Guns: The Appleseed Project

One of the things I sometimes neglect when I write about guns is the necessity of passing on the tradition of firearms marksmanship to the next generation of shooters (and I'm not just talking about children). There's something special that happens when you turn a man into a rifleman - as Jeff Cooper and others have remarked, learning to use a rifle effectively and responsibly can turn a subject into a citizen.

It's also no secret that the Founding Fathers relied on this principle when they were constructing our government; no less than John Adams wrote that our country was unique in all the world because of our tradition of private firearms ownership. Like most Americans in those days, he viewed the private possession of arms as going hand in hand with local government and civic virtue. From Federalist No. 46:

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.

The Appleseed Project aims to keep this centuries-old tradition of civil-minded shooting alive. I've never been to one of their events, but it sounds like fun, or at least an opportunity to learn and talk in a casual environment. The contrast between what we're free to do in this country (gather together, shoot rifles, and talk about politics and freedom) versus what other people around the world have to put up with is pretty stark.