Smedley_buzk**l wrote:
As an MP, I also qualified expert pistol. It was not only the condition of the weapons, but the paucity of training, seeing as how so many of my fellow trainees had never fired a rifle of any sort. I come from a military family and I got my first rifle, a .22, when I was 7 years old. I was probably the only 7 year old in the county who could field strip his rifle.
I still have my short .22 cal rifle that I always took to the range with my father every month when he was on the police force. I first starting shoot when I was 4 years old. He also taught me how to clean a rifle at that age. In Basic, you could always tell who had never fired a weapon because they didn't know the first step about cleaning a rifle. Even after they had been shown how to clean it they would have dirty barrels. They thought once through was all they needed.