TargetTalk

Thought ya’ll would find this funny, we sure did…..My son, 9yrs old, has been shooting air rifle and small bore for about a year now. He’s been in 6 prone small bore competitions this summer. Started 4th grade yesterday and had to fill out one of them “get to know ya” forms for his teacher. Here’s one of the questions…..

Q: What is your favorite possession?
A: PRONE

That is kind of funny.

As you explained the setup I was afraid this was going to turn into one of those "got suspended for even saying something involving the word gun" stories. : )

'Dude

Fortunately, we live in fairly small mid-west town where his school doesn’t mind that he wears his team’s shooting jacket with his NRA 4P air rifle medals pinned to it and his NRA Master qualification sticker on his notebook. But I’m sure one day, some other parent will have something to say about it……

justadude wrote:
...I was afraid this was going to turn into one of those "got suspended for even saying something involving the word gun" stories. : ) ...

My grandson, although not school age, has an interest in shooting, and that is one of the things I worry about as he enters school. His father, other grandfather and I will have him shooting, when he gets a bit older...2 1/2 may be a bit young to start.

Small town in the upper midwest, that sounds nice, and in many cases the smaller towns can still retain their grip on sanity.

I currently live in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Maryland, here children get suspended because the pop tart they were gnawing on happened to end up resembling the silhouette of a handgun. A perfect example of zero tolerance equals zero thinking.

Unfortunately you are right, given time, some parent is likely going to have something to say about "teaching your son to be a killer" or something else equally as obnoxious .

As for guest, first time I fired a gun was right around my 5th birthday, I was shooting in competition by the time I was 8 -1/2. OK 2 -1/2 might be a little young... but not by much! : ) My father was always ready to defend what we and I were doing as a safe, legitimate and wholesome activity. After all, it is the football players not the shooting athletes that keep making headlines for felony offenses. : )

Cheers,
'Dude

acdcguy wrote:Q: What is your favorite possession?
A: PRONE

Now there is the kernel of some coaching advice:
"Own the position!"

Make a good T-shirt too.

acdcguy wrote:... I’m sure one day, some other parent will have something to say about it……

And the answer is that shooting is an Olympic and international sport and has been throughout the whole modern olympics - 50m prone since 1912! Your son may well be training to represent his country at the Olympics and internationally. That is something to be proud of, not something to hide.

Good luck to him. By the way, that was a great story about the possession!

My son is almost 6 and I'm thinking of getting him started. I wouldn't mind at all tweaking other parents with a shooting jacket or sticker. :)

justadude wrote:That is kind of funny.

As you explained the setup I was afraid this was going to turn into one of those "got suspended for even saying something involving the word gun" stories. : )

'Dude

My 12 yo daughter started school last week. She had been shooting trap all weekend and had a bruise on her shoulder and a small bruise on her cheek. One of her teachers saw them, referred her to the school nurse and we got a phone call to come to the school.

I started to get the hint of an abuse allegation from the nurse, and I shut that down. I told Nurse Buttinsky that my daughter is training for shooting sports and I showed her pics I had taken at the range.

Then...I got a lecture about how dangerous guns are and why would I allow my daughter to even touch one...Geesh!

My daughter stepped up at that point and said that guns are only dangerous in the hands of the sick and the stupid.

At that point we just walked away. Now I am waiting for a call from Children and Families Dept because Nurse Stick-her-nose-in-it told me she was a "Mandatory Reporter"

That is great! remind me never to piss your daughter off.

Next step, when the "Children and Families" people show up, maybe your daughter can give them the lesson on how you mount a shotgun.

That would also be entertaining to watch.

'Dude

One has to wonder at the depth of fear combined with stupidity (or ignorance if one is feeling charitable) of so many people. Of course there are idiots with guns doing stupid things, but the vast majority do not act dangerously even if they're towards the intellectually challenged end of the spectrum. If public servants (teachers, school nurses etc) are really so concerned, why not berate every parent driving their child to school? After all, the car drivers among us kill frightening numbers of bystanders and other drivers as well as their own children, far more than gun owners statistically.

But we are becoming ever more a babysat society. The UK sets a lovely example, where carrying a belt knife will earn you jail time. And then they wonder why manual competence is so poor among the young. I got a knife and a BB gun at age 7, along with a baseball glove and a bicycle. My stepdad taught me to use each effectively. Put me on the road to competence. I've heard that in Sweden every kid gets a knife in school and a class in carving with it. Brilliant. Wonder if any school system offers an airgun class...

Here's one for you. I met with a woman here in the Chicagoland area who was afraid to even talk about the Boy Scouts. I had a meeting with her to talk her off the ledge. Then I mentioned rifle merit badge - and then she said "oh, that's fine, I'm originally from West Virginia!" Go figure.

You may not realize this, folks, but most people who are put off by guns are primarily afraid of a stereotyped idea of an illiterate dope running around with a sawed-off shotgun. Fear is the result of ignorance. The image of shooting as a sport, especially an internationally recognized sport, would help them stop and think about the issue. If your kid looks reasonably clean, and you look reasonable, having your kid spread the word about the discipline, the mental aspect of shooting, would be a good thing.

Guest Ricardo---lemme tell you something it isn't just the illiterate dummy as you say running around with a dbl barreled shotgun, it's US the All American Shooters. I have seen and watched some idiots at my gun club do things that could make me grow hair on my head. As Pogo used to say....." we have met the enemy and they are us.....". Miss Buttinski nurse is just typical of the way our schools have abrogated the rights of parents. I would have thought you would have had a few more choice parochial comments to have shared with her. It's like having my doctor tell me that guns are dangerous....believe me he wouldn't like my prepared dissertation following up his comment. DON'T GIVE UP AN INCH TO THE MONGOLS.....""Doc"

Ah... Bob.
What moved me the most was your comment about growing hair on your head. As a fellow involuntarily bald guy, I completely get it!

ricardo as the guest said:

The image of shooting as a sport, especially an internationally recognized sport, would help them stop and think about the issue.

That sounds good on paper but have my own story about how it does not exactly work out.

The setting: picnic hosted by one of my wife's friends.

Friend Q: "So what did you have going on this morning?"

Me A: "I was at a gun show at the fairgrounds."

Friend: "OH!, Well we are not going to talk about that."

Me: "OK, but before we don't talk about it, consider that I am a former national champion, set four records in competition and spent a year on the national team."

Friend: "We're still not going to talk about that."

Me: (silence)

Friend: "But you are still a good person."

I was really glad to know that I was "still a good person" as I was beginning to doubt myself. LOL

When people are so prejudiced against guns and gun owners that they cannot even bring themselves to talk about the subject, even when it is presented in the light of a very serious competitive sport I am not sure there is a lot we can do, other than quietly go about our business.

Needless to say, I have declined on any subsequent invitations to said "friends" events.

Cheers,
'Dude

OK, then. You met an idiot. You may have met dozens of them. And you got angry or something. Bad move! If we don't acknowledge the millions of non-idiots afraid of guns but who MIGHT see if we enlightened them a little bit, we're just allowing the vocal minority to decide for everybody. Face it: the NRA does not give gun-fearers any confidence. They don't behave like a rational, thoughtful organization. You might say the times merit radicalism, but they just preach to the choir; they are not much help except by intimidating Congress. The board is a little too tight with corporations to be fully credible. And right or wrong, they act like nuts. "From my cold, dead hands." Gimme a break! So the NRA lights a fire under the butts of gun-hating extremists, and we get a screaming fit between enraged zealots on both sides! I'm a very, very "liberal" guy, though I hate the label, and I love telling my like-minded friends about my various guns and my training sessions at the range. At first they are shocked, but after a while they get over it. A few of them come along for a shoot. Some thinking and learning has taken place. It's our responsibility to spread the word without preaching, or we ignore the public at our own peril.

Please let's not change the subject to things related to my beliefs and the Constitution and being a liberal, OK? I'm a shooter and that's all.

Ricardo wrote:OK, then. You met an idiot. You may have met dozens of them. And you got angry or something. Bad move! ....

I must have missed the part where he "got angry or something"

Declining future invitations is hardly "getting angry or something" is it???

@Ricardo,

I am not sure how you get "got angry" out of that story. I believe appalled at the attitude might have been more accurate.

The part I especially took note of was the bit about "Well you are still a good person." delivered with a tone of voice that might imply anyone who owned a firearm was automatically of suspect character.

I have better stuff to do than hang around in an environment like that and have politely declined any further invitations.

I brought this up as an example of an apparently well educated person who has such an issue with guns that not only will they simply not talk about it they have stereotyped anyone who owns a gun as somehow "bad". I did try to open or redirect the conversation by pointing out my competitive shooting activities. If they refuse to talk about it or allow it to be discussed there is no way to debate the pros and cons. Best for me to move on and go shooting or something.

Getting back to one of the original stories, I really liked the one where:

My daughter stepped up at that point and said that guns are only dangerous in the hands of the sick and the stupid.

Kids can get away with saying things like that, as adults we are usually too polite to actually verbalize our thoughts like that. While I am not usually a big fan of kids mouthing off to adults in some cases you have to give the kids their due props as in this case the young lady was dead on correct.

So I wanna hear more stories about school teachers and administrators perplexed by kids in school who shoot for sport and competition.

Cheers,
'Dude

Dude i dont want to go to work today so heres a story(real). We live in huntingville. Rice and orchards,everyone farms or knows a farmer.Little towns like Willows r totally surrounded by rice. Whats that mean? Even Duck commander owns property around here.Lots and lots of birds and hunting. In the 70s and 80s every kid had a pickup with a gunrack(now because of stealing they dont). You get up early ,go out and shoot acouple geese,hop in your truck and go to school. during lunch people come out to the school parking lot and compare kills. Its not that way anymore so they dont allow guns on school grounds. Recentally one of the farmers sons went out hunting in the morning was late to school so he decided not to go home .Knowing the rules he parked 3 blocks from the school. Shotgun locked in his gunrack. The principal saw the gun kicked the kid out of school and had him suspended. You dont kick a farmer and you dont kick his kid. Big stink occured the school said they where right the "TOWN" fought back and the school lost. It was a big deal over nothing. I swear at one point they had the rope and where looking for a tree.