...and have had a liking for guns for even longer. I added that part about liking them longer because well before I ever shot an actual firearm, I like many young boys of my youth had a small collection of cap guns, friction ray guns, water guns, and even a muzzle loading cap-gun rifle that fired cork balls. That's me in the photo holding that rifle. It was a blast and helped lead to a long-term passion for shooting (real guns) when I was older. My mom is next to me, aunt Mary next to her (family but not really an aunt but we called her that) and my brother next to her.
Not all that long after, well actually it was five years later in 1966 when I was 10 going onto 11, I was in my second year of sleep away summer camp. I was mandated to be sent there, as a problem child, by the penguins holy sisters of the Dominican Order who ran St. Pancras RC School, my grammar school. (I think the church must have paid for camp because we did not have a pot to pee in, a window to throw it out of not the ground to catch it as my mom used to say - we were very poor but I did not realize it then). At camp, I was privileged to participate in things like Animal husbandry, Archery, Arts & Crafts, Athletics, Camping, Fishing, Hiking, Hunting (of a sort as in catching frogs, salamanders, snakes, turtles and trapping things like raccoons and rabbits in live traps), Nature Study and Riflery. The ones that stuck with me into adulthood were Animal husbandry (breeding reptiles), Athletics (moderately until severe arthritis), camping, fishing, hiking (same as for athletics), hunting, nature study, and the one I currently enjoy the most - riflery (or guns & shooting in general).
I was not the greatest shot in camp but I shot fairly well. More importantly, I enjoyed shooting a lot. In 1965, my first year in camp, we shot BB guns to break us in, I shot BB guns in 1966 and part of 67 as well. My first certificates for shooting were for the BB guns.
That next summer, 1967, near the midterm of the camp season or so, I started shooting rifles chambered in .22 LR. I got another couple of awards for my shooting that year - Pro-Marksman & Marksman just like in 1966 for BB gun and also got certificates for the real rifles in 22 LR chambering. In a later year, I achieved Sharpshooter but have no clue where my sharpshooter certificate is now. As you can see, I do have the Pro-Marksman and Marksman certs from 1966, my first ever certifications for shooting even if only for BB guns; I treasure them. I also have another two for BB gun 1967. After certifying in 67 with BB guns, my age group moved onto rifles chambered in .22 LR. I got similar certifications for them and also certified as Sharpshooter with the 22s but those certificates were lost over the years in between now and way back then; wish I still had them.
The real firearms, that we shot at camp, were box magazine fed Winchester and Remington bolt action rifles. I was kind of a wimp and preferred the lighter Winchester but one of the brothers/firearms instructors (the camp counselors were Marist brothers) convinced me to man up and shoot the seemingly much heavier Remington. It became my preferred rifle back then. In fact, I still very much like Remingtons today. I have owned several over the years and still have seven of them currently. I am pretty certain I qualified for my Pro-Marksman and Marksman rifle certificates with a Remington. I do not know the model of either the Winchesters or Remingtons, it is just too long ago for my aged little gray cells to remember.
I also used to have a camp jacket with the corresponding NRA pacthes (and some archery patches) sewn onto one of the sleeves. That was a treasure I had into adulthood but somewhere, sometime, years or decades ago it disappeared never to be seen by me again.Which I still had it but that is how things go as you get older - all to often, the treasures of your youth vanish just as does your youth and when they are gone they are lost forever except maybe in memory.
Since back then, I earned many shooting certificates over the years after I started my career as a federal agent in the Border Patrol. Later on I switched over to U.S. Customs as a Patrol Officer and later as a special agent. It was while I was in Customs as a patrol officer that I first was certified as an NRA Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor. I performed collateral duties as a firearms instructor for 16 years. Below is my first certification as a firearm instructor while with U.S. Customs.
In Customs, I achieved the rank of distinguished expert a couple or few times with revolver, semi-automatic pistol, shotgun, rifle and submachine gun. I shot well enough that when the Customs Office of Investigations acquired Heckler & Koch MP-5 submachine guns I was trained in their use and was issued one. A requirement was that anyone to be issued an MP-5 had to shoot at either 95% score or better in several qualifications before getting one. A score of 95% was considered Distinguished Expert and I had been shooting that well for years before being given the chance to have an MP-5 issued to me instructor.
I was trained with and was issued an MP-5 and can say without a doubt, that was one heck of a fun gun. Not much longer after that, we got more of the MP-5s and I was offered training to become an MP-5 instructor. I jumped at the opportunity and I became the first special agent within the U.S. Customs service to become an instructor or so I was told by RM who was our Primary Firearms Instructor and a good friend. I miss him dearly, RIP.
RM got his job with Customs after retiring from the NYPD. He and his predecessor as primary firearms instructor EH, at Customs, were as I recall both members of the Stake-Out Unit - official name. So were two other Customs instructors: HD and Jimmy Cirillo (maybe the most known from that unit). It was also called and is probably better known as The Stakeout Squad - unofficial name, a famous (or infamous depending on how you look at it) elite team of NY City Police Officers who did stake out duties in high risk retail targets for armed robberies such as bodegas. They shot several armed robbers dead, the ones who refused to surrender and who used very poor judgement and tried to shoot it out with the squad (it is such a shame that AOC uses that term today). Sadly the unit did not last long enough at least in my opinion. It ran from 1968 - 1973. It was supposedly shut down due to budgetary concerns but it was more likely due to the ultra liberal politics of those in NYC government who loved to cry foul when the scum of the earth were justifiably shot & killed by the police. Of course they did not kill them all but too many for the libturds to tolerate. That is my guess anyway.
Yes, I have digressed, but things like the Stakeout Squad (and movies like Death Wish and the cowboy, lawman and spy television shows of my younger years) fired up something inside of me that eventually led me to become a federal agent. That I liked guns was a plus since I had to carry them throughout my career. Enjoying shooting and such is what led me to become an instructor. I admit, I started this post to reminisce about when I first started shooting and how long I have been doing and enjoying it. The thing that got me to post about that was me going through a box of firearms related records that I have kept over the years and then finding those NRA Pro-Marksman and Marksman certificates from summer camp in 1966.
Now though, allow me to carry on a bit more about the Stakeout Squad by sharing this YouTube video with you. It is a video about very dedicated, truly brave men, who put their lives on the line to fight crime and violent criminals who gladly would have killed those officers just as soon as look at them. They got the job done so well they were disbanded. Sadly that is often the case when politicians who love to screw up a good thing get themselves involved.
I must say I was very lucky to have gone to summer camp where I was trained to shoot. I also consider myself extremely privileged to have met men such as RM - a good friend and excellent firearms instructor (RIP), EH - another excellent firearms instructor and the man who got me to go to firearms instructor training in the first place, HD - a big lovable lug of a man (RIP), and Jimmy Cirillo - whom I met at the range during qualifications who was also a great instructor not only for Customs in NYC but at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia (RIP). Not only were they all excellent firearms instructors, tactics instructors and so on - they were also the actual men legends are made of. As such men often are, they were also a lot of fun at the bar/restaurants we often visited on City Island after a long day at the NYPD range at Rodman's Neck (Customs used that range for many years). I miss those guys and those days very much from summer camp all the way to retirement and beyond.
All the best,
Glenn B
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