| OCR Text |
Show Patriotism Abounds Among Trapshooters..and Riflemen Those Who Shoot at Traps and on the Range Are Aiding Work the Government Is Interested In. 1 N- UMBERS of good-intentioned individuals indi-viduals have at various times indicated in-dicated that in their opinions the powder burned over the traps and at the target range was wasted; that the Irapshooters and riflemen were unpatriotic in using an article of such vital importance to the armed forces of our land. Were these statements made during the lieat of angry passion we should ignore them, but, emanating as they do. from l.h mouths of serious-minded citizens, we tae the stand that ft is worth while to resent to them tho negative side of the argument. While it iff true that the rifle and shotgun shot-gun clubs are kept alie largely through the personal pleasure and persona! Interest Inter-est of their members, still It is welt to hear in mind that the early history of our v country was framed to a lartre extent by Hie rifles and fowling pieces of our fore's. fore-'s. b?grs. ''v ftj. those davs game of all kinds was plentiful and the early settler depended on his firearms for a large part of his daily subsistence; yes, and in addition to that he depended on his 'rifle as the orig- ! inal "hair preserver,"' when the wily, tivage, strange to relate, objected to the paleface encroachment on his domain, and would fain add one more scalp to h:s belt, j Shooters Are Scarce. Sine those rtirrjng times, however, a preat change has come over our land. Orfat cltieeThave sprung up in our midst, and we have changed from a. "nation of riflemen" to a nation of business men and fanners. Tnstd of every man having been schooled in the use of firearms from childhood it Is sa.ie to atate that not over per cent of our population has; ever fired a high-powered rifle. , Live ga.me- is scarce and few of ut; have the opportunity to depend on our skill as marksmen to "keeo the pot boiling" eo that among those individuals desiring: to uphold the traditions of our nation it has been perfectly natural to turn to the traps and target. That the various world governments have been alive to the advantages of this plan is apparent when we consider that fnr years past Switzerland has made rifle practice obligatory with every ablebodied mule. tVhen the war broke out in 1914 "Em-e;iand "Em-e;iand had over SPQO civilian rifle clubs fostered and encouraged by the British government, and1 let us remember that it was the thin red ine of '"England's' Contemptible Con-temptible Little Army" that held the German Ger-man trained -to -tile -minute horde at Tpres. Today the civilian rifle ranges in England En-gland are being used to train thcirNsol-diers thcirNsol-diers !n the use of the rifle and shotgun before sending them to the front. What America Is Doing-America Doing-America Vias been somewhat behind in this respect, although in 1905 congress parsed a bill authorizing the secretary of war to sell to rifle clubs affiliated with the National Rifle association arms, ammunition, am-munition, target HUppliet. etc., but not until lOltJ did it take steps to provide pitanee by actually appropriating "funds . with which to train civilians in the use of the arnrv rifle. The nati&ial defense act of June 3, 1916, Thich authorized the secretary of war to eVtablish and maintain indoor and outdoor rifle ranyes, carried an appropriation of 3320,000 for arms, ammunition:, targets and miscellaneous e.uppliep, trailing ex-nenFes ex-nenFes of instructors, etc.. and Includes $60,000 for transportation of tean:s of civilians ci-vilians authorized by the secretary of war to participate in the national rifle matches. This. then, is the encouragement given the civilian to "bum powder" at the rifie range. We have something over 2000 of these clubs fostered by the government. Purely it is vorth while or the government govern-ment would not take these steps toward improving the marksmanship of its citizens citi-zens Clubs Give Instruction. Many of these clubs have taken upon themselves the duty of giving Individual instruction and training In use of arms to men called under the draft law. Other clubs have formed "Home Guard" units. Others have formed whole companies of nien who have enlisted in a body in the army. Has the training these men received re-ceived at the target and at the traps boon tasted? ' Not if the saving is true "that n ability to shoot is 7-10ths of a sol-d'r's sol-d'r's business?.'' If the French had fostered the rifle club puslnftss the story would nevrr have boon oel of how some French soldiers chafed a detachment of Germans for a hundred yards in their attemnt to bayonet thorn. indeed! Thev would have dropped f,u their knees and a U accurate shots frnn their rifles, andwell, that body oi firmans would have "gone over the rou the Great Divide. We'll necr he:-. r snnl1 Pt-ory of the A merican troops- our r boy; Know the use for which their rfflef wore intended. Value of the Shotgun. Thus far we have dealt particularly ' with the rifle. To a large extent the same applies to the shotgun, for an individual who is skilled in the handling of any type 6f firearm has just that much to his credit, as there is a certain similarity between be-tween them all. The use of the shotgun, however, is of particular value when the target is moving. mov-ing. With this in mind the United States government purchased eighty-six shotgun traps and something like 60,000.000 clay pigeons. Part of these traps were sent to France and those hf id in ths United States are being used in instruction camps. Traps arc to be found in nearly every cantonment. Considering the absence ab-sence of "frills" in these c;i nips, it cer-tainly cer-tainly appears that "Uncle Samuel" recognizes rec-ognizes the value of trap3liooting as a practical preparation for warfare. One of these uses to which ohotgun traps are put is that of training the future , '"birdman" for his coming battles in the j air. developing, as it does, instant decision I and keenness of eye. Trapshooting has been officially added to the curriculum of the various schools of military aeronau-! aeronau-! tics. Trapshooters Patriotic. If the men in whose hands the 'destiny of our nation rests have decided that the training received at' trap and target is something the soldier needs, surely, then, those individuals who burn powder thusly ough't n.iit to be called unpatriotic. Their motto should be "Semper Paratus" always al-ways prepared. Someone has said, and it is our recol lection it was the Hon. EHhu Root: "That the man shall serve his country in time of war is noble, brave and patriotic; pa-triotic; but that a man shall properly propare himself in time of pea.ee to serve in war is all of these things and more. It is noble with a nobility which is real, not ideal. It is brave with a bravery which assumes in timec of unemotional peace many burdens, among them that of bearing the lack of appreciation of those who do not, consider military preparation or training necessary." |
