We're Our Own Worst Enemies

Read this dead link.

Mr Scoutten's show, Shooting USA, has every right to air or not air anything he wants. It's his show and his rules. What I am objecting to is his implication that his rules apply outside his show.

He's also wrong about the police being civilians. The police need to be demilitarized and we don't need a prominent member of the gun-press encouraging them to be more like soldiers.

The dress code rankles me. Shooting is not golf. What I mean is that a dress code seems akin to a country club elitist attitude that does not belong with shooting. Shooting should be a common sport, an everyman activity. His ban on camouflage is the silliest part. Many shooting games are designed to improve ones skill as a hunter, and wearing camo is a part of hunting.

I would presume when he bans targets that aren't pre-approved by him that he's also eliminating events such as three gun matches.

His assertion that we should want the shooting sports to be covered as if it were a mainstream sport bugs me too. He's not saying it should be covered LIKE other mainstream sports, he's saying it should be covered AS IF IT WERE a mainstream sport. Mr Scoutten, it's already a mainstream activity, we just aren't televised and, in part, it's people like you who are trying to make it more like golf than baseball (or basketball) who are really at fault for that.

I've encountered his sort of elitism in the gun sports community before and I hate gun snobs. I used to shoot trap and field events. I dared to do so with a <GASP> pump shotgun with rifle sights and extended magazine. I was told, repeatedly, that I SHOULD be using an over-under. Preferably an over-under that cost about ten times what my Remington 870 cost. I was told, repeatedly, that my gun was too slow and unwieldy to be competitive. Guess who did quite well? I've got two third place trophies around somewhere.

It reminds me of when I got my first FAL. We were having fun blasting when one of the benchrest guys commented that he'd NEVER own such an inaccurate rifle. I conceded that his would print smaller groups, but that a battle rifle was meant for a different purpose and it was accurate enough and better than a scoped bolt action in many cases. It went back and forth a couple times and I offered to prove it. We set a couple of gallon jugs of water out at the 100 yard line. First person to hit their jug wins. Ready? GO! He starts to aim, I put the sights in the general direction of the target, bang bang bang bang bang bang bang splash, I win. "But it took you seven shots to hit it!" he exclaimed. "Yup, but that's seven more shots than you took and I hit it."