On Facebook yesterday, a lovely young girl posted a picture of herself shooting an AR-15 .22. She was proud of herself for getting out there and shooting. I think her name was Kelly. Pretty girl. Cool rifle. (An M&P15-22)
And being a Novice Shooter, she held the rifle in the classic New Gun Girl Stance. Meaning her cheek weld was directly above the rifle butt. I’d post the picture but she pulled it down.
Why did she pull it down?
Was it her Liberal Friends who were giving her hell because she was shooting a gun?
Nope. It was from Shooters who Dog Piled on her for her posture. And it was a dog pile… Every experienced shooter felt the need to point out how wrong she was. This was patently unnecessary. This is not how we encourage new shooters to come back and pick the rifle back up and try again. Why would she? Why would she chose to associate with “Real Shooters” who acted like a bunch of Pricks? This is now how we Recruit for our Team.
Some of these same Guys commented on another photo that hit Facebook. A Woman with very large breasts, shirtless and rubbed down with oil, covering her nipples with a pair of handguns, fingers on triggers, pointing the guns into her breasts with an expression that she’s Mid-Climax. All the guys comments were about how hot she was and not about the blatant Violations of Safety, which were pretty much 3 out of the 4.
Yet Kelly was piled on for just Bad Form? What the hell is this? It’s all okay if you show us your Tits? Come on Guys! I’ve no problem with a little Cheese Cake myself, but when you mix in Firearms we have to Throttle Back on the Inner Pig and take things just a little more seriously. I’ve been known to post some Girl with Gun pictures myself. But none Vulgar and none showing Firearms Safety Negligence.
What Message is this sending to new female shooters? Daughters of my Friends? We can’t let there be any double standards on this. We need to treat all new shooters… Especially the Girls… with the utmost respect. We want to grow and fill our ranks of proud Second Amendment Supporters, not chase them away. I know this was happening on Facebook, but Facebook is freaking huge. More people use it than Google. So we can either make FB our Tool, or it can be used against us. We gotta watch what we say. People are watching.
I am guilty.
Guilty of bagging on bad form without offering suggestion.
However I really don’t get off on the cheesecake pics.
Show me a woman in some BDUs, a tee shirt, and putting out a wall of lead and I will have a grin on my face.
We, me in particular, need to be more supportive and offer constructive criticism… instead of pointing out that form and technique suck.
I am disappointed in my actions.
Jim
We are all guilty of this at some point… We need to correct ourselves and move on doing better.
I know stuff like that was a huge reason I stopped shooting along time ago, and took years to get back into it. All the men in my past life ridiculed me rather than help. Why go on with something you are unsure of, when you are the butt of the joke.
I applaud you for this post George.
And we wonder why our sport is going by the wayside teach don’t preach
Usually the people that “cast stones” are no angels themselves and typically open their mouths to sound superior. No matter what level shooter anyone is, they can still stand to learn a thing or 2…and some people just need to grow up. ANYTIME a girl or woman wants to learn to shoot, and normally they are very sincere in doing so, there is no such thing as a stupid question and realize that everyone had to start from somewhere. You’d be surprised how quickly they will pick things up and when they are having a good time they will want to do it again.
Very good post!
STIG:)
That particular brand of prickness puts off a lot of people. It’s odd to watch shooters act exactly like smarmy record collection hipsters.
Meh…. I have always told people who think they are the “form police” or “safety rule police” on picture comments to fuck off. The vast majority of them are asshats and don’t have the first clue of how to run a gun. Those who do have a clue usually aren’t in the dogpile, but are willing to help. I will always prefer a person who is willing to 1.) Shoot and 2.) Willing to take suggestions on how to improve. I hope that girl learns to tell the dogpilers to screw off and finds some better people to go shooting with.
Some people are just stupid. Maybe they are sexist or racist but It’s not automatically everyone else’s fault. It’s not reasonable to expect a gold star from eveyone all the time. I’m a 6’2″ male who was active duty military when I got personally involved with firearms “off duty” and was the subject of ridicule from others because I didn’t know all the lingo and terminology. There are really great people in the “shooting community” but just like any other group of human beings, there are idiots. You don’t sell your car and refuse to go anywhere beyond walking distance because someone cut you off in traffic.
Well said Ogre…
Easier to criticize an attractive woman than talk to her. Weak…
That’s crazy. Folks, even if you don’t want to be an ambassador of shooting, you are.
If you don’t want the responsibility, cancel your Facebook account and steer clear of the internet, that way you will only harm our reputation one person at a time.
It’s sad that these folks feel the need to stroke their own egos instead of posting words of encouragement and welcome. Their posts were for their own benefit, not for her.
A co-worker of mine is the most knowledgeable person I know regarding fly fishing. SHE teaches courses throughout the year and is invited frequently to speak at trade shows. I’ve worked with her for quite some time, but didn’t know about any of this. When she found out I occasionally enjoy fishing she greeted me as a fellow enthusiast. It wasn’t an “all about her moment”. She knows far more about fishing than I’ll ever know, but being an ambassador of her sport, she seized the moment to be humble, smile, show support and say welcome to the club.
Hopefully when she was learning she wasn’t surrounded by jerks that belittled her form or drooled making remarks about her beauty, even though she is a stunning woman.
Shooting sports would do well to have folks conduct themselves like her. We would do well to have more join our sport, especially women. Don’t be a know it all condescending ass.
Be a HUMBLE, caring and show support to your FELLOW ENTHUSIAST.
Any way we can find out who the gal is so we can support her?
Don’t remember the name.
Any time I see a new shooter I OFFER to help them IF they want it. I normaly shoot a few shots for group so they know I know what I’m doing.
Bashing on someone because they suck isn’t stopping them from sucking. Grow the sport, don’t hate on new shooters because they don’t have 10 years running a gun. If they had 10 years running a gun they would be us and we wouldn’t have to coach them on form but we could bust their chops for a terrible group 😉
Thank you for this! I’ve got some pics of a fun new shooter day that I will never post for this very reason. Why? These pics display ‘chick lean’ (really? could we get a better term maybe). What you can’t see in the pictures is that she was born with severe scoliosis and has a steel scaffold surrounding her spine. Best they could do surgically gave her a permanent curve and she can’t lean into the shot. It isn’t appropriate for me to explain that with the pictures on the off chance that someone might recognize her.
There’s a big difference in helping someone correct their form and belittling a person.
+1. This is terrible, I hope she comes back. Now where was that other picture again with all the safety volations?
Unfortunately, the internet is full of wannabes, winnebagos, and golden bozos who are bullies who will say anything to anyone so long as they get to remain anonymous behind their clever “handle”. Having taught several of the fairer sex to shoot, I have to agree 100 percent with Ogre-San. Don’t be a jerk. Sweep your own porch first.
Thank you for this post George. I have seen it linked and shared quite a bit, I think you have not only identified something important, but it has resonated with female shooters, which is a reason for all us knuckle draggers to sit up and pay attention. Good job.
Every shooter starts out as a novice, we need to guide and advise the novice so that they can become seasoned shooters. We cannot progress our sport without giving helpful advice to those that wish to become seasoned shooters. “Sexist” remarks while at the time may seem “Matcho” do nothing to progress our sport and have a detrimental effect on those women that would like to involve themselves in our sport. Be a REAL MAN and help them become better shooters.
I have ALWAYS preferred coaching women, they don’t have any of the road blocks to learning how to shoot that men do and once motivated almost always out shoot the men.I also learn much more from them in return.They are the reason I’m trying to learn handguns after so many years of not shooting competitively since high school.Any man that doesn’t realize this is a damn fool! IMHO
It has been my experience in assisting at MAG 40 courses that in general, women learn much quicker than men, with the techniques that we teach. I have seen several women outshoot their husbands on the qualifier, when at the beginning of class the ladies could not even hit the target consistently. If they are shown how, they will often kick our butts at shooting. Why? They listen and then do!