Shooting Sports: Family Friendly

In this age of Political Correctness, there are too many people who look upon gun-ownership as being an indicator of beer-breath, sloppy personal hygiene, bigotry, sloth and the political equivalents.

When you tell these people you're 'going to the gun club', their purse-lipped expression suggests that they have formed a mental image of a small crowd of rough-looking Rednecks sitting on the tailbed of a pickup, swilling warm beer from the bottle while waving their guns around and griping about the 'Gubmint'.

While there are probably no fewer incidents of political commentary at a shooting range than there are at New York City coctail party (or a London Tea Party, if they still have them), chances are that a day at the range is something of a Family Affair.

I would like to introduce you to some of the families I see at local shooting matches.

For example, the picture above was snapped at an IPSC match in April, just because of the curious juxtipositioning of TWO father-and-son pairs. That's right, the charming tot at the left of the picture is the son of the man in the red golf shirt (who is a supervisor at a local Private Security Company), and the man in the blue shirt is the son of the last man (who is a retired State Policeman and a part-time instructor at the Oregon State Police Academy.)


Take the 2005 Croc Match in Dundee, Oregon.

This is an unfortunately unflattering photo of Caryn, the High Lady at the match.

To the right is a much more flattering photo of her husband, Rob, who won Second Grandmaster at the same match.


Wives show up at matches with their children. They even bring the family dog. Two of the four men in this photo brought either their wife or their son to the match.


And of course, it's not just the contestants who consider a shooting competition to be an appropriate place for their family. It's the match staff, as well.

Here, Match Director (and Section Coordinator) Mac McCarter is shown publicly thanking Loren and Sherrie, the husband-and-wife team which every year do NOT compete in the Croc Match. Instead, they design, construct and officiate on the "Jungle Run" stage which is the delight and the bane of IPSC competitors from all over America.

The Jungle Run is such a heart-stopping thrill to shoot, it's the primary reason why some people travel across multiple state lines to compete in this annual high-round-count event. This couple gets little enough recognition except for when Loren (an experienced Range Officer who once appeared on the cover of The Front Sight magazine) reads his incredibly unhelpful stage-procedure poem.

Still at the Croc Match Awards Ceremony, The Lovely Nancy (unfortunately caught with her back to the camera) and her husband "Pelican Bill" are shown in their matching green shirts.

Not the best pictures of The Pelican Family, perhaps, but those who were there can also pick out at least one father-and-son team, and one married couple in the picture.

Until I start to really LOOK at these random photos, it didn't occur to me how well they illustrated the pervasive influence of family participation at gun-games.

And of course, there are The Juniors.

These young people are the future of shooting competition.

The young man on the left/front (Drew), in the red shirt, is the grandson of Mac, the Section Coordinator of the Columbia Cascade Section.

The young man in the center/front (Zac) is the son of Norm The Ungrateful, one of the fastest-rising stars in the section. Zac made B-Open just before this match. Norm was bumped to Master two months ago. Norm has been shooting for just over three years; Zac just over two years.

And the young man in the background, with his head cut off just above the green collar of his Croc Match shirt? That's Stephan, subject of a couple of memorable videos which have graced this blog. He brought his grandfather out to watch him shoot.

And there is Chris, whose father brought him to the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club a couple of years ago to join the Columbia Cascade Section Junior Program. Chris had so much fun shooting Production with a donated Glock 17 (as do most of the Juniors in this section) that his father, Jeff, just couldn't stand just watching anymore. Jeff got his own pistol, went through the certification course give by Mac at ARPC, and started shooting right alongside his son.



Chris (left) won First C-Production at the match.

Jeff (right) won Second C-Production.

You can bet that there was an interesting conversation on the ride home from that match. And you can also bet that Jeff was so proud of Chris that his own excellent finish was not the topic.


Finally, there is SWMBO and The Geek.

SWMBO (it stands for "She, Who Must Be Obeyed", from H. Ryder Haggard's novel "SHE!") spent the first two years of our relationship saying goodbye to me on Saturday Mornings as I left for weekly club match. I always invited her along, but SHE had been raised in a family which saw no use for guns.

One weekend SHE said "I can tell that if I'm going to see you more than half the time, I'm going to be in some crummy gravel pit. Wait a minute, I'll put my boots on. I'll meet you at the car."

She followed me around the range for three years, learning how to pick up brass and give it to the person whose gun had ejected it into the gravel. She learned the different calibers, how to distinguish them at a glance, and also learned that the people who went to these matches were a bunch of tail-gate-squatting, beer-swilling Rednecks. They were, in fact, people who were fun to know no matter what the venue. People she enjoyed spending time with.
Eventually, she said "I'm tired of always picking up other peoples' brass. Get me a gun. I want to shoot some cardboard!"

So I did, and she did, and she still picks up other peoples' brass. But they pick up hers, too.

(I think some of them are scared NOT to brass for her. She's an imposing figure, don't you think?)