and the young ladies are hammering it hard.
Two and a half decades ago women shooting at the Nationals were a rarity. Occasionally some shooter would bring his wife and while he shot she went to Port Clinton and played bingo. (Seriously. That's what one couple told me years ago.)
It slowly seemed to develop as one or two of the state junior teams sort of started it by taking the county tomboy along with them. It's grown now at least among the juniors to the point where some state teams have a rather large percentage of young women on them. Few of them seem to be tomboys now. They are simply young ladies competing in a sport associated with men.
They hammer, too and this year I believe it was a woman that won the match following the Small Arms Firing School. Nothing new.
The subject came up over after-match beers and the consensus is that women take instruction better, pay closer attention and (this one's a biggie) are not fighting testosterone. Over the years a number of Army and Marine shooters have told me the same thing.
In general I like almost all the juniors I run into, male and female. Back early on I was assigned to a barracks bunk with about 20 other members of the Texas team. I expected badlam and chaos but was proved wrong as the youngsters there proved to be the best behaved young men I ever ran into.
One of them wanted to get past me and asked, "Sir, could I get by you?"
I moved and laughed and asked him "What happened to "Outta the way, Pops?"
His eyes grew to the size of saucers and he replied, "If I ever said that to you I'd be on the next plane home!"
He proved to be an interesting young man and was aiming to go to school at Texas A&M. I bet he did and is now doing well.
As for the young ladies I met? Almost every single one of them was sharp as a tack. (After making sure there were witnesses so nothing got taken out of context) I asked a teenaged girl one of the most famous of the Old School Hollywood lines, "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"
She gave me a confident grin and replied, "Winning."
I was delighted and told her that was the best answer I have ever gotten to that question. Her parents should be really proud of their daughter. What confidence she had!
I'm all for the young people competing!
(Actually it was the best answer I ever got from a youngster. The all time best came from a fellow employee. She shot back "WHO says I'm a nice girl!" but that's another story.)
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