Get 'em young

Boys love guns. They always have and always will. Give a boy a gun and he wants to shoot. Offer to teach him how to shoot better - and you have yourself an enthusiastic pupil!

But boys like shooting, not lecturing. The boys at our camp start shooting immediately to see if they can hit some of the black spot. As they show that they would like some help, they get it. The results of this method are better scores, more shooters, a better attitude towards the game, and a continued interest in improving their ability.

So opens an article from the June, 1945 American Rifleman, a gift from ASM826. It describes a different time, with different attitudes. Certainly many of us who think these are words of wisdom, worthy of engraving in letters of gold on a marble tablet - we think twice before we tell people in the neighborhood that we like shooting.

Johnny, you can't go play at #2 Son's house. They like guns.

My point is not to reopen the discussion on "guns are evil" vs. "people can be evil". The method that they described in 1945 hits squarely on a point that it took me a while to realize. Shooting needs to be fun.

This is why I'm uninterested in competitive target shooting. Never mind that while my slow fire accuracy is pretty decent, my rapid fire accuracy is dreadful. Instead, the repeated annoyance of not continually exceeding my previous high score would suck the fun right out of my range time. That's be a cryin' shame, right there. Like Golf.

The most important think I learned from Kim du Toit's writing is shoot a lot. It'd better be fun, or you're signing up for an all expenses paid trip to Sisyphus' Theme Park.

And you'd lose this:
And this. It's not just boys who can love guns:

Different world, same world. Like this:

Few youngsters can afford the equipment and ammunition needed for this game. Many are not allowed to have them even if they can be afforded.

And this:

A boy and his gun go together like a boy and his dog.

I'm a lucky man - I can often get a family member to the range with me. The family that shoots together hits the X-Ring together. Lord, thank you for giving me the wisdom to let them have fun.
And thank you, ASM826, for your gift, which has given me many hours of reading pleasure, and many more hours of interesting pondering.