I was doing some late night reading recently and saw a passage that caught my eye. As I lay the book back, I thought of my daily work with people of all walks of life and how what I just read applied to these folks and in fact good ole’ Clint himself.

The Old Days
In my younger years I was a pretty good shot, not a Robbie Leatham shot, but a shootist of some reasonable skills. I won a few things here and there and earned places to compete in an era where showing up wasn’t the only issue. Often attendance at these things meant you worked at it some, usually out of your own wallet, without the trendy corporate sponsorship stuff you see today.

Silly me, in my younger years I even shot at stuff that shot back, realizing in retrospect it often meant I’d failed in the area of personal awareness and personal tactics. In all candor, once I was even silly enough to be up when I should’a been down. But that was a very quick learning curve for old Clint. I may be ignorant but I attempt to not be stupid.

Today, I see some things that can make you pretty quick-witted should you pay heed. I thought I’d share some of them with you.


Strength
I am not as strong as I use to be and if I live long enough, all this body stuff will break eventually. I can, in fact, do almost everything I did 30 years ago — but it now takes much longer to heal if I do something stupid. This is an issue people can be cranky about but as an example, if the image you see in the mirror is a hundred pounds overweight, I think you should go through behavior modification and change your lifestyle.


Eyesight
However you see today will not be how you see 10 years from now unless you’re an exceptional human being. Eyesight deteriorates with time so in my current world I think of the bi-focal, tri-focal, yo-focal — as in “Yo, where’d everybody go?” focal.

Almost everyone’s eyesight changes with time. A point of interest to me is the general eyesight of the student body I teach — both young and old — doesn’t seem to be what it used to be. It seems to be getting progressively worse over the last three decades. Could there be a connection to increasing poor eyesight and all the newfangled computers everyone is peering into?

I believe, using what eyesight you have available, that the best way to shoot a handgun is to look at the sights. They should then be properly aligned and even across the top with an equal amount of light on each side of the front blade. This Camp Perry sight picture superimposed over a target is the best way to shoot — hands down. Then again with moving targets, low- or altered-light environments and my currently going-to-the-dogs peepers, the eyesight problem can rear its ugly head. But, I endeavor to pursue the wily front sight on a daily basis.

For you and me, I think our eyes are going to continue to get worse with age and we need to fess up to this fact. Being forthright and honest with ourselves we’ll need to train to this failing eyesight issue.


“How Dare You,” You Say?
I dare because the threat you might fight will hope you are overweight and out of shape, old, weak and unarmed. I don’t think the wolves will give you a break because of your lack of preparedness with your body or gun. So, go for a walk, watch what you eat — generally nothing bigger than your head at one sitting — and go to the range, shoot and practice. The other guy might be and probably is practicing.


Techniques And Tools
At my age, the youngsters always ask what shooting technique I might use or prefer. Simple, I shoot the technique that gives me the best hits with the least amount of pain in my hands, elbows and shoulders. I stay away from barn-burning magnums because I would like to shoot a lot of guns for 20 more years — not one gun for a week. I don’t use poof guns for personal defense nor do I use bazookas — well, I might use a bazooka if I had one — but anyway you get the point. Carry the biggest and best gun you can hit with — and that you will actually carry with you. The one with you is always better than the one at home in the safe.


Reality
The reality is if you live long enough you’ll get old. I can run for a ways but I prefer to shoot. In fact it’s one of the reasons I learned to shoot, so I wouldn’t have to run as much. I think we should work on being smart first and then strong as we can be as long as we can be. My eyes may give out but if I train to this fact daily, and use a gun-mounted light if it helps and shoot a reasonably effective handgun for personal defense, we’re ahead of the game — I think.

My late night reading was from an author by the name of Paul. He actually was one of the original twelve “wise” guys. And that saying I was reading — well here is the whole thing — Have a sane estimate of your capabilities. Romans 12:3. What a concept!

First published in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue of American COP.