Roger That Sports

The International Defensive Pistol Association, www.idpa.com, hosts competitions all over the country and almost every single weekend. Here is the lowdown: Essentially defensive pistol shooting as a sport is the use of handguns, everything from Smith and Wesson revolvers to the newest Kimber Ultra, to solve real world scenarios where self defense is key. All competitors are required to use real life equipment during competition.

Regardless of your stand on weapons, I think this is an incredible way to spend a Saturday. Its a highly controlled environment, simulating a situation that you may actually find yourself in. Situations like carjackings, home invasions, and other practial and realistic life threatening situations that test ones skills at surviving those situations. The organization focuses on shooting skills and getting through difficult scenarios safely.

I think this is great. All too often people buy handguns and get way to little training. Self defense and home defense is a learned skill, how better to learn this skill then through controlled competition, lead and instructed by highly skilled and experienced professionals. Many of these self defense experts are former police men and women and highly trained military.

The competitions allow owners of standard factory produced pistols such as the Beretta 92F, Glock, 1911 models, and single action stand by's such as Smith & Wesson service revolvers to test thier skills in high intensity self defense scenarios. There are no assult rifles or crazy high powered weapons, they are all common, factory issued pieces.

I was able to witness one of these competitions first hand. The day before the competition I just happened to walk in on the associations practice sessions, open to all. I just wanted to get some target practice in, and I was able to watch competitors practice. Each weekend's competition has a practice sessions that is open to anyone, and you can attend the practice session only. It still gives you the same feel. The self defense scenario that day was 4 burglers entered your home in the middle of the night. You awake in your bed to see someone coming in your room and they are armed. You have to grab your weapon, immobilize the first intruder, then walk down the hall, using furniture and other things to hide behind. At one point you encounter an intruder that has a hostage and you need to immobilize that intruder. You are measured by the amount of time you take to complete the task and the accuracy of your shot. Make sure you don't hit any of those hostages.

You are timed during each event and let me tell you, this is the closest you can get to a situation like this without actually being in one. And you can see the stress level rise on the face of each person in the room. The second that buzzer rings, your hearts starts pumping. Its a great way to help good citizens prepare for a very unfortunate event. You may say that it doesn't happen too often to warrent a defensive hand gun in the home, but I don't want to be a statistic. And practicing something like this gets you just a little more prepared. I tend to view life as half full, but one can't ignore some of the crazy things going on in society. Protecting yourself just seems prudent.

The competitions are open to all persons who can legally own a handgun. I like that part, don't want any freak in there you know what I mean.

Competitive shooting has been around for a very long time. I have been to many different competitions including a turkey shoot in Pennsylvania. And no that is not where you shoot a truckload of turkeys, you shoot at a target with a shotgun and the closest pellet to the bulls eye wins a frozen turkey. But anyway.. Competitive shooting is a staple of rural America and often televized on the OLN network. Check it out, and if you want to give it a try or just watch, give your local indoor shooting range a call.