Waco, GA April 16-17, 2016

[franklinfarmer]

We had a great group of shooters on a beautiful weekend at the West Georgia Youth Range. 

Lt. K organized the shoot and set the tone with quotes from Thomas Paine's pamphlet "The American Crisis" and various writings of Thomas Jefferson.  Lt. K emphasized Paine's observations concerning "summer soldiers and sunshine patriots" and Jefferson's description of the Declaration as an attempt to capture what was in the minds of the rebelling colonists.  A job well done by my estimation.

Goose took up the third strike with an emphasis on the brutality faced by those on all sides in the true outbreak of war and the desperate circumstances of many individuals.  In such a time, it is surely  advisable to surround oneself with those whose thinking has been done in advance, like General William Heath, and those whose performance is a cut above, like the colonists who carried out Heath's strategy. 

For myself, I tried to frame the events of April 19, 1775 as a conflict of interest between a relatively successful livestock management team (King George, his supporters in parliament, and their enforcers) and colonists in North America---farmers, shopkeepers, craftsmen, merchants/smugglers---who, through benign neglect, developed the audacious notion that they were capable of managing (and defending) themselves.  In this connection, I offered the suggestion that freedom be viewed as the ability to act without the constraints of fundamentally arbitrary dictates of society (as no human we know of has ever existed outside society and can operate for long without certain fundamental, natural and moral, constraints).  Liberty, on the other hand, is the collection of actions one can exercise after freedom is diminished by the imposition of fundamentally arbitrary demands of a particular society.  Which arbitrary demands do you wish to have imposed on you?

There was a broad consensus that liberty is decreasing in our society, and I am confident that each individual shooter we had this weekend can commit himself to turning the tide.

There was steady improvement for most shooters on marksmanship, and we hope they retain the fundamentals we were trying to get across.  Stable platform, six steps, NPOA.  Let me only add to that:  dryfire, dryfire, dryfire.  Perfect practice makes perfect.

Congratulations to Michael (now Eyemikeb on the forum) who stepped up to take an orange hat.

Our only new rifleman score was Erica (huzzah!) with several others knocking on the door (huzzah! to that too) and yet several others requalifying.

I'm sure others below will add a special word of thanks to our youth shooters Kyrsten, Emma, Jackson, Walker and A.J. and their parents who brought them out.  Apologies if I missed anyone. 

Shooters listen up:  One purpose of this AAR (aside from giving goose a place to store his digital photos without having to pay for extra disk space) is for you to give us instructors some constructive feedback.  Please do that.

ff

[brianf31]

Congrats Erica! I work with your dad. He was bragging on you.

[American Savage]

Wow, what an awesome Appleseed!!!!
It was an honour and a privilege to have been the Sbit at the event!
None of us could have asked for any better weather, it was perfect the entire weekend!!!
The shooters all came prepared, not only with a teachable willing spirit, but, with impeccable equipment as well.
The shooting accuracy improvement was only surpassed by the wonderful history lessons presented by the instructors.

The shooters were some of the safest I have seen, not 1 muzzle sweep. Every shooter made safety their number 1 priority on the line, and it showed. Because of the flow of the event, the spirit of the shooters, and the safety on the line, we had a very high round count in my opinion, compared to other events that I have worked. We were not only were able to execute the Volley Fire on time as scheduled, but, also we were able to get in 2 full AQT's on Saturday. FranklinFarmer's first strike set the pace for the history, and was an incredible lesson for new shooters and experienced instructors as well. The shooters, when needed, worked as a team, and worked as if they had practised a waltz it was that smooth. I can not thank the shooters themselves enough.

The enthusiasm, dedication to safety, and willingness to participate on the part of the shooters made this event remarkable.

We had 1 Shoot Boss promotion.
We had 1 Rifleman patch earned. (Erica, congratulations!!!)
We had 1 IIT promotion (congratulations Agrivere!!!)
And we had one shooter who is now Eyemikeb in the Forum, who became an IIT0 and who has begun the path of instructor, by asking for, and accepting his orange hat; congratulations and thanks Eyemikeb!!! I still look forward to retiring that hat Michael!

The most impressive thing to me was the younger shooters, they had such a determined positive attitude and willingness to learn it was amazing. They overcame the quick pace of the instruction, equipment issues, and just showed the grit and determination that I believe would make the founders of this Great Nation proud!!!

We had a wonderful event, and I want to personally thank each and every shooter and Instructor for making it so special! What a way to celebrate Patriots Day!!!!

Agrivere did a wonderful job with a perfectly timed flow as line boss as an IIT0 and his first time calling the line and deserves kudos for a job well done!
Goose and FranklinFarmer, Warp and Mechanic, you rounded out the group and were always a step ahead and made the event run smooth as silk, it is truly the instructors that make the event. Thank you all!!!
In Liberty,
Lt. K
(Jim)