I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

In addition to being an excellent athlete, Jordan is known for his relentless training and never ending commitment to excelling and keeping his sport pure. 

What does this have to do with shooting?  Athletes often return to the fundamentals; shooters should follow their example.  Sometimes, you have to take it back to the basics.

When was the last time that you stopped and “watched” what you were doing when you were at the range?  Even advanced shooters can benefit from practice of the fundamentals.  Here are some refreshers to reflect on:

Grip refers to how the gun is held. Whether one- or two-handed, the grip should be high, firm and consistent. Create a good grip by placing the backstrap in the web of the hand and wrapping the fingers around the stock. For the two-handed grip, bring the support hand around the front of the grip so that the fingers of both hands overlap.

Aiming determines the point of impact and consists of sight alignment and sight picture. The proper way to aim is to align the front sight at the same height and centered with the back sight and pictured against the target with the eyes’ focused on the front sight.

Breath Control minimizes gun movement. Practice by taking a deep breath, letting out half and holding it during the shot.

Hold Control is holding the gun motionless while aiming and firing through a firm grip and a stable shooting position. Physical fitness and muscle tone is important for hold control.

Trigger Control is squeezing the trigger without moving the sights by gradually increasing pressure to the trigger in a way that the shot comes as a surprise. If you know when the gun will fire, you’ll very likely miss the target.

Follow Through ensures a good shot by implementing all shooting fundamentals before, during and after the shot the same way every time. While it might take years to master, eventually this becomes almost instinct.

What other fundamentals can you think of?

We’d love to hear from you.

ProShots Range Staff

The best advice we can offer you is that open communication and constant training are a must.

If you teach them nothing else, they must be taught this cardinal rule:

If you find a gun, stop, don’t touch it, leave the area, and tell an adult.

Period.

Even if you do not own a gun,  that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t teach your kids the basic safety procedures.  Think about it – would you not teach your child how to swim just because you didn’t have a pool?  Consider this – nearly half the homes in America have a gun and it’s safe to assume that at some point, your child is going to run into a situation where they will need this critical information.

If you’ve never read the book Freakonomics, you must go and read it immediately.  One of the most riveting parts is where the author discusses parents misplaced fears using guns and swimming pools as an example.   Here’s an excerpt:

Consider the parents of an eight-year-old girl named, say, Molly. Her two best friends, Amy and Imani, each live nearby. Molly’s parents know that Amy’s parents keep a gun in their house, so they have forbidden Molly to play there. Instead, Molly spends a lot of time at Imani’s house, which has a swimming pool in the backyard. Molly’s parents feel good about having made such a smart choice to protect their daughter.

But according to the data, their choice isn’t smart at all. In a given year, there is one drowning of a child for every 11,000 residential pools in the United States. (In a country with 6 million pools, this means that roughly 550 children under the age of ten drown each year.) Meanwhile, there is 1 child killed by a gun for every 1 million-plus guns. (In a country with an estimated 200 million guns, this means that roughly 175 children under ten die each year from guns.) The likelihood of death by pool (1 in 11,000) versus death by gun (1 in 1 million-plus) isn’t even close: Molly is roughly 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident at Imani’s house than in gunplay at Amy’s.

Knowledge and training.

Resources for your children.

There are some great sites available for your kids to find GOOD information on guns and gun safety.  One of our favorites is the kids only section of Save the Guns.  Here, you can find guidelines for what to do if you find a gun, Q&A for different types of guns and much more.  For more information. While it’s a little more dated, the guidance and information doesn’t change.  American Derringer provides a very thorough list of rules and guidelines for having a gun with children in the house.  The Eddie Eagle program thru the NRA is another great choice.  The lessons are presented by the program’s mascot (Eddie the Eagle) in a way that’s easy for the kids to remember.

What are some sites that you have come across that are beneficial to you and your family?  Have you had a real life scare or were your kids well prepared to handle a situation?

We’d love to hear from you.

ProShots Range Staff

Disclaimer – we did NOT write this but it came across our desk and we HAD to share it with you.  Hope it moves you as much as it did us.

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another:  reason and force.  If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force.  Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception.  Reason or force, that’s it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion.  Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force.  You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats.  The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations.  These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job.  That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat – it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society.  A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury.  This argument is fallacious in several ways.  Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst.  The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker.  If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter.  It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone.  The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded.  I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid.  It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force.  It removes force from the equation… And that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret.)

So the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.

Handguns

• Smith & Wesson Mod 4043 — Cal. 40 S&W
• Smith & Wesson Mod 36 Revolver — Cal. 38 special
• Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm (full size)
• Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm (compact)
• Springfield XD-40   cal. 40 S&W
• Sig Sauer Mosquito .22 LR
• Beretta 96  cal. 40 S&W
• Smith & Wesson 66  6″ stainless .357 Magnum
• Beretta U22 Neo  cal. .22 LR
• Ruger MK III  22/45  cal. 22LR

Rifles

• Smith & Wesson MP AR/22
• Rock River M4  cal .223

Our rentals are (obviously) only for rent for use AT the range.  Handguns are $10 and rifles are $20.

Carry On!

ProShots Range Staff