Passing It On

My family, for generations well before me, has always been a firearms family. My dad has my great grandfather’s shotgun. I grew up shooting and hunting with my dad and grandfather. My sisters know how to shoot. My mom shoots. Aunts, uncles, cousins. Not everyone in the family shoots but, make no mistake, the Novak family is a firearms family.

I learned to shoot as a kid. I spent more Friday nights and Sundays at our gun club than I can remember. I grew up shooting clay targets and hunting pheasants. I was taught the joy, and the dangers, of firearms. I was taught well by not only a whole family, but an entire club full of people that appreciated, understood, and respected guns.

As a professional matter, weapons were a major part of my life. You cannot be a Soldier, especially an Infantryman and Paratrooper, without knowing and understanding weapons and their employment. I learned how to employ everything from pistols to rifles, machine guns, artillery and mortars, helicopters and even close support aircraft.

What I learned as a kid, more so than what I learned as a Soldier, has kept firearms a major part of my life. That personal part of who I am, I have passed on to my children. My daughter can SHOOT. No joking around, you put her behind her rifle and she is GOOD. My son takes after his father. We hunt together. We go to the range together. We shoot. We have even built guns together. My kids know, understand, and respect firearms.

One of the things I have grown to enjoy even more than shooting is passing on my enjoyment of the sport to others, beyond just my children. I love to teach people to shoot and enjoy shooting. I saw this past weekend, my son taking on that mantle as well.

While at the range this weekend with my son, I had the opportunity to teach a man from England about shooting. Unlike the United States, the opportunity to privately own weapons in England is highly restricted. After a few minutes of explaining who I was and my background, I gave the gentleman a class on my rifle and offered him the opportunity to fire it. He jumped at the chance. Afterward, he was very appreciative.

I spent a few minutes speaking with the man who had brought the Englishman to the range about his own son, a Special Forces officer. Across the table, I saw my son speaking with the Brit and explaining his own rifle to the man. I kept an eye on the two of them, but I noticed how this man in his thirties was intently listening to the sixteen year old. Soon after, they stepped up to the firing line with my son’s rifle. I watched as he instructed the man twice his age on the mechanics of how the rifle worked then helped him load and safely fire the rifle.

It was one of those “proud dad moments” for a number of reasons. My son took it upon himself to bravely strike up a conversation with a man twice his age. He confidently instructed him about his rifle then safely helped him fire it. He had taken an opportunity to do what I do; pass on what we know and enjoy about shooting.

And I realized that I had officially passed THAT on to him as well. Not just shooting. Not just safety. Not just enjoying the sport. He, too, was passing it on. I was a proud dad and I was proud enough to tell this story to his grandfather, MY DAD who I could tell was equally as proud.

The Novaks are a firearms family, now for at least five generations. But, we are also a family that has never been afraid to Pass It On.