In spite of the widening gulf between the well mannered sports guests in luxury suites and the parking lot psychos at an open flame tailgater, both sides hide the same empty feeling.
So do you. But what is it?
We love seeing the best of the best play for all the marbles even if steroids changed the definition of the best of the best and Human Growth Hormones remains untested. Legitimate prescription drugs in the wrong players blurs the issue further.
Recruiting scandals and point shaving referees make you doubt the outcome of any game.
Who are the real winners?
Before sports and negotiated peace settlements, war was the defining contest. Winners were countries with the last man standing on the battlefield. Warriors proved their mettle with sticks and stones, then swords and spears, and eventually guns and bombs.
Sports note: All except sticks and bombs eventually found their way into the Olympics.
With that in mind, target shooting is the last remaining pure competition. You either hit the target or not. In today’s culture even target shooting is questionable activity. If you know how to shoot a gun, you're a gun nut. If you don't shoot, you must be a nanny-state liberal trying to protect everyone from everything you don't understand.
Where's the middle ground?
Call your friends and tell them you're organizing a target shoot out in the deep woods. Take targets. Bring along bags for garbage and empty shells. Agree on no alcohol. Set a firing line with no one allowed down range after setting the targets.
At the end of the day everyone participating is a winner and eligible for the next stage of firearms experience at the Saddle Butte Machine Gun Shoot sponsored by the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club. It's held once a year in the middle of May, too late to join in 2013.
My buddy takes his son for a lesson. It's expensive, but the results are priceless. This kid will grow up knowing more about the power of weapons than most.
Shooting sports are not for the faint of heart, or only macho men, but for everyone to learn from.
Education is the key.
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