13Oct05

On Competition Shooting, from an Instructor:

"John, you're quoted a couple of times in an article by Barrett Till man, ' Can IPSC Get You Killed?' in the current edition of American Handgun ner Tactical Annual. Interesting, but it carefully avoids the essential issue, that of the shallow, self-consumed personality that lives only for games, scores, points, times, trophies, and assorted other juvenile twaddle.

Nobody wants to come out and say that IPSC, and most other shooting competition, attracts lightweight dingleberries, just as nobody wants to say that most 'qualification' exercises are little more than group ma sturbation with guns. Mass pretending is destructive, but we go on pretending, so politici ans can continue to attract votes from grasseaters."

Comment: Problems arise when gear, attitudes, and methods of competitors ge t mixed in with what is supposed to be legitimate "training" t hat is supposed to be preparing real people for genuine, lethal encounters with VCAs who are unfamiliar with the "rules!"

All training, worthy of the name, produces tough, hard, heavy-hitters, both

in attitude and method. Who care only about scores and personal aggrandizement rarely fill then bill.

/John