Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Opinion

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Sage
Views

By Smokey Briggs

Friends of the NRA not
exactly what it sounds like

Pecos is going to have its first "Friends of the NRA Banquet" on March 23.

So what?

Well, it's not exactly what it sounds like.

Friends of the NRA is a fund raising organization dedicated to raising money to support youth shooting programs. What I like best about this outfit is that all of the money raised flows into the programs it was raised for.

This year the Pecos Rifle and Pistol Club is working in conjunction with our local 4-H Club to bring back the local youth marksmanship program that ceased to exist a few years ago.

By hosting a "Friends of the NRA Banquet" Pecos becomes eligible to apply for grants through the program.

Shooting, in all of its forms, is a great sport. What I like most about it is that you can compete throughout your life, and generally, you get better with age.

It is also a sport that demands and teaches discipline, responsibility and the value of perseverance. Natural talent is less important in the shooting sports than most other athletics.

As a child, and later as a young man, I spent many constructive hours shooting _ hours that might otherwise have been spent doing less constructive, or even destructive things.

Today, it is a sport that I can still compete in, despite rapidly approaching the 40 mark. As a matter of fact, I'm better today than I ever was, not that that is saying a lot.

If we can help some kids down that same path it will be a good thing for them, for Pecos, for Texas and for America.

The banquet itself is a fun night for all. Half a dozen firearms, a dozen numbered and framed prints, and a slew of other merchandise will be auctioned and raffled off. Jim Allen with Texas Department of Wildlife will also be on hand with what I call the world's greatest video game _ a big screen television hooked to a computer that registers shots from a laser "rifle."

Kids will have a great time with this if they can get their dads to step aside.

The night will start with chicken-fried steak and all the fixings and should get better from there.

During the next few months Pecos Valley Friends of the NRA members will be soliciting sponsorships for the banquet and selling tickets for that night.

So, when one of these guys drops by your office, please don't drop kick them out the door without at least taking a look at the program. It really is a good one, and the money really does come back to Pecos to support our kids' shooting sports.

Anyone interested can contact me here at the Enterprise.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Smokey Briggs is the editor and publisher of the Pecos Enterprise whose column appears on Tuesdays. He can be e-mailed at: smokey@pecos.net

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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
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