Please note: my support of the shooting sports is in no way intended to support or promote violence against anything but paper targets. For information on gun safety and responsible gun ownership, please visit www.nra.org

I do it for the peace of it.

There is a music to it, a centered rightness, a clear focus from which it all works well. When I'm on the line, and the commands are given, and all the bolts slap home up and down the line, it is a song, and with each snap, I feel a piece of me settle into place. After the first shot, I don't hear my neighbors. I barely hear my own rifle, I mostly just feel it. I hear my breathing. All I see is the front sight, and the blur of the target and bullseye. If I've got the focus right, and the position right, and it's all working, the joy wells up like singing.

The first time I got behind the sights of a little .22 rifle that belonged to the fellow I was living with at the time, I found myself thinking "I could be good at this". So now I'm going to find out just how good at it I can be. I will not settle for half-ass.

I do it because my score depends on my skill, and it doesn't matter that I'm fat and unattractive - there are no points for fashion or beauty, just for the holes in the target.

I do it to be proud of my successes.

I love knowing that I've done well without spending top dollar for a tricked-out match rifle. I get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing that every round I sent downrange was one that I loaded myself, assembling brass, powder, and bullets into accurate, dependable ammunition. (Except for the days I didn't have my brain on and came to the range short, and borrowed...)

I do it for the company.

There are great people on the range - we often disagree on matters of politics and religion, but nobody denies my right to shoot, my right to be there, my right to join in, and many folks have gone to a great deal of trouble to include me and help me. Yeah, maybe to some I'm just their token girl, but that usually works to my advantage.
I would not be competing if it weren't for the help of my fellow shooters, in particular David McFarling and Rob Noel, both of whom have coached, loaned equipment, given advice, bailed me out of technical difficulties, listened to me cuss and cry, and helped haul me and my gear to matches.

July, 2001:

An interesting perspective, and a little known fact; since Columbine there have been 37 children murdered in public schools, and 53 children killed playing football.
Both are appalling numbers, but when will the Million Moms decide to take on football?

Center for Disease Control - 1999 - Deaths in 0-14 yr olds:
Automobiles 2608
Drowning 1010
Pedestrian 675
Bicycle 201
Firearms 142
Total 4636