Guns: Familiarity Breeds Competence

The following video is very instructive, but perhaps not in the way that the producers intended:



Compare the cute-but-ditsy girl in the above video with Adam Tyc, a member of CZ's IPSC team:



The girl sees the gun as a foreign device, something that takes a conscious effort to be safely handled and controlled. Her group at 6 meters is huge - the shotgun-like pattern of bulletholes she puts on target might be more visible to the audience, but it betrays a dearth of practice and defames a fantastic gun. I'm no IPSC champion, but it's not hard for me (nor anyone else with a week or so of training) to punch out a better group on paper, especially in slow fire. If my CZ-75 shot groups like the girl's, I'd send it back to the factory. :-P

Now, that's not to discourage beginners - everyone's initial targets will look like the girl's target. But these are the first steps to a goal, not the end, and to put you and your shooting on DVD in such sorry condition is surely not productive to anyone hoping to learn. Too often people will ventilate a silhouette on the range and go home thinking they have mastered pistolcraft, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Mr. Tyc's firearm, on the other hand, is an extension of his body. He is in full control of his tool, whether it's shooting in tight spaces or running down a hallway with the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. While there are many different types of shooting, one hallmark of all competent shooters is an intimate familiarity with the gun itself. Your firearm, whether it's a Camp Perry target-grade AR, a $20,000 over/under shotgun, or a custom-built CCW handgun, should not be a stranger to you. There's a good chance any champion shooter can recall how the sight picture on his or her gun looks from memory, or can trace out the curve of the gun's trigger or grip. When they bring up their firearm to their eyes, they know what to expect. To sum up: before you can display marksmanship worthy of being committed to video, you must know your gun, inside and out.

There are other criticisms I have with the first video, but, as I understand it, DVDs like that are made for viewers living in those countries where ordinary people are not able to own and shoot firearms. I sympathize with those living under such oppressive laws, but like most skills, shooting a gun is not something you can really learn from a video.