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,
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