I'm going to ramble a bit today about a word that describes both a deliberate decision and an attitude that represents the largest threat to our civilization in modern times.
COMPLACENCY ! No matter how you choose to define it, is more and more prevalent in our modern busy society where technology makes it possible to forget many of the basic challenges of survival. We are all guilty of some level of complacency in our daily lives. Complacency can and often does affect our personal productivity, our relationships and our safety. Our personal complacency can also have large effect on our society. None of us have the capacity to totally eliminate our personal complacency but fortunately we have the ability to decide where we will draw our personal line in the sand. Where our line is drawn says much about our personality and character, it often changes as we gain experience and prejudice.
I want to talk about our struggle to eliminate complacency in our shooting sports. By and large, we do an excellent job and every reasonable person accepts responsibility for ensuring safety on the range. In some cases, we have extensive training and in others, just an understanding of safety rules and range procedures. BUT no matter your experience or training we all have the full-time responsibility to remain vigilant and to help each other to reinforce vigilance. We build redundancies into our procedures such as chamber flags, competitors "clearing" each other's rifles and then the RSO or Designate "clearing" the rifles before removing them from the firing point. There are many other procedures in effect at each type of shooting event we participate in and it is easy to get complacent and rely on only one or two of the "fail safes" to prevent embarrassment or, at the worst, tragedy. As I've said we generally do a good job but every time we forget or don't follow one of the safety procedures we are cutting into our "safety factor" and that threatens not only our sport but our safety as well. Let's not forget to talk about our safety record while at the same time practicing all the procedures that make our sport so safe.
A bit less important than it's direct effect on safety, is the effect complacency has on our personal performance and how others interact with us. We all have evolving personal lives that limit our ability to "become involved" , to "speak out" or to take a "leadership role" in our sport and our community. The strength of our community lies in our diversity and ability to take up the job when required. Most of us claim we want a Safe, Productive, and Free democratic society. What will you do to assist with that goal? When we all work to overcome complacency, some will take point and some will support, but we must share the work as equally as possible between reasonable responsible people.
On the lighter side, I've shown my true nature again by quickly falling off my training plan. I've got many excuses but the truth is that complacency and lack of self discipline have contributed greatly to my current state of unreadiness. I'm shooting well and my equipment is working well but my stamina and mental game need work. The summer is flying by and the World Long Range Championship in Ohio is just around the corner. There is a lot of ammo to load and shoot between now and the Atlantic Championships on the Labour Day weekend. It's going to be a great summer of shooting!!!
Remember enjoy your shooting sports and PROVE IT SAFE. See you on the range.
Good Shooting.
Michael Lutes
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