FEATURE

Competition Seasons Wrapping Up

With the Area 2 USPSA Championships wrapped up, the competition shooting season is all but over up in every category. Most competition shooters are cleaning gear, evaluating their performances and adjusting their equipment and training for next year.

Seems my competitive shooting friend Rob Leatham wasn't kidding about his being ready for competition this season. At Gunsite very early this year, Rob told me he felt like he was in the best competition shape- mentally and physically - he'd been in some time. Later in the season, he laughingly told me that he'd come home from a road trip to find his practice ammo supply significantly depleted. The reason? Rob's wife, Kippi, had decided she was going to step up her game as well.

With them both taking home titles from Area 2, it may be time for Springfield Armory to consider bringing out another of the "TGO" signature pistols - this time, instead of the "The Great One" it will have to read "The Great Ones". Just a passing thought.

As the seasons wind down, it's probably fair to say that the mainstreaming of shooting is progressing better than many had predicted. Some of it has to do with the performances of American shooters internationally, but a lot of the credit can still go to the very people who seemingly want to regulate or remove firearms.

Between Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi telling anyone who'll listen that gun control is still on her radar screen, and Attorney General Eric Holder telling Congress that he wants guns registered -and registration information shared among government agencies, there's enough paranoia to get anyone who might want to own a firearm headed to the store.

Holder, in fact, says the "position of the Administration" is that there should be a basis for law enforcement to share information about gun purchases. That "position" he contends, would respect both the Second Amendment and the Heller decision upholding the individual right to firearm ownership.

Seems the administration is still holding on firm on another position: say whatever you think people want you to say, then do whatever you please. Be for it - before you vote against it.

Personally, I'm not exactly excited about coming back from a holiday where the goal is to spend time reflecting on the good things we enjoy as citizens of the United States to find the same old power politics we left last Wednesday. In fact, it seems the situation for gun owners has gotten worse in only four days.

With four Lakewood, Washington police officers having been gunned down in what was apparently a targeted execution, you can bet the cry will go out that a gun registration would have prevented the tragedy.

Some police chiefs will immediately go on record as saying that it's too-easy for criminals and crazies to get guns. I'm betting the administration will go on the offensive as well (Unless the shooter has some sort of middle eastern connection, of course).

And terrorist attacks have been breaking out left-and-right around the world the past few days. Not a happy prelude to the holiday season.

Two years ago, I attended a small conference to discuss terrorism. One session in particular dealt with scenarios designed to cause as much "shock and awe" as possible.

I left that session with a completely different idea as to what type of terrorist acts would have the most damaging impact on average Americans.

To make Americans afraid, you don't fly airplanes into skyscrapers and kill thousands. Grand gestures, in the words of Admiral Yamamoto "wake the sleeping giant" and American retribution is, indeed, horrible.

Nope, to strike fear into the American public, you bring terrorism home through small, seemingly random attacks on places and people you would think safe.

Think, for discussion sake, of a domestic military post or a small-town coffee shop. The soldiers wouldn't be under arms, they'd be doing the non-combat things that occupy the time of soldiers with domestic postings.

And the police officers wouldn't be in a high-speed pursuit, or shootouts, they'd be sipping coffee and reading their computers.

And the attacks wouldn't be in major metropolitan areas.

They'd be in areas where heinous crimes are all but unheard of. The goal of terror, after all, is to make people feel unsafe in their familiar surroundings.

I'm not saying there's the slightest bit of correlation between recent acts of savagery, but it's not far-fetched to say that people are beginning to feel uneasy about their normal lives.

To have a government full of "leaders" whose idea of safety lies in complete and absolute reliance on the state to protect you (or control you) while being afraid of offending people sworn to destroy us, is enough to drive people to the shooting ranges.

Normally, I'd be cleaning and locking away most of my firearms because the winter weather will soon make shooting - at least outdoors - unpleasant.

This year, I'm going to spend more time practicing in the off season.

Who knows, maybe I'll be more competitive next season, too.

We'll keep you posted.

--Jim Shepherd