My wife is taking an opportunity to clean out her office as she keeps a wary eye on me, her ever impatient patient as I recover from knee surgery. She has had tens of binders full of materials from our days as Cub Scout and Boy Scout leaders piling up on her bookshelf for years.
As she has sorted and tossed certain papers, perhaps the hardest to watch her part with have been the materials from her days as a certified shooting sports instructor. She took classes and was certified by the NRA as a youth shooting sports instructor. But she loved spending days on the BB gun range with her Cub Scouts.
Yes, she's a country girl raised in East Texas who hunted and can shoot with the best of them. But that had nothing to do with why she loved teaching shooting sports to young boys. (Note here that shooting sports encompasses BB guns, rifles, shotguns and bow and arrow) It had everything to do with seeing that spark in a young boy's eyes as he accomplished something, sometimes a scary something to a young one.
I've never seen her more patient than when teaching boys to shoot and they loved her. They would get so excited when they shot well and scored points for awards. They loved the sense of accomplishment and the thrill of doing something serious and sometimes dangerous. They were learning to love learning and seeing successes from practice and effort.
The boys were taught safety above all. They were taught respect for what a weapon can do, how it can be dangerous but with following procedures, instruction and rules, it could be fun. It taught them to focus, concentrate, hone a hand-eye coordination skill and to have fun outside.
Funny, not one of them grew up to be a menace to society or a mass shooter. They all enjoyed their time, some went on to be sportsmen, some did not. So what? They all learned.
We're still slowly eroding the skills young men need to learn, and more importantly, the reasons behind rules, procedures and policies and why following them doesn't make you a sheep, but a productive citizen.
Go ahead, take your shot at my views, but aim.
Semper Fortis
Chief Chuck
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