GUEST EDITORIAL: John Bickar

Friday, August 29, 2008 Filed in: Competition, Shooting industry

Thanks for the response, Grant. I have a lot of respect for you for seeking differing viewpoints.

Different people can view the same situation in different ways. (And seven years later, I admit that my recall of the entire weekend may have holes in it as well.)

I helped organize and run the Rapid + Action camp in 2001, and I can assure you that Bob Mitchell said nothing like what you attribute to him. It's no secret that he can rub people in the wrong way (and he and I have had our run-ins). However, my recollection is that he didn't say they weren't good enough so much as he said, "Sorry, guys. We can't fund your run to the Olympics."

Unfortunately, although some of the top shooters such as Todd Jarrett, Bruce Piatt, Don Golembieski, and Bruce Gray did compete in some rapid fire matches after the camp, it boils down to economics. These shooters make a living by the gun, and there's not enough money in Olympic shooting to enable anyone but the most elite (e.g., Matt Emmons) to pay a mortgage and put food on the table.

I saw Bruce Piatt at the Bianchi Cup in 2003 and said, "Hey, when are you going to come back and shoot rapid fire?" He said something along the lines of, "Sorry, I can't do it and stay married." The market for international pistols in the US is too small for manufacturers to make a profit, let alone sponsor shooters.

The truth of the matter is, the path to the Olympics is open to anyone who would like to walk down it. Paradoxically, one of the contributing factors to the limited success that the US has experienced in the Olympic shooting sports is that there are so many other shooting sports to try within the United States. In many countries where private firearms ownership is severely restricted (or banned outright), Olympic shooting is the "only game in town".

My takeaways from the entire experiment were very positive. It led to a high-six-figure sponsorship of USAS (from Kimber), and I forged some strong relationships with a number of action pistol shooters whom I never would have met otherwise.

I hope you'll rethink your decision not to support USA Shooting and the Olympic Shooting Team.

Respectfully,

John Bickar
US Shooting Team
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