The Need of Rifle Practice
As a nation we are not what one would call modest and retiring. We do not carry self-effacement to embarrassing lengths -- we have a fair working knowledge of our good points and there have been cases on record where we have spoken of our various merits in a spirit akin to boasting. All in all we consider ourselves a pretty fine little people and the worst of it is we are most generally right.
We are the impudent youngster among nations and the special providence that watches over children has allowed us to accomplish the most amazing things in direct opposition to all reason. We brag like children and so far -- thanks be -- we have, in most cases, made good our bragging. There is one old moth-eaten boast, however, that should be put into storage for all time. This whiskered patriarch among verbal vacuums is the wholly false statement that "we are a nation of riflemen."
Perhaps it is a misplaced spirit of patriotism or it may be merely the effect of constant repetition that has caused this venerable lie to gain credence among those of us who should know better. Whatever the cause, the fact remains that this faith in our ability as marksmen is going to bring us up with a terrible jolt one of these days unless we can disabuse our minds of it and do it in a hurry.
The truth of the matter is that we are as far from being a nation of riflemen as it is possible for a people supplied with the usual number of arms and eyes to be -- and the quicker we realize this truth the less painful will be our awakening when the time comes. The phrase was not always a lie -- it had its birth back in revolutionary times when we were a nation of marksmen. Conditions fairly forced us to be crack shots -- when a citizen has to pause between furrows to pick off a scalp-hunting red brother it is safe to say that he will, in time, develop accuracy with the rifle.
The ability to shoot straight retreated westward before the civilization which swept away the necessity for that ability until today with arms and ammunition developed to the nth power of efficiency we have become absurdly inefficient ourselves.
If you were to stop the first hundred men you met to-day on Broadway, or State Street or on Any Street -- how many of them do you suppose could hit the other side of the street with a rifle? How many of these representative citizens, do you think, would have ever seen a Springfield, much less handled one? Good shots we have a plenty, the mortality among day pigeons is heavy and the amount of game that makes up our annual bag is shameful, but just how much is your field-shooting experience going to be worth to you when you have an army rifle put into your hands with instructions to use it on an animated target that fights back?
The need of consistent rifle practice among Americans is a vital issue and one which is growing in importance hourly. The National Guard contributes little if anything toward training our citizenry in the use of fire arms. Of the entire organized militia 33 per cent failed to make use of the State ranges last year, 80 per cent neglected indoor practice while 66 per cent did not qualify as marksmen. In case of war training camps would put our amateur soldiery into physical trim, but no two or three months will suffice to make marksmen of them.
The N. R. A. in conjunction with the Federal Government is doing good work as is evidenced by the record-breaking increase in membership during the past few months and it is to this organization that we must look for a solution of the problem. Every inducement is offered for the formation of local rifle clubs and it remains only to arouse public interest into action. Outing will be glad to furnish full details as to the formation of Government Civilian Rifle Clubs and to put you in touch with the proper authorities.
Form a club in your town and in addition to enjoying the most fascinating of sports under most favorable conditions you will be doing your share to re-establish our national standing among riflemen.
("The Need of Rifle Practice" led off "The Council Fire," a regular feature edited by L. Stewart Wells, in the December 1916 issue of Outing magazine. Cited previously on KintlaLake Blog: "Where are Tomorrow's Minutemen?" in the January 1959 issue of Guns Magazine; and "The Rifleman in Civil Defense" in the April 1959 issue of Guns Magazine.)
