
Lux_On_Lex
I started off with firearms early on in life. My Dad was a Combat Veteran of the Vietnam War. My Grandfather was a hunting safety instructor who and taught my father early on, so it was sort of a family tradition. When I was 5, we lived on a cattle ranch in Gilroy, CA. So, firearms were just a way of life. My Dad was an owner operator truck driver after getting out of the Army and he was not home a lot of the time. So, it was my job to protect my mom and the house.
He took me out by one of the barns and he set up 3 tomato bins, stacked on top of each other. He then set three empty spray paint cans side by side about three inches apart. I had watched him shoot before, so I had a basic idea. He gave me the (Then) 3 Rules about firearms safety. 1. Treat all firearms as though they are loaded. 2. Never point a firearm at anyone, unless in self defense. 3. Don’t pull the trigger until you have acquired the target. Remember, this is 1978, we are luck they had rules.
Then he gave me the riddle after showing me what a sight picture looked like. Put the B.B. between the doors of the house, whatever sits on top of the B.B. is what you will hit. The riddle was, “You have one shot, I want you to knock down all three spray paint cans with one shot.” So I looked at the targets, wondering how this is accomplished. I asked “Can I shoot the cans from the side?” He said “No, straight on, one shot.” It was an older Remington, single shot, bolt action .22 LR, so he was right when he said one shot.
I thought about it and the solution dawned on me. So, I lifted the barrel and wavered with the weight yet was able to put the B.B. between the house of where I wanted to shoot. I squeezed the trigger and “Bang!” all three paint cans fell down. He did not say a word. He took the gun from me and simply said “Follow me”. We went to the shop inside the barn and he told me to hold out my arm. He then put the rifle in my hand and placed the stock on top of my shoulder. Marking it with a wax pencil, he took the rifle and hacksawed the stock to fit a 5 year old. I asked him why he did that. He said “Because you thought before you pulled the trigger.”
Fast forward and 1000’s of rounds with Dad, I got my exposed weapons permit in 1994 and worked Armed Security. I then trained at the Sheriff’s Academy in 1998, then again in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary 2002, then again as a Federal Protective Security Officer in 2008 and more training, certification and qualifications when I wrote the first independent PSO training manual in 2010 and then worked as a Quality Assurance Manager for the federal infrastructure contracts, through GSA, with DHS and FPS/ICE until 2012. So, there are many years of formal training and informal practice, qualifications and the whole gambit. So, if anyone has any questions or want to know more, just ask. While I am no expert by any stretch of the means, I do have some workable knowledge that is still applicable. Cheers and Thank you for reading!