ignored it.

Later, I formed the practice of revisiting the TLB specifically to check my unofficial rating, and noticed that nothing changed, no matter how much activity I actually had on this website.

Eventually I investigated the basis on which these ratings were formed, and I discovered two factors of which I was not formerly cognizant:

  1. At least four of the Gunblog websites which were rated higher than Cogito Ergo Geek had not posted new material in over a month!
  2. The ratings were based on "SITEMETER" ratings, and whatever the criteria for being included in the list, the ratings were not updated unless you were subscribed to the SITEMETER service.
Because I didn't subscribe to the SITEMETER service, I found it curious that I was rated at all, and even more curious that there were Gunblog websites with even lower ratings!

There must be factors of which I unaware, which affect these ratings.


Since the 'Basic' SITEMETER service was available as a free subscription, I subscribed four days ago.

The first day my 'metrics' rating jumped from 0% to 4000%.
The second day it dropped to 2000%.
The third day it dropped again, to 1200%. And today, it sits at 1100%.

(My "Inbound Links Score" remains unavailable, due to an undefined "Error in loading data". I suspect that it's because nobody has linked to any of my posts in the past four days, but I'm not certain.)

The ratings are based on the number of links from OTHER bloggers, plus the number of posts per day, plus the number of links to posts receiving traffic. I think. Okay, I don't really know the algorithm, but that covers all of the factors. My current rating is based on links + traffic over the past 30 days, and until 4 days ago SITEMETER hadn't recorded any posts. Which is to say ... these ratings are bogus and will remain so for the next 30 days (less the 4 days I have been subscribed to the SITEMETER service.)

I realize that this sounds like a vanity blog at this time, but there is a point to be made here:

Statistics mean very little, except in the broadest terms. For example, there are many gunblogs which are written by much more skilled, and more interesting authors; they are at the top of the list, and they have more readers in a day than I have in a month. Or sometimes in a year! And that's an accurate relative evaluation.

I'll keep my SITEMETER subscription, if only to see what happens at the Traction Control ratings sidebar as my traffic statistics are continually updated.

But when YOU read statistics (about ... for example ... gun control and the effects of new gun control laws on crime), I hope you remember that 'statistics' are just numbers. Due to many factors, including data-gathering techniques, they may be not only misleading but actually wrong in the sense that they actually portray complex socio-political situations.

The people who provide this data won't tell you about the details of either the data gathering or the evaluation of significant events. But you can never be far wrong if you assume that the statistics are like politicians' promises.

NOTE: I don't mean to criticize the statistical evaluation offered at Truth Laid Bear. This is a 'just for fun' unofficial poll, and nobody is going to take it very seriously. I understand that TLB is only offering access to some random statistics and there is no effort to enforce rigid adherence to data-collection paradigms. I appreciate that TLB has included me in the poll, and I hope that I remain in the database.

I only mention this to prove a point without assigning nefarious intentions: in this world, there are three things we need to remember, and that when we evaluate even the most benign evaluation of date, there are three and only three categories EVER presented.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

More Election Results: Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth".


"I am Al Gore, I use to be the next president of the United States of America ..."



(The movie also received two Oscars, along with 20 other wins and four nominations.)

As Abraham Lincoln was famously quoted:

You can fool all of the people some of the time,
And you can fool some of the people all of the time,
But you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
There's something about this situation which is covered in the Lincoln statement.
If you love your planet...
If you love your children ...
You have to see this film!

The United Kingdom (The Brits ... "there you go again!") recently attempted to establish a mandatory showing of "An Inconvenient Truth" to students (as often as four times!) all through the commonwealth. Well, what's left of it. (In fact, this mandatory showing has also been imposed on some American Students.)

Unfortunately, some of the colonies aren't buying this.

IT WILL SHAKE YOU TO YOUR CORE!


"It's Clobbering Time!"

"This is really not a political issue, so much as a moral issue"
That attempt has been clobbered by a recent report from New Zealand, presenting 11 'inconvenient' actual untruths (see the link for details) which "strongly suggest" that the so-called documentary is politically biased, not evidence which can be supported by science. Specifically:
"... a High Court ruling in Britain has just found that the film is unfit for schools."
"The scientific consensus is that we are causing Global Warming."

For Gore, the timing (the report was released October 7, 2007 ... probably after the final voting was completed) sucks was very close to interfering with his award.

There are rumors that the director of the NZ "think tank" has asked that Gore's Academy Award be rescinded. This probably isn't going to happen, nor is his Nobel Prize likely to be rescinded.

NOTHING IS SCARRIER!

A list of all Nobel Peace Prize recipients also strongly suggests that this award, in recent years, has had little or nothing to do with the original intent of the prize, which was to be awarded to:
"the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

I'm not sure what a fraudulent documentary has to do with these criteria.

Are you?

BY FAR, THE MOST TERRIFYING FILM YOU WILL EVER SEE!


UPDATE: Monday, October 15, 2007
I'm not the only one who wonders "What has Al Gore done for World Peace?"

The former US Vice-President has already taken over from Michael Moore as the most sanctimonious lardbutt Yank on the planet. Can you imagine what he'll be like now that the Norwegian Nobel committee has given him the prize?
...
But there is a more fundamental objection to awarding Gore the peace prize that goes beyond issues of character. Climate change is a threat to the environment, not to "peace" and international order. The prize has gone to some sleazy recipients in the past, but at least you can make a case that their actions staved off bloodshed.


There's more, much more. Whatever you do, read the comments!

But as Whitefish likes to say: "That's nothing!"

You can't miss the take of the inimitable Mark Steyn on "Doom if Saint Al Loses Carbs"

STI Support - Always There, Never Surpassed

A couple of days ago I was whining about small-parts replacement for my STI pistol. Specifically, screws for the mount for a C-More scope constitute a technical problem which I find daunting.

I've received a lot of good advice on the subject, but yesterday (to my surprise) I received an unsolicited response from a representative of STI.

Jerry

I happen to see your blog and noticed that you need a few scope mount screws. Email your mailing address I will get some out to you. They happen to be SCREW 5-40X1/2 FLAT HD SOCKET. You will need to trim to correct length.

Sincerely

Jay

Jay Dunlap

STI International Inc.

114 Halmar Cove

Georgetown, TX 78628

Tele 512.819.0656

Fax 512.819.0465

jay@stiguns.com

www.stiguns.com



I never intended to bother the firearm manufacturer with my petty little problems. After all, they did THEIR job, and if I need replacement parts due to normal wear and tear it's not their problem. As I said before, scope-mount screws are just one of the many consumable parts which are common to every firearm.

They did their job, and I have no complaints about the quality of the firearm or the workmanship involved in creating the gun.

I'm not stupid. If STI wants to spend $4 on postage for a $0.25 part, I'll darn sure let them. But I don't need to build up a reserve, I only want a single screw that I can take to my local Ace Hardware Man to find a replacement.

As far as I'm concerned, Customer Support is one of the primary reasons why we should shop intelligently when purchasing any product. To find this level of support -- where the manufacturer's representative goes out of his way to provide 'warranty' support (even especially when there is obviously no warranty question involved) -- this tells me that STI integrity matches the famous "Dillon No BS Warranty".

No, I won't take advantage of STI's support beyond accepting ONE scope-mount screw, and I hope to find some way to repay them even though no payment plan was expressed or implied.

But you can be darned certain that STI has my business in the future.

What other gun company would offer this level of support?

Bob the Nailer: "Time To Cut!"

Bob Lee Swagger 'goes all Samurai'.

Stephen Hunter's latest "Bob the Nailer" (henceforth "BTN") book "The 47th Samurai" goes way beyond any previous BTN books, and while he does a masterful job of combining the legends of Bob Lee and his CMOH-winning father Earl, it's significant that Bob's legendary firearms handling skills are decidedly NOT part of the story-line. (Earl, though, is full-metal rampant with his beloved Thompson Machine Gun ... until it literally bites the dust.)

If it's not too cheesy to say, this new novel is on the Cutting Edge of BTN and it's all Swords, all the time.

As did Bob Lee, you get to learn a lot of Japanese during the course of the book, and one semi-important part is the difference between the Katana (long sword), Wakizashsi (short sword), and Tanto (knife). This reminds me of E.R. Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" books, where learning the culture is part of the exercises provided for the student.

Many of the passages are not for the faint-of-heart, including graphic descriptions of the injuries inflicted upon the human body by a sword, be it short or long. By the end of the book you will, should you choose to read it, know more than you ever asked about the successful Hidari Yokogiri "crosswind" cut, a horizontal left-to-right sword cut at the level of the belly, which leaves the recipient contemplating his bowels and blood covering his feet.

A mean feat, that. Especially when you, as was Bob Lee, are faced with six (6) opponents.

The consequences, we are assured, include the following dialogue:

oops, oof! omigosh! ulp!

(I swear I am not making this up. See Page 261)

Never fear, we're talking Bob the Nailer here and Bob has a brand new bag. (It's a red bag, containing a 400-year old sword which was used by the original 47 Ronin.)

Involved is a conspiracy to corner the Japanese Porn Industry, and I must admit that some of the passages here are a little too edgy for my personal taste.


I was a little disappointed in this, the latest (and probably the last) of the BTN novels. After all, he's 60 years old and this story takes place in 'the present'. One of the more charming characteristics of past BTN stories is that they all take place in 'the past', which somehow achieves a sort of finer quality of life. The villains then are bad, admittedly, but they're only Evil.

They're not sick.

Today's villains rely heavily on the "F-Bomb" and assorted sexual aberrations to achieve the requisite level of bad-ness. I suppose it's legitimate artistic license, but I miss the good old days when villains merely threatened to "enjoy your lady before I blow her head off" (Time To Hunt). Todays villains are much more despicable, which may be A Good Thing artistically although it exceeds my own personal despicability-acceptability index. But that's just me.

The hallmark of BTN novels is that at the end, Bob Lee (and Earl before him) always has an "Ace In The Hole" gimmick which allows The Defeat of The Villain at the end of the book. Here, we were down to the last dozen pages before the Epilogue and began to despair the lack of the signature passage. Oh me of little faith, Hunter comes through with a gimmick which exceeds all others, so rest assured that BTN prevails at the end.

I trust that I'm not upsetting any future reader by revealing that BTN wins the climactic battle?

My Recommendation:

Well, it's not the best of the BTN novels, but even the least wonderful is better than, say anything ever written by Richard North Patterson.

No, that's damning by faint praise, and Hunter doesn't deserve that.

How about: It's better than The Second Saladin and Tapestry of Spies, combined?

Wait, I've got it.

It's better than Havana!

Yeah, that's it.

Go ahead and buy it. I did. It's worth the Amazon dot com (or Costco) price of admission, and it will keep you enthralled for five hours, including potty breaks.

NB: When I read Time to Hunt, and Point of Impact, and Black Light, and Hot Springs, there were no potty breaks.
When I read Dirty White Boys, there were lots of breaks. But I got back to the book as soon as I got my courage up again.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

USPSA Election Results

The results are in, and posted on the USPSA web page.

  • President: Michael Voigt
  • Area 4: Kenneth Hicks
  • Area 6: Charles Bond
  • Area 8: Alan Meek

(Details of the balloting are available at the USPSA Member's Area. Go to the USPSA main page and click on MEMBERS.)

USPSA Presidential Candidate Mike McCarter today sent an email to his supporters:

Hi Everyone,
If you haven't heard, Michael Voigt was re-elected USPSA President. I want to take a moment and thank all of you who voted for me and [for] your support. Many good issues were brought up during this election and the membership voted for the candidate of their choice. Now is the time to move forward and help USPSA in any way we can. I will continue as our local junior coordinator and the USPSA Junior Coordinator.

Thanks for your friendship,

Mike McCarter
USPSA Junior Coordinator
Executive Director
Albany Rifle and Pistol Club
541-619-0038
__________________________________________

Editor's note:

Whether or not the candidate of your choice won, I know you'll join me in thanking all of the candidates for their willingness to volunteer their energy, their time and their determination to make USPSA an outstanding example of American shooting sports.

British Gun Control

A 68 year old British grandmother was walking her dog in the local park when she came upon a group of 'youths'. One pointed what appeared to be a handgun at her and pulled the trigger; she heard "a clicking noise" and one of the youths said "you missed her".

She hurried away and called the police, who advised her to walk in another park.

Read the comments. They are more eloquent than I could ever be.

Tell me again how gun-free school zones protect our children

5 Hospitalized After 14-Year-Old Goes on Shooting Rampage at Cleveland High School

He was still suspended Wednesday, but somehow he made it into the SuccessTech Academy alternative school, armed with two revolvers. Police also found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom.

Coon, who students say also had threatened them last week, shot two teachers and two students before committing suicide, police said.

There were adequate warnings, but nobody believed in them.

... student, Doneisha LeVert, said she hid in a closet with two other students after she heard the alert over the loudspeaker. She said she heard about 10 shots.

Police released audio from three 911 calls — two from students who had fled the building after the first two shots and one from a distraught mother, calling on behalf of her son, who was huddled in the back of a fourth floor classroom.

"They just shot somebody in his room!" the crying mother told the dispatcher.

LeVert said Coon had made threats in front of students and teachers last week, but she believes no one took action.

"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," she said. "We didn't think nothing of it."

School Administrators were similarly clueless:

When Asa H. Coon got suspended for fighting on Monday, this was the 14-year-old's response to his schoolmates: "I got something for you all."
...

Coon had been suspended since Monday for fighting near the school that day, said Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization. He did not know how Coon got into the building Wednesday.

Blackwell said that there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated.

Still, the School Administrators considered theirs to be a superior school:

SuccessTech Academy is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship for about 240 students, most of them black, with a small number of white and Hispanic students. It opened five years ago and ranks in the middle of the state's ratings for student performance. Its graduation rate is 94 percent, well above the district's rate of 55 percent.

"It's a shining beacon for the Cleveland Metropolitan School system," said John Zitzner, founder and president of E City Cleveland, a nonprofit group aimed at teaching business skills to inner-city teens. "It's orderly, it's disciplined, it's calm, it's focused."

It's not as if the school could be considered 'vulnerable' to this sort of attack:

[one student's]mother, Lakisha Deberry, said she was upset that metal detectors at the school were not always in use.

"You never know what's going on in someone's mind," said Deberry, adding that she was required to go through a metal detector and present an identification card whenever she wanted to drop off something at school for her children.

The shooting occurred across the street from the FBI office in downtown Cleveland, and students were being sent to the FBI site.

The sad truth is, in an environment which prevents armed defense against armed aggressors, "procedures" provide no defense against a deranged attacker.

When school districts depend upon "Zero-Tolerance' measures to protect their students from armed, deranged mavericks, the administrators are rarely chosen to pay the price. Instead, it is the students whom they are sworn to protect who are killed and maimed.

The administration is allowed to defend their incompetence by citing their bureaucratic policies as if they were a real defense; as if a legitimate justification of their failures would be to say 'We told them they couldn't have not guns in this here school, it's not our fault if they broke the rules.'


School shooting will cease to be a recurring national tragedy when a national agenda is accepted to allow armed response to school shootings.

The shootings will continue until we not only accept the truth of this statement, but take active measures to ensure that our children are protected from the crazies.

The problem is not 'people with guns'. The problem is crazies with guns, and the total lack of timely intervention.

The day of political correctness is past. This is the day for pragmatism.

UPDATE: 12-OCT-2007

PENNSYLVANIA:
Police have taken into custody a 14-year-old boy who is suspected of planning a "Columbine" type event at a Pennsylvania high school, a police spokesman said.

Police in Plymouth Township near Philadelphia took the boy into custody after a search of his home turned up a number of weapons, including a 9 mm rifle with a laser scope and dozens of air guns, said Deputy Chief Joe Lawrence.

Police also found an operational hand grenade, three other hand grenades in the process of construction, bomb-making equipment, manuals and 30 powered weapons that fire BBs.

The boy's mother bought the rifle for him several weeks ago at a gun show, police said. No ammunition was found for the rifle.


.


Student advocates Gun Rights, Gets Suspended
A Minnesota college ... "has suspended a student after he raised questions about the campus ban on concealed weapons, and is ordering him to have a mental health evaluation before he can resume his education."

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Practical Shooting - An Olympic Event?

In a world where the general public perception of Practical Shooting is: "They're practicing to shoot people!", Practical Shooting will never be accepted as a legitimate competitive venue, let alone an Olympic Sport.

HISTORY:

Several years ago, the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) began a deliberate effort to make Practical Shooting more acceptable to the general public.


Their first step was to introduce the Classic target, a six-sided cardboard figure which perhaps most closely resembles a stop sign.




For years, every time Practical Shooting clubs attempted to demonstrate Practical Pistol (the only widely accepted kind of Practical Shooting at that time) to journalists, they found that the article generated by that exercise resulted mostly in criticism of the use of 'human-like' targets.

IPSC reasoned that the best approach to resolving that misconception was to change the target.
It didn't work. Journalists, and other non-shooting people who were the object of repeated efforts to demonstrate the competitive nature of Practical Shooting just couldn't get past the inherent genesis of the sport.

IPSC continued to advance the Classic target, though, in part because several nations who were part of the Confederation actually had laws forbidding the use of 'human-like' targets.

Those practical shooters who were not residents of restrictive nations, and who considered themselves 'traditionalists' or 'purists' objected to the target, and even to the name coined.


The original target proposed by Col. Jeff Cooper in the late 1970's, when he began the sport in a local club in SW America, was a rough rectangle with clubbed-corners, and a 'tab' at the top. This was blatantly and deliberately 'human-like' because the sport (which Cooper originally called "Combat Shooting") was intended to replicate the human figure in an imagined scenario calling for the competitor to defend himself against a human aggressor.

It was entirely defensive, yet it was still all too obviously "training to shoot humans".

As a consequence, in the increasingly "Politically Correct" world in which IPSC evolved, any attempt to propose what was then called "Practical Pistol Competition" as a legitimate sport faced a difficult pre-existing animosity and a politically incorrect history which was exactly what their detractors named it.

IPSC then began working on their Rules of Competition, also called the "IPSC Rule Book".

Changes in the rules were made to ensure that visitors to IPSC matches were not witness to obviously 'confrontational' reminders of the genesis of the sport. The advisories (embedded in the rule book) against the wearing of military or camouflaged clothing, or shirts bearing aggressive mottoes, had already been established.

New rules called for accommodations to less-skilled competitors in an attempt to make it easier to compete. The justification here was to retain new shooters, to not 'discourage' them because IPSC competition might be considered 'too difficult' (although the rules still included a proviso which forbade a competitor from protesting against a stage because it was too difficult.)

Practical Pistol as a "Demonstration Sport" in the Olympics:
In 1987, IPSC President Nick Alexakos (Canada) decided that the time had come to enter the world as a 'legitimate sport'. IPSC proposed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that Practical Pistol competition be introduced as a "demonstration sport". That is, not a 'competition event', but merely a non-competitive demonstration of the sport for the amusement and edification of the spectators.

Upon announcement of their attentions, IPSC was the subject of considerable criticism from its membership; particularly, those members who were United States Citizens and who considered themselves 'traditionalists'.

The criticisms centered around three main points of contention:
  1. IPSC shooting is not a spectator sport; it is boring to watch, and the complex rules are often not easily understood.
  2. "Dumbing Down" IPSC competition to meet the least-common-denominator expectations of the average observer was a tacit admission that IPSC competition is somehow not a wholesome shooting activity. As such, it actually reinforced the criticisms of its detractors.
  3. The world was not ready for IPSC competition as a legitimate shooting sport. Introducing it as a 'demonstration event' at that time could cause a backlash which would make it even more difficult to institute a similar effort in later years, when the world had been prepared for the concept of the legitimacy of all shooting sports.
The IOC reacted predictably, in a public press release which said, essentially, that 'the IOC does not now, and will never, accept Practical Shooting as a legitimate sporting activity and will not now, and will never, host a demonstration of this activity'.

This, even though shotgun shooting and biathlon shooting have been included in Olympic competition for decades!

NOTE: It may be significant that information about the attempt to legitimize the competitive shooting sports, or reference to the attempt, was never recorded in a public venue by IPSC.

However, it was recorded in excruciatingly lurid (and biased) detail by one of the premier foes of private firearms ownership, The Violence Policy Center, in its 1987 multi-part treatise "Gold Medal Gunslingers" (sub-titled "Combat Shooting Targets the Olympic Games.")

One can't help but wonder whether IPSC might have done itself a favor by as publically announcing its policy, and the background justification, as its most deadly enemy has done. This may be just one more example of the amateur approach to public relations which has typified the leadership of IPSC President Nick Alexakos. One thing is certain: IPSC public relations efforts have done little to to advance the cause of legitimizing private ownership of firearms, but it has served well the cause of its opposition. This is only one more example of an opportunity which was not only overlooked, but instead clumsily provided ammunition to its detractors.


That was Then; This is Now:

On October 9, 2007, the Online Magazine "The Shooting Wire" released a Feature Article by Steve Wagner titled " Pro Shooters Pull The Industry: Firearm Industry Builds Pro Shooters - and Vice Versa"

In his article, Wagner notes that the firearms industry has sponsored champion-quality shooters for over a century (starting with Marlin's sponsorship of Annie Oakley) and this trend has recently reached a new level:

Legitimizing Shooting Sports

Nike is known worldwide for its roster of sponsored pro athletes who become household names and faces: Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan and many more. But no shooter has ever broken the Nike barrier—until now.

In May 2007, (Olympic shotgun shooter Kim ) Rhode, who's medaled in the last three Olympics, announced that she'd been selected to join the sports-world's most elite beneath the Nike banner.

"Nike didn't know a lot about shooting but discovered that it's a real sport worthy of projecting in a positive light, right alongside golf and tennis and basketball. For shooting to have a mogul like Nike behind it, backing it, showcasing it, highlighting what shooters can achieve, is extremely outside the box. And it's a very big deal for our sport," said Rhode.

Shari LeGate, a former U.S. shotgun champion now a correspondent for ESPN, says proof of shooting sports' growing popularity isn't just anecdotal.

"Television ratings tell the story in real numbers, and ratings keep going up when ESPN airs shooting competition," she said. "Shooting has never been covered in the Olympics like it should, but with the old ESPN Great Outdoor Games, and now with the Collegiate Clay Target Championships—both sponsored in part by NSSF—ESPN is helping sports fans see that shooting is fast paced, interesting, and the athletes themselves are clear-eyed, intense competitors just like those in other sports."

Thoughtfully, LeGate added, "The only thing stopping shooting from becoming a major sport on TV is TV itself, because of the stigma that all media, not just ESPN, attaches to guns. At last, ratings are helping to change all that."
Why is competitive shooting 'suddenly' become more 'Politically Correct'?
Today, more corporate money than ever is flowing into professional and competitive shooting.

"The race is on to get your company's product into the hands of the evangelists—pros who shoot often and shoot well, who travel and meet lots of people, who are charismatic and influential in building brand awareness, and who ultimately help move product out the door," said Chris Dolnack, senior vice president of the firearm industry's National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).


Today's pro shooters are a fresh face for an old industry that is finally growing up. So says Michael Bane, host and producer of "The Shooting Gallery" on The Outdoor Channel and "Down Range TV" on the Internet.

"Corporate sponsorship of shooters has always gone in fits and starts, but now there's a definite upward trend and that's a sign of a healthy, maturing industry," said Bane.

He explained, "It shows that we've come through an era when we were constantly under attack from anti-gunners and our only motto was defense, defense, defense. Now we're being proactive. We've realized that the primary way to grow our business is to build competitors and competitions, because that grows the pool of active customers who don't just own firearms—they use them."

Paul Erhardt of SIGARMS put it even more succinctly: "Competition sucks bullets out of guns."
Why to people want to shoot guns?
There are a finite number of reasons why people own and use guns, and an examination of these reasons is perhaps an outline of the history of guns:
  1. Military; as a weapon in war
  2. Defensive; as a weapon of personal defense
  3. Criminal; as an instrument of murder for a variety of reasons (or suicide)
  4. Criminal; as a means to intimidate other people for personal gain
  5. Defensive: as a means to protect ones self or others against aggressors (including rogue governments)
  6. Hunting; as a way to feed the family
  7. Sporting; as a means of competition, amusement, or developing personal skills
When IPSC attempted to introduce Practical Shooting as an Olympic Demonstration, they were fighting against centuries of experience in a 'five-point' agenda, when most of the acknowleged reasons for having a gun involved interpersonal conflict. People generally perceived a gun as a way to shoot other people.

A few recognized hunting as a 'legitimate use of a firearm', but in the modern age of grocery stores where you could buy turkey and beef and pork pre-slaughtered, the concept of 'slaughter' has been degenerated as an entirely prohibitive activity. That is, if you can get someone else to slaughter meat for your dinner, the only reason you would wish to slaughter animals must be because you enjoy the exercise of killing. This should, the reasoning goes, be discouraged.

As 'civilization' becomes more widespread, any activity which involves the personal killing of animals (let alone people!) is increasingly subject to alarm and abhorrence.

Enter Competitive Shooting:
In recent years, people who have purchased firearms for defense (another activity which is often looked upon with suspicion, but which may be marginally acceptable) have discovered that the possession of a defensive firearm adds issues to their personal life.

First, there is the need to improve gun-handling skills, to initiate and to continue a program of training and a personal regimen of improvement in regards to controlling a weapon.

Second, after one has spent time and money in acquisition of a firearm, and training ... what is one to do with it? A firearm has no value when it is sitting in the drawer of a night-stand. It is only useful when it is used. Nobody is content with laying awake at night, hoping some drugged-out fool breaks down your front door so they may be killed with impunity. This is a worse-case scenario. Except for sociopaths, there is no common desire to use a firearm to kill people.

Third, although you may think you are skilled in the usage of your firearm, there is always a niggling question ... am I as good as the next person? How do my skills rate when compared to other people?

Firearms competition may be the best way to test these skills.

Practical Pistol competition provides an opportunity for each individual to regularly test his own gun-handling skills. It's a training exercise, conducted under the most safe conditions possible ... where-in the individual competitor is exposed to the pressure of competition (similar to, but not identical to, the pressure of self-defense) under the close observance of a certified Range Officer.

Competition also provides a venue which permits regular usage of a handgun (most recently, long guns are also included in Practical competition). We no longer need to submit ourselves to boring practice shooting at bullseye targets. We are presented with the opportunity to learn how to shot and move, engage moving targets, and shoot for 'score' while under the pressure of the need to shoot quickly with the expectation that we must move to engage multiple targets.

All of these criteria are wrapped up in a venue where we are competing against other people with similar equipment, so that we may evaluate our own performance in direct comparison to each other.

The Olympics? If not Today ... Tomorrow?
This is not to say that Practical Shooting may ever be acceptable as an Olympic Sport. The political and cultural bias against the shooting sports has probably not yet been eased by Corporate Sponsorship of Competitive Shooters. It is, however, likely that an element of doubt has been introduced which may influence established preconceptions.

The very fact that the experiences of others proves that firearms usage is ... sometimes ... justifiable in a completely benign competitive venue suggests that an arbitrarily negative viewpoint is not universally applicable to our current cultural norm.

Had IPSC delayed their attempted foray into the Olympic forum until Competitive Marksmanship (if such a terminology may be here employed) had been established, the concept of "Practical Shooting as an Olympic Demonstration Sport" might be acceptable in the near future, given the current climate.

Unfortunately, due to the ill-conceived timing of IPSC leadership, the waters of Competitive Marksmanship have been muddied, perhaps irretrievably.

We can only wait for the socio-political climate to become more accepting to this proposition. It may take years before the bad feelings caused by the premature assertion by IPSC have waned sufficiently that IOC is willing to considers the concept that competitive shooting, no matter the characteristics of the firearms involved, is an acceptable sport.

Now it only remains to be seen whether IPSC will again throw away an advantage which is no credit to its own efforts, and will yield to its more clever and media-savvy opposition. The consensus here is that the provincially oriented IPSC leadership has not the energy, the vision or the competence to promote its own implicit agenda of justifying firearms rights.

How long will IPSC membership allow its elected leaders to undermine their collective priorities? It may require a restructuring of the International Confederacy before we begin to recognize our own heretofore unused influence.

The first step may well be to discharge the IPSC leadership, and elect people who are not only willing to serve, but to adequately represent its constituency.

Small chance of that happening. The past decade (and more) of incompetence is indicative of the political naivety of the membership. Most of us just want to shoot. We don't want to deal with political issues, and as a result we may find ourselves disenfranchised because of the incompetence of the only people we can find who are willing to accept the responsibility of representation.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Summer Whine

It's axiomatic that "Summer Colds are the Worst". It's also a common belief that Geeks are weird. So it may come as no surprise that this Geek delayed his annual Summer Cold (or flu, or allergy attack) until 2 weeks after the end of Summer.

I started sniffling and coughing about the time of SWMBO's operation, but because both she and co-workers convinced me that the newly arrived Autumnal Rainy Season had "kicked up dust and pollen", I allowed myself to be convinced that it was nothing more than an inconvenient allergy attack.

Last Friday morning I awoke with bronchial congestion, a disgusting post-nasal drip, and a cough that just wouldn't quit. I did what any Real Man would do ... I called in sick and stayed home. I figured that with the weekend, I would have ridden out the worst of the cold and would be ready to go back to work on Monday.

But Monday morning came and I was not only still hacking and congested, but I was unable to speak above a halting hoarse whisper. I called in to the office; I think the person who answered the phone was convinced by my odd speaking voice that I was not just goldbricking.

During the day my condition advanced to the point where I could make no sounds other than a crow-croak.

Late Monday afternoon I got a call from my mother. My cell phone was in the pocket of my trousers, which were hanging from my bed post. By the time I followed the sound and dug the phone out, she had hung up. I returned the call, and when I said "Hi Mom, this is Jerry. You know, your son. You just called me" ... she didn't believe me. "You don't sound like Jerry" she replied, dubiously.

"No, really, it's just me. I'm in bed with a cold, and I have laryngitis."

(Understand, this was a combination of whispers and croaks. Also, every 3 or 4 words my throat locks up so I have to go back and try again. It's painful to speak, and probably as painful to hear.)

Finally convinced that this unrecognizable voice belongs to her favorite (only) son, my own mother struggled not to laugh at my predicament and allowed that she wouldn't keep me, she just was testing her new cell phone. We hung up, frustrated on my part and mildly amused on her part.

My mother is getting on in age, and her own vocal chords are becoming intransigent. Her natural voice is difficult to understand, quavery and faint. Once a year I take her to a doctor at the Oregon Health Science University in Portland, where a very nice Chinese doctor injects Botox directly into her vocal chords. Eventually they firm up to where her voice is strong again, but it takes a couple of weeks to kick in and during that period her voice is ... croaking, faint, hesitant and half-whispery. I know it was difficult for her not to comment that "aha! the shoe is on the other foot now, ain't it buddy boy?" but due to the fact that she's a high-class lady she resisted temptation admirably.

This morning (Tuesday) I didn't bother calling into the office. Instead, I signed onto the Internet and sent an email telling my co-workers and customers that I would not be in the office.

I'm bored to tears. I've been cooped up in my home for five days now, and I'm getting cabin fever. Good news: with all this spare time I've been blogging a lot. Bad news: I'm getting tired of staring at this computer, reading books, and watching old videos.

I've resorted to house cleaning, which I only do when I'm depressed. Having spent most of my time in bed or sitting down, I've grown weak and am glad of any physical activity I can do until I get tired. I've gone through all of the 'reserves' in my pantry, and thrown out food that has been sitting there since 2005.

This afternoon, I realized I've thrown away the food I had expected to eat when I couldn't get to the store for my weekly shopping. Also, I'm out of juices and medicine (expectorants, to clear my bronchial tubes.) I have 4 checks to deposit, my annual USPSA Chief Range Officer Exam to mail, and Hollywood Video has sent two voice-mail messages to my cell phone notifying me that if I don't return the four overdue DVDs by October 11, I will be billed their full replacement price.

Plus, the cabin fever is raging.

I took an hour and went shopping. Mailed my letters, picked up my inbound mail, returned the DVSs, checked out some new DVDs (this extended period on home domesticity has made me almost wish I had cable television!), bought food to replace that which I have dumped, and put new stickers on my car.

Funny thing: I'm still unable to speak intelligibly, so when I went into stores I was singularly uncommunicative to clerks. When I went into the video store to check out new movies, I knew the clerk was going to ask me for my phone number. I found a post-it note pad on the counter, along with a pen, and while the clerk was scanning the bar-code on the DVDs I wrote down my phone number. When he asked me for the information, I was ready and gave him the note. Then he asked me for my name, and because I was unable to speak I made a motion toward my throat indicating that I was unable to speak, the dug ID out of my pocket and showed it to him. He nodded, smiled, completed the transaction and then wrote the rental fee amount on the post-it note and gave it back to me!

I guess he decided I was both deaf and mute, even though he had been speaking to me and I was obviously responding. He was just trying to be helpful, and even though I could have croaked out an explanation to him I just smiled, took my movies and left.

This incident caused me to think in a new way about the plight of deaf mute people all over the world. How difficult it must be for them to complete even the most common transactions in a world of the hearing. How do they deal with this?

Then I shrugged, went home and had dinner Took my medicine. Watched a video. In a couple of days I'll be okay. I'm too self-centered to worry about other people too much.

Gun Control Doctors - Part Trois

Five days ago I continued my campaign against "Gun Control Doctors" (see original comments as part of a related post, and see Part Deux), especially Pediatricians who take upon themselves the responsibility of advising parents on Risk Management in the home. (Special emphasis there on The Evil of The Gun.)

The world may not be following my lead, but this is a topic which is becoming increasingly identified as a disturbing social issue.

The Donovan at ARGGHHH! today included the following comment:
Hey - speaking of kids and guns - some advice for pediatricians who are annotating gun presence and storage practices in child medical records... Just click here for some advice. And parents - there's a form in there for you to ask your Doctor to sign *and* put in the records, too! H/t, Jim C. -the Amorer

The cited form is intended for patients to print and bring to the next physician appointment. The form requires the medical doctor to attest and affirm that he/she is qualified and certified to advise not only on medical issues, but also on Risk Management issues ... and states:
I further warrant that, should the Patient follow my firearm safety counseling and remove from the home and/or disable firearms with trigger locks or other mechanisms, and if the patient or a family member, friend or visitor is subsequently injured or killed as a result of said removal or disabling, that my malpractice insurance and/or personal assets will cover all actual and punitive damages resulting from a lawsuit initiated by the patient, the patient's legal reprerentative, [sic] or the patient's survivors.

This is a two-part form. The second part (page 2) includes a cautionary note in the form of an article titled "Risk Management Advice to Physicians and Malpractice Insurance Providers: Don't Borrow Trouble."

The thrust of this note is a reminder that Physicians are not usually qualified (read: certified or even trained) to advise on Risk Management issues, and when they go beyond the limits of their field of expertise in advising their patients, they become vulnerable to litigation if anyone in the home suffers injury from causes which might have been covered under a qualified Risk Management analysis.

Here are some of the passages which are the most pertinent to this forum:
Now, let's discuss the very serious issues involving the lawful possession and use of firearms for self and home defense, and the danger and liabilities associated with advising patients to severely encumber the firearm(s) with locked storage, or advising the patient to remove them entirely. Patient X is told by Doctor Y to remove or lock up a firearm so it is not accessible. Patient X, does as counseled and has no firearm available at close at hand. Subsequently, patient is then the victim of a home invasion and calls 911, but the police are buried in calls and don't arrive for 20 minutes during which time Patient X is raped, robbed and murdered. Anyone can see the liability issue here, particularly Risk Management specialists and liability insurance carriers. It's just a matter of *when* and not *if* this will happen. Sooner or later, it will - if a home invasion takes place and Patient X takes Doctor Y's advice.

Now, imagine what follows this horrendous event. Who is to blame? The perpetrator is long gone, and even so, the Plaintiff's litigator will state that the perpetrator could have been neutralized by the appropriate lawful defensive use of a firearm, which *had* been in the home, but was no longer available to the deceased/injured because he/she followed a Physician's *expert* advice to render him/herself and his/her home defenseless against violent crime.

The Litigator will further argue that the Physician Knew, Could have known, Should have known that removing a firearm from use for home defense would result in harm to the patient if and when a crime was committed against the patient in the home, as any reasonable person would have surmised.

If one acknowledges the already dangerous general liability of home safety counseling and then adds the very risky practice of advising patients to disarm themselves in the face of the reality of violent crime daily perpetrated against home owners, condo and apartment tenants, it is apparent that the Physician is placing him/herself in a very risky position for suit.
It seems obvious that physicians who have practiced this unsolicited procedure of non-medical consultation may not have considered the possible consequences of their actions. They may not be concerned that their advice is inadequate, groundless and/or unsolicited; possibly they consider that their minimal advice is better than no advice at all, especially when they find a patient whose home life doesn't meet the personal standards of the physician.

However, when confronted by a knowledgeable patient (or patient Parent) who chooses to confirm the qualifications of the physician to dispense such advice, the physician may decide to stick to the consultative issues which he or she is trained and competent to address.

This may not be the final or even the best response to intrusive physicians, but it serves at least to put them on notice that the parent is generally considered to be in the best position to make Risk Management decisions within the home.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Useful Idiots of the World

My dear good friend (The Hobo Brasser), and a gentleman of the most careful sensitivity, sent me this video tonite. I'm grateful for his contribution, and I can do no less than to pass on his insightful commentary.

You can download the original 4.56MB WMV file here, or you can go to one of the many YouTube versions (some are of lesser quality) here.

It seems to me unfortunate that the term "Useful Idiot" did not fit well within the rhythmic scheme .. hardly iambic pentameter, I admit ... of the accompanying score. When viewing this video, please keep in mind the term "Useful Idiot" is perhaps the more accurate phraseolgy.

I Stole This Stuff! All Of It!

Shamelessly stealing from Better Bloggers the world over, I do the Web Surfing that Americans Won't Do.

(Actually, they did it first. And better.)

Women Who Shoot ... Better Than I!

Shamelessly Stolen from Ordnance Corner:

Self-Defense In 'Gun Free Zones' - Schools
Shamelessly Stolen from TFS Magnum (Zendo Deb):
(Original Article from Seattle Post Intelligencer)
Six months after Rebecca Griego was shot and killed at her desk at the University of Washington, the UW faces a $2,100 fine for endangering her and other employees by failing to communicate workplace safety policies.
[Emphasis Added - Geek]


[TFS comment:]
How about they endangered her by disarming her and everyone around her. Except of course the goblin who shot her. It isn't a gun-free-zone if someone was shot, no matter how adamant the administration is.


Shamelessly Stolen from John Lott [Re: Shirley Katz]

Medford Oregon teacher wants to carry

A video of her interview can be seen here. I didn't think that she did a very good job. The point isn't the Second Amendment. The point is one of safety. The host starts off by talking about the conflict between freedom and safety and I would argue that this is one place that freedom and safety go together.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Mister Fixit - NOT!

I hate it when things break, get bent, are lost or must otherwise be repaired or replaced.

The sad fact is, I am not mechanically inclined.
(Do NOT ask to hear my "how it cost me $280 to replace the toilet flapper valve" story, it'll break your heart. Can you say 'left hand thread"? Neither can I.)

This can be a problem when I shoot competitively 12 months a year and reload something like 1,000 rounds of ammunition a year month.

"Stuff" wears out. Then I have to replace it. Usually, it's 'small parts'. You would think this wouldn't be a problem, because these small parts are what I refer to as 'consumables' (think of pencils in an office) that you expect to replace from time to time. They don't cost much, and are usually easy to replace/install.

I don't actually have a major problem with installing replacement small parts, as long as their not the kind of thing you need a gunsmith or a Rocket Scientist (not that far apart, in my opinion), but I often have trouble finding them!

Case in point #1: Pistol Decapping pins for my Dillon XL650.



I ask you, how difficult can it be?
  1. Unscrew the decapping assembly from your Sizing/Decapping die
  2. Unscrew the knurled decapping pin retainer
  3. Tap out the bent decapping pin from the retainer
  4. Insert new decapping pin
  5. Re-assemble the decapping assembly
  6. Screw the decapping assembly back into the die
That's it. You're done, go back to reloading.

See, I have to do this quite often. All of the ranges here-abouts are covered with pea-gravel, some of it quite small. When we pick up our brass (which has probably been stepped on several times while the whole squad shoots the stage), sometimes we also pick up a tiny piece of rock in the brass case. We don't notice this, and it doesn't always shake loose when we run the brass through the tumbler.

The result is, when you try to resize the case, the rock chip gets between the old primer and the decapping pin, and you have to stop and replace the (bent) pin.

I've had that happen three times in one evening of reloading. Not only does it slow down the reloading process, but it uses up a lot of your 'consumable' replacement pins.

When I phone in an order to Dillon, I invariably ask for a couple of 5-packs of decapping pins. I never remember what the part number is, because it's not in the XL650 parts manual. (I now know the part number is 13753 ... it's on the package in the photo.)

The last time I phoned in an order, I asked for three 5-packs. Dillon was reluctant to sell them to me, stating at first that they were 'out of stock' and then (when I plead dire emergency) they reluctantly agreed to send me what they could spare. That was two 5-packs. I've used up one, I have one left, and I want to order more.

But I don't like to phone in orders, I would rather order them over the Internet, and Dillon's online catalog doesn't include this part.

I had to go search for other on-line sources, finally finding the item at RCBS. At $2.95 a 5-pack, I ordered two (shipping was $4). I could have ordered the 50-pack and got a lot better deal, but I think I'll try the product before I invest the whole $13.95 ... which can probably still ship for $4.)

Okay, problem solved, I found a second source, I'm happy now.

Case in point #2: mounting screws for STI (C-more) scope mounts

This is a little more difficult.


I was shooting a match a couple of weeks ago and having trouble (recurring, maybe solved with a new recoil spring) with feeding. Standing at the safety table with the STI laying in front of me, I happened to notice that I was missing not one, but TWO of the five scope-mount screws.

I know how to buy screws. You take the screw you want to replace to your local Ace Hardware Store and compare it with what they've got, and buy a handful of them. If you're smart, you'll write down the description of the screw. (But you'll lose that piece of paper before you need to buy more.)

In this case, the Ace Hardware Store doesn't carry this screw. I can't tell you off-hand where I bought the last 5-pack of these screws, but I used the last two to replace the two missing screws. And if you'll look closely at the picture, the screws I have used in the past don't all match.

I don't know where to go to look for these. Someone told me to go to Brownell's, and I did, but I couldn't find it on their website. I don't even know what to look for, but I did notice that if you search for 'scope mount screws' you don't find anything that looks like this.

So if someone knows what these screws are, and where I can get them, and what I should ask for ... let me know, okay?

Or maybe I can just put in a standing order of five more screws every six months. Yes, I use Blue LocTite but that doesn't always prevent the "Geek Screw-Loose" aberration.

___________________________________

NOTE: While researching for this article, I finally found the website which defines the differences between the three different kinds of LOCTITE 'Threadlockers':

RED LOCTITE

BLUE LOCTITE

GREEN LOCTITE

Hottest Geek Links & IPSC Videos - October, 2007

Here are the links to the most popular articles and videos in Cogito Ergo Geek as of October, 2007.

ARTICLES:
Criteria: ONLY articles which were published more than six months ago are included (because most recent articles may be temporarily more popular), and inclusion is based on 10/06/2007 traffic as registered by my STATSCOUNTER ratings. Also note that regardless of the number of "hits" on a given day, the articles are not ranked, because of the transitory popularity of some articles on a day-by-day basis. (But the first 4 articles almost invariably rank somewhere in the first-four, although the relative rank of the 'others' may vary dramatically from day to day.)
  1. Travis Tomasie: The Perfect Reload
  2. Field Strip the 1911 - and other stuff
  3. IPSC Shooting Videos and IPSC Loading Data
  4. KaBOOM!
  5. XL650: 9mm, .45acp, & 10mm (basically, more reloading information)
  6. "Firearm Tort Reform"; and "Kalifornia, Bullet-Coding Scheme ...", etc. (April, 2005)
  7. Texas Star, IPSC Videos from Oregon
  8. IPSC: STI TruSight Accepted in USPSA Limited Division
  9. Day of the Evil Drawstring
  10. Red Shirt Friday


VIDEOS:
Criteria: Most popular by number of views, greater than 1000 views, regardless of date.

  1. Travis Tomasie: The Perfect Reload (added 1 year ago; 20,485 views)
  2. Mossberg 590: Learning Experience (added 5 months ago; 7,108 views)
  3. Evil Bill's Texas Star (added 5 months ago; 3,786 views)
  4. .460 pistol - darn it! (added 7 months ago; 2,131 views)
  5. IPSC Steel - Failure to Fall (added 7 months ago; 1,919 views)
  6. X-Games in IPSC (added 10 months ago; 1,679 views)
  7. Evil Oregon Star 2: The Movie (added 5 months ago; 1,574 views)
  8. 2005 Croc Match- Jungle Run: Junior Stephan (added 1 year ago; 1,330 views)
  9. Geek at TC May 2006: Stage 5 (added 1 year ago; 1,154 views)
  10. Bob and the Texas Star (added 1 year ago; 1,140 views)
  11. Pistol-Caliber Carbine Match (added 5 months ago; 1,117 views)
  12. Les & The Race Gun (added 6 months ago; 1,095 views)
  13. Witchey Woman (added 1 year ago; 1,003 views)

I notice that only four of these videos are significantly over 90 seconds in duration. This suggests to me that long videos depicting several shooters engaging the same shooting problem (one stage) are not very well received.

Not a problem. I'll continue to offer long videos, for the enjoyment of people who were there and want to see how they look when they are shooting. And you will continue not to watch them.

That seems fair to me.