Monday, May 07, 2007

Appleseed - Yakima April 2007

For the first time in years I attended an organized rifle training course since I was in the military.
This was an "Appleseed" - organized by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association
http://www.rwva.org   - who are working to restore the basic military rifle marksmanship that people of the United States were taught starting starting with the initial settlers through to about mid 1960s when all basic rifle marksmanship in the general populace started to be discouraged by the Federal Government - and thus imposed through various sub government entities to the whole population.
 The 1968 Gun control Act (enacted as a reaction to multiple political assassinations that year) started a general decline in marksmanship that was a result of both policy and population shift from mostly rural living at the turn of the century to where now the percentage of population that lives in a "rural" area is down to 15% of the total US Population.   "In 1900, 60 percent of the people lived in rural areas and 40 percent lived in urban areas. In 1990, only 25 percent lived in rural areas,  with 75 percent in urban areas."
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/1999/cb99-238.html  The 2000 Census had 281 million in metropolitan areas and 225 in rural making it 19% - I would suspect that is 15% now due to influx of both illegals having moved here and the continued movement from rural to metro areas.  The population of the US passed 300 million sometime in February 2007 (Census estimate.)  
 Many hunting, firearm restrictions are being placed nationwide , some on just the discharge  or even being seen with a firearm and you limit the ability of the vast majority to get to a location where they can practice marksmanship.  Yes there are "gun clubs" but this also imposes extra fees (mainly insurance and liability) and the maintenance of the facility. This can amount to a low of a few hundred dollars to likely a few thousand dollars in heavily (unnecessarily) regulated sites near cities. Plus to really have a true RIFLE range you need to have 2000 feet of distance to practice at (for both target range needs) plus the backstops, berms, etc that are needed to be effectively safe.
Given the nature of the Federal Government in the US, and the constant shrill of people stating that there is no need to "allow" people to have weapons (which by the 2nd Amendment states that right to "arms" cannot be taken away by the Government) which by long term effect means that people who DO join the military have NO clue what-so-ever of how to really use the weapons they are given. The US since the 1960s has relied on massive REAR AREA firepower to make up for the decline in marksmanship (in addition to the political desire to have the least amount of troops in the "front line" to lower political risks when deploying the military) and the heavy reliance on sophisticated - and hence complicated and dominoed weapon systems - to make up for the lack of accurate rifle fire on the ground.
This is not to say that they cannot hit the enemy - but often only if within 300 feet and only if they are standing in the open and not moving (snipers exempted from this generalization.)
One of the effects of the long term campaign to cast all gun owners as "outlaws" and that "modern" society no longer needs to have ANY weapons to defend themselves - modern society being so "safe" compared to 300 years ago - is that since the world-wide campaign started back in the 1960s the US has effectively lost any LONG term war that it has fought since Korea. If you took a company of US soldiers, put them up against a company of foreign soldiers and TOOK AWAY their artillery, airpower, and had a old WW II style infantry vs. infantry fight - I think that the US company would lose. They are not trained to fight like that - they will call in an F-16 to drop a bomb on a house rather than take it the "World War II" style. This is a top down driven policy and as such, the need to have accurate aimed rifle fire is NOT stressed or required.(The Marines I believe STILL teach marksmanship, but still not stressed as much as it was in WW II and before.)
This means that the 99% of the people who join the military have NO heritage or ability to accurate fire and hit a target (I include myself in this, I fired a 22 rifle when growing up, but at 20' it was meaningless as far as marksmanship goes and I was never trained on how to really use a rifle by my dad.) This "growing up" with weapons is what I think really helped us win World War I and II - a trained cadre of people who knew how to use a rifle BEFORE joining the military and getting even a BETTER rifle than what they used to hunt with when growing up - I doubt if there are any Audie Murphy's out there anymore.
The Appleseed program is a countrywide effect to train people - and especially the youngest generation - how to effectively handle a rifle and hit targets at 200+ yards. For those people who are unlikely to get into the military it is to train them so that they can teach those who live locally on how to be a "rifleman."
The Appleseed uses the AQT - Army Qualification Test - in their training.
Going to a two day class for most people will NOT put them into the top level score that is required to be classified at the top rank. The best I did in the military was get 68 out of 80 targets (25 meters to 300 meters) but then I only shot once a year - during qualification. At the Yakima event I did average (course with bad eyes and not being able to even SEE the target 70% of the time did not help) with my fixed iron sighted rifle.
Another one comes up in July 2007 in Medford, Oregon.

1 Comments:

Blogger Dennis Mai said...

I think the markmanship of gang members are very good. Everyone needs an AK-47 in their homes.

12:07 PM  

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