Wow, I am so pumped up!
I’ve had it on my To Do List to update my Blog Roll and my List of Twitter . . . um . . . X accounts, for maybe 2 years.
Today, I updated my Blog Roll!
Go check it out. In the meantime, if you know of X accounts I should list, please message me here, or email me at FillYerHands at Gmail dot com.
Thank you all for your patience on my slow update, and my terrible sense of humor.
Last week I successfully completed my exam to renew my certification as a USPSA Range Officer. I passed it with a 100% score*, 20 of 20 questions, on my first try.
I mention (brag?) my score because this was the first time I had aced it, and one of the only times I passed it on the first try.
I think I know why I did better this time than before:
Experience.
I mean, it should make sense that the longer you do something, the better you get at it, provided you work on improving your understanding of it.
Which leads me to the point of this post – why become a range officer.
I have been a USPSA Range Officer since 2013, and I have taken the RO class twice**. I started shooting USPSA in 2008, and after two years, I decided to take the class so I could add to the number of ROs that were available to referee the matches.
Taking the class was an eye opener. And working as an RO in the USPSA State Championships and National Championships really expanded my knowledge of match workings, how to set my strategies, and got me a lot more engaged with other shooters.
But in all that time, I have found that the real advantage of being an RO is it has helped me improve my shooting. I have moved up a level since becoming an RO.
How did that happen? For me, it was all about focus.
Learning the rules in class, and why they were added, sharpens my focus. Focusing on safety helps me focus on where to move, and how to act.
On a day to day basis, reading the newsletters, and taking the exams help me focus.
So, why become a Range Officer? It will help you shoot better in the long run, and you will be safer, and know more good people. It worked for me.
* Ok, not perfect. On one question I got the answer right, but it said I got the rule number wrong. It turns out the rule I referred to also included the working in the other rule. So to me, I was right.
** I had to take the class again because I let my certification lapse due to The Late Unpleasantness.
In 2021, I got the honor to serve as Range Officer for the USPSA Georgia State Championships. As they do in many higher level matches, I got to choose from an awards table, and I got awarded a pair of Hunters HD Gold shooting glasses, and I must say, they have been the best pair of safety glasses, shooting or otherwise, that I have ever had the pleasure of wearing.
First, what makes them so usable is the glasses designed so that no matter how bright the day is, or how dark, I see the same view through the lenses. This is a wonderful feature that lets me wear them in the brightest day, or in stormy weather.
Second, the frames are very comfortable, with side shields. They are very sturdy, and easily cleanable.
Third, they adhere fully to ANSI standards, making them the safest glasses I own. For those who may not know, I am a degreed chemical engineer, who spent over 20 years in the petroleum and specialty chemicals industry, before moving into engineering recruiting. One of the earliest things I learned in industry is the first thing that new shooters should be taught – SAFETY COMES FIRST. Never enter an operating area with wearing the appropriate safety gear – eyewear, hearing protection, safety boots, hard hats, and the like.
Likewise, in shooting, we have safety rules we follow, the most well known being Jeff Cooper’s Rules. To the Four classic rules, I added Rule Zero: Eyes and ears! In other words, always wear safety glasses and hearing protection.
The American National Safety Institute – ANSI – sets the standard for safety glasses under code Z87.1.
So, when I got my glasses, I noted they are code Z87-2+, meaning they are specified as impact resistant.
As a side note, I reached out to the safety manager at the company where I work, and he agreed that in addition to being shooting glasses, these would be very good for me to wear as working safety glasses, were I to go into an industrial environment that required safety glasses.
Also, I must say that working with Brian Conley at Hunters HD Gold was one of the easiest order processes I have had the pleasure of having.
In summary, I have found my Hunters HD Gold shooting glasses to be the safest, most visually appealing, and most comfortable shooting glasses I have ever used, and I highly recommend them to my fellow shooters, and to those who need eye protection.
It occurred to me recently that the gunsense crowd know full well that the father of the recent Apalachee school shooter, who bought the gun his son used, passed his background check to purchase the gun.
They also know that criminals who buy guns illegally will never go through a background check.
Yet they insist that Universal Background Checks are the answer. That if only we would require them for all purchases of guns (and ammo and holsters and cleaning brushes), the world would be safe.
Why do they persist?
Because this is merely one step in their plan.
Consider:
One bright sunny day, the ebil NRA has some kind of stumble, and we get a Universal Background Check law.
There is dancing in the streets. Holidays are announced in California and Massachusetts. Children spend the day in the park, reading essays about the bright future ahead.
Yet over the next few months, there is no increase in the number of persons denied guns because of a background check. Legal sales of guns do not go down. Any.
Worse, another well-publicized shooting happens, done by someone who passed a background check.
Crime does not decline.
So, finally, the gunsense crowd admit, with stern faces, that they were wrong, that Universal Background Checks were not, in fact, the answer to all the world’s problems.
And they announce, instead, that since it is obvious that no one can be trusted, even with a clean background, that they will be announcing their plans to move forward and call for universal confiscation of all firearms.
“Turn them all in, Mr. and Mrs. America.”
Prove to me I’m wrong.
