BLAZE Magazine Winter 2013 | Page 50

SAT-C Small Arms Training-Consultants, LLC By Chip McEwen L ong ago when America was made up of many rural agricultural farm homes and small towns, young boys and girls learned about hunting and firearm shooting from grandpa’s, fathers, uncles or other men in their extended families who lived nearby. It was a simple time and knowing how to harvest game animals was part of the food to feed the family. Those young people who lived in the large metropolitan cities may only have learned about firearms through the “picture show” and occasionally from their friendly local beat police officer. 50 | BLAZE | WINTER 2013 Following WWII there was a tremendous growth in population in the metropolitan areas as people moved from the farms and small towns to the “Big City’” and “Suburbs” for the new higher paying jobs in the post-war economic growth of American manufacturing fueled by our new role in the world community as a “Superpower.” At this time as extended families became more separated in distance from each other, the time-honored tradition of young boys and girls getting to hunt or shoot their first firearm started to fade. Easy opportunities to have open spaces in which to shoot firearms diminished, as the parents of these young people moved their families. During the 1960s and ‘70s the changing of society brought on with the Vietnam War, social changes of the “baby boom” generation coming into adulthood, and the beginning growth of the technological revolution saw changes in the introduction of youth to the shooting sports. Old time organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America, Junior ROTC, Accept No Limits | outdoorwomenunlimited.org