Shooting Sports As Human Instinct GunFax By William Miller Indiana Gun Shows During the opening weekend of February 5th & 6th, Central Indiana Gunshows brings its show to Crown Point's Lake County Fairgrounds and the Gun Collectors Association of Indiana comes to the 4-H Community Building in Tipton. On the 12th & 13th, Central Indiana Gunshows visits Kokomo's Johanning Civic Center. The weekend of the 19th & 20th is a real biggie, with six shows on tap! Central Indiana Gunshows will be at the Lafayette National Guard Armory and Clay City Shooting Sports will be at the National Guard Armory in Vincennes. Vintage Gavel presents the Mid States National Gun Collector show in Auburn near Ft. Wayne at the Kruse Event Park just off I-69 exit 126. Also on the 19th & 20th the Dunes Rifle & Pistol Club Gun Show will be held in Valparaiso at the Porter County Expo Center and Conner Longrifles offers its 22nd Annual Antique Arms Show at Noblesville's Hamilton County 4-H Exhibition Center. Renfro Productions brings the Indiana Deer & Turkey Exposition back to the Indiana State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Indianapolis on the 18th, 19th & 20th. Finally, Central Indiana Gunshows will close the month at the National Guard Armory in Warsaw on the 26th & 27th. As always, for the very latest gun show information, details, and maps, please see my 2005 Big List of ALL Indiana Gun Shows at gunfax.com. Promoters are urged to use the online form to list their shows free of charge. The Ballistics Instinct Forgive me if I depart slightly this month from my normally gun-based writing and wax philosophical about how ballistics itself is ingrained in our very spirit. I suspect most of you might agree with me as you read further, but I hope that this column will at least take you back to some of your favorite outdoor memories. The massive Webster encyclopedic dictionary I received as a gift at age 15 defines ballistics as "the science that studies the motion of projectiles." Furthermore, the definition of the word projectile provides another psychological clue: "A body projected or impelled through the air, as a stone thrown from the hand or a sling, a bullet discharged from a cannon." Hurling objects under our own power (or with a little outside help) seems to fulfill a basic need in us humans. Such behavior seems to be a part of us. It's timeless, and it can be found in every corner of the earth. Looking back at the definition of projectile, it's easy to see that throwing and shooting are ways of feeling and even demonstrating our power - power that we're able to extend beyond ourselves. Is that necessarily bad? I don't think so. After all, just about anything can be bad if it's abused or if it's used excessively. As with most things, moderation is the key. The lure of ballistics often goes hand in hand with other outdoor pursuits. For instance, my favorite type of fishing is wading in creeks for smallmouth bass while tempting them with crawdad crankbaits thrown (ballistics again!) with light or ultralight spinning gear. My usual routine is to wade in at a bridge and head upstream, working my way against the current to avoid tainting the area with sediment or scent. After working over a mile or two of creek on a summer day, how does this venture often end? It's not unusual for my fellow fisherman and I to break into impromptu target practice or rock skipping. One favorite game is to pick an object on the opposite shore and see who can nail it first and most often with the abundant stone ammo found along the creek bed. After that, we trudge wearily but happily back downstream while examining further all the things that we merely scanned on the way up. Many who hate (read that "fear") guns seem to have a kind of psychological red line when it comes to marrying human nature with technology. They may understand simple rock throwing and maybe even target practice with a bow and arrow or possibly a BB gun, but when it comes to firearms, they start to experience the tingles. As you toss in more technology, in your mind you're just making the shooting sports more effective and interesting. But the anti-gunner starts to get really spooked when you fondly or casually mention scopes or holographic sights or precision reloads. He sees them as cold, calculated, mechanical means by which game is killed and means which can threaten people, too. Your personal commitment to safety and responsibility will go a long way toward dispelling such fears. Emotions aside, anthropology classifies humans as hunter-gatherers. Not only do we gather what we need, we also have a built-in nature that compels us to track and conquer it - and maybe even bean it a time or two! While this drive feeds us, it also stimulates us. To understand this, one only needs to observe the cat. He may sleep the day away, but any moving object can entice him into a hunt. This is a matter of fact, regardless of whether you characterize it as innately evil or not. What ultimately separates us from beasts (two-legged or four-legged) is how we control and channel our instinctive nature and our impulses. If we pursue legitimate hunting and shooting sports in an ethical manner, respecting the laws and limits designed to conserve species and the environment, we're not betraying our humanity. We may very well be "above" nature, but we are also a part of it. Undeniably, it's a part of us, too.