THINGS PEOPLE DON’T THINK ABOUT
One reason shooting is such a great hobby is that it’s a tremendously good stress-reliever. A lot of people don’t understand how this works. They think that we go to the range, imagine our boss’ face on the picture downrange, and act out some homicidal rage by shooting it again and again. That’s not how it works at all.
The reason shooting is such a good stress reliever is that, like sky-diving or rock climbing or SCUBA diving, you have to concentrate on what you’re doing to the point where all other BS is excluded from your mind. You must concentrate or you can get killed! Our focus on safe shooting banishes our thoughts of job stress, family problems or whether our team won the Super Bowl. If at any time we find ourselves on the line preoccupied with other, more compelling thoughts, it’s time to pack up and stop shooting for awhile, perhaps for the rest of the day. Not because we’re going to have a psychotic break, but because we can’t concentrate suffciently on something that demands our complete attention. We do it this way for the same reason that we tell our teenage children not to drive when they’re upset.
In defensive shooting, as in martial arts, the practitioner seeks to become so skillful that the techniques may be employed automatically without thinking about them when the proper stimulus comes. This is all to the good. However, we must walk a fine line when it comes to firearms safety. Automatic pilot is a fine thing, but it cannot be trusted exclusively. We must always strive for a “conscious competence” level when we’re performing firearms safety tasks. We must think about what we are doing. If we have achieved the ideal Zen state of unconscious competence in firearms handling and do everything correctly without thinking about it, that’s wonderful, but we need to double check once more at the conscious competence level to confirm the good job that we hope our unconscious competence carried out.
We need to be ruthlessly and honestly critical of ourselves. If we have what are currently called “anger management problems,” we won’t be ready to have immediate access to loaded firearms until those things are under control. If we sleepwalk, it may not be a good idea having guns available in the bedroom.
A good friend of mine is a worldclass competitive shooter with a strong background in law enforcement. He is one of the most well-adjusted human beings and family men I know. He also happens to be a very deep sleeper, and tends to be a bit groggy and disoriented for several seconds when suddenly awakened. Recognizing that, he has made a point of keeping his home defense pistol, a Browning 9mm semiautomatic, in a secured drawer across the bedroom. It is stored with the chamber empty. He knows that by the time he has gotten up, crossed the room, retrieved the gun, and chambered a round, he will be awake and clear-headed. This is the kind of selfanalysis we all need
