In this day and age, we have reached a point where the possibility that everything we say and do is being recorded, especially on a shooting range at a match. And, because an awful lot of this is shared on social media, how we comport ourselves on the range really does become the public face of the shooting community and can have far reaching impacts. Let’s discuss a bit deeper.
Those of us who read George Orwell’s 1984 in school certainly recognize the current world of technology we live in, and it doesn’t give us a warm fuzzy feeling. The dystopian viewpoint of Mr. Orwell from all the way back in 1949 is now reality. I recall reading that in Junior High and could not begin to fathom how “Big Brother” could even happen. Keep in mind this was in the mid-1970’s when computers filled rooms and the telephone hung on the kitchen wall in your choice of colors of beige, white, avocado or mustard. The lucky had the really long handset cord for “mobility” and the well off might have extensions elsewhere in the house. And cameras were large clunky things and “video” for most consumers was just that Super-8 movie camera one of the relatives had and pointed in your face all the time.
Blast forward to today and the wall telephone is all but extinct, most of us walk around with an incredible bit of technology in our pockets that some claim has access to over 90% of the information that is known in the entire world. Most of us shoot thousands of photos and hours of video each year. Moreover, many have “home assistants” like Alexa always listening. Even if you don’t think you do, check your networked television, refrigerator, etc. Many of them have home assistants built in and are always listening by default.
This technology, if not properly configured, is always listening and modifying your “feeds” on social media channels. I got absolute proof of this the day my wife passed away in 2022 when within minutes my social media feeds were blowing up with ads from funeral homes, info feeds from online grief counselors, online dating websites, and more. This was well before I posted about her passing, the stream became a tsunami once I did post about it. All because my phone was listening to the events of the past few hours.
All of this is stored and cataloged “somewhere” and the probability that it could be accessed for nefarious purposes is incredibly high. Do you really believe Apple and Google when they tell you they aren’t storing your data? Wanna buy some swamp land in Area 6? We aren’t quite to the world of Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report (set in 2054, Novel 1956, Movie 2002) but given how fast AI is growing and it’s appetite for data we may not be far from there.
Cameras are now ever present on shooting ranges. Cameras built-in to mobile devices (cell phones but who actually calls anyone anymore?), and all manner of action cams on hats, attached to clothing, clamped to stage walls, on tripods, worn as glasses and so on. I tell Range Officer classes that they should behave on the range as if every action and every word is being recorded save what happens in the restroom…we hope. It is not uncommon for folks to forget to turn their cameras off or even intentionally leave them on while the whole squad shoots.
Very recently we have had complaints of some rather unsavory banter on ranges specifically targeting certain demographics including some imploring the squads to imagine the targets are (insert demographic of choice here). Dressing up targets for theme matches as Zombies or other things from fiction is one thing; but imploring people to shoot at other people…that crosses so many lines.
This sort of thing is NOT what we want as the face of the shooting community. Even one incident at a match that gets recorded and put up on social media and gets grabbed by the anti-gun forces will cause irreparable harm to all the shooting sports. We will all be painted by the same brush and found guilty in the court of social media.
And if you think you are safe because you are among like minded individuals when you are at a match, consider this: There are a LOT of registered folks of most all political parties that own firearms and who compete in the shooting sports. There are many members of the LGBTQ+ community that own firearms and are competing in the shooting sports. And it is highly likely that most religious faiths are represented in the shooting community as well. I think we can all agree every race is well represented. And ALL of them are welcome!
Firearms ownership and participation in the shooting sports has exploded in the past few years. USPSA is breaking membership records routinely. Local matches that used to struggle to have more than a squad or two are selling out weeks in advance…forget showing up day of to register anymore. All of this is fabulous for the shooting sports and for the efforts to preserve our 2A rights. And all of it can be seriously harmed with just one video clip from one match that hits social media and makes the big time portraying the shooting community in a bad light.
It is also very important as Range Officers to keep in mind the Range Officer’s Creed. This can be read at https://uspsa.org/pages/nroi/info as what we are talking about here directly violates a couple of the tenants of the creed itself. Violation of this can lead to places you do not wish to go.
If you cannot control yourself, then maybe it is time to take up gardening. You can attack the tomato worms and potato bugs and call them anything you want in the privacy of your garden.