Gun safety is the study and practice of using, transporting, storing and disposing of firearms and ammunition, including the training of gun users, the design of weapons, and formal and informal regulation of gun production, distribution, and usage, for the purpose of avoiding unintentional injury, illness, or death. This includes mishaps like accidental discharge, negligent discharge, and firearm malfunctions, as well as secondary risks like hearing loss, lead poisoning from bullets, and pollution from other hazardous materials in propellants and cartridges. There were 47,000 unintentional firearm deaths worldwide in 2013.
Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms and bows/crossbows.
The International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA), founded in 1996, is an organization based in Bogata, Texas, that has created a shooting sport based on defensive pistol techniques, using equipment including full-charge service ammunition to solve simulated "real world" self-defense scenarios. Shooters competing in defensive pistol events are required to use practical handguns and holsters that are deemed suitable for self-defense use and concealment garment that can conceal the handgun from view of bystanders.
Practical shooting, also known as dynamic shooting or action shooting, is a set of shooting sports in which the competitors try to unite the three principles of precision, power, and speed, by using a firearm of a certain minimum power factor to score as many points as possible during the shortest time. While scoring systems vary between organizations, each measures the time in which the course is completed, with penalties for inaccurate shooting. The courses are called "stages", and are shot individually by the shooters. Usually the shooter must move and shoot from several positions, fire under or over obstacles and in other unfamiliar positions. There are no standard exercises or set arrangement of the targets, and the courses are often designed so that the shooter must be inventive, and therefore the solutions of exercises sometimes vary between shooters.
The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) is the world's largest shooting sport association, and the largest and oldest within practical shooting. Founded in 1976, the IPSC nowadays affiliates over 100 regions from Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania. Competitions are held with pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns, and the competitors are divided into different divisions based on firearm and equipment features. While everyone in a division competes in the Overall category, there are also separate awards for the categories Lady, Super Junior, Junior, Senior, and Super Senior.
A racegun or race gun is a firearm that has been modified for accuracy, speed, and reliability. Often a semi-automatic pistol, raceguns are used primarily in practical shooting competitions and are modified to function best within a certain set of rules, such as weight, size, and capacity requirements.
The United States Practical Shooting Association(USPSA) is the national governing body of practical shooting in the United States under the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). Its over 35,000 active members and over 500 affiliated clubs make USPSA the largest practical shooting organization in the United States and the second largest region within IPSC after the Russian Federation of Practical Shooting. USPSA publishes a monthly member magazine called Front Sight.
The 9×25mm Dillon is a pistol wildcat cartridge developed for use in USPSA/IPSC Open guns. The cartridge is made by necking down a 10mm Auto case to 9 mm.
Power factor (PF) in practical shooting competitions refers to a ranking system used to reward cartridges with more recoil. Power factor is a measure of the momentum of the bullet, which to some degree reflects the recoil impulse from the firearm onto the shooter.
Todd Jarrett is an American competitive shooter, firearms instructor, and filmmaker. He has both national and World titles within practical shooting, holding four world titles, nine national titles and has won more than 50 US Area championships, as well as many other action shooting events. Jarrett is the only USPSA Triple Crown Winner and holds four USPSA National titles - Open, Limited, Production and Limited-10. Jarrett lives in Virginia.
Michael Christopher Tilley is a professional shooter and USPSA Grand Master. He is also known for competing in the second season of History Channel's marksmen competition Top Shot.
Robert "Bob" Gordon Vogel is a professional marksman, competition shooter, and National/World champion. He is the only Law Enforcement Officer ever to win World and National Championships in the Practical Pistol Disciplines of IPSC and USPSA.
Dynamic Sports Shooting Norway (DSSN), NorwegianDynamisk Sportsskyting Norge (DSSN), is the Norwegian association for practical shooting under the International Practical Shooting Confederation. It was constituted in 1979 as Norges Forbund for Praktisk Skyting (NFPS), and changed its name to Dynamisk Sportsskyting Norge in 2013.
The IPSC Handgun World Shoot is the highest level handgun match within the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) which consists of several days and at least 30 separate courses of fire. The Handgun World Shoots are held triennially on a rotational cycle with the other two main IPSC disciplines Rifle and Shotgun.
Hilde Nakling is a Norwegian shooter who during the 2014 IPSC World Shoot claimed the title as World Champion in the Lady Standard Division. She is the daughter of Vidar Nakling, 1980 IPSC European Champion and an active shooter until 1996. Hilde visited the shooting range for the first time already three months old, and gradually got to try various small firearms. During the early years she only attended the range once or twice a year, and it was not until she took a beginners course in 2005 that she became seriously hooked. Since 2006 she has competed actively. To prepare for the 2014 World Shoot she quit her day job as a nurse at the Oslo University Hospital, and continued to work shifts as a nurse on the pediatric ward.
Multigun, Multi Gun or Multi-Gun, often also called 2-Gun or 3-Gun depending on the types of firearms used, are practical shooting events where each of the stages require the competitor to use a combination of handguns, rifles, and/or shotguns Multigun has a lot in common with ordinary IPSC/ USPSA single gun matches, and matches generally have courses of fire where the shooter must move through different stages and engage targets in a variety of different positions.
The IPSC US Handgun Championship are yearly IPSC level 3 matches held by the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) run under IPSC-rules. Sometimes, all of the pistol IPSC nationals are held at the same time, other years, they have been broken up between different ranges. In order to attend the nationals a competitor usually has to win a "slot" by placing well enough at various regional and Area Championship matches held throughout the year.
Shooting competitions for factory and service firearms refer to a set of shooting disciplines, usually called service rifle, service pistol, production, factory, or stock; where the types of permitted firearms are subject to type approval with few aftermarket modifications permitted. The terms often refer to the restrictions on permitted equipment and modifications rather than the type of match format. The names Service Rifle and Service Pistol stem from that the equipment permitted for these types of competitions traditionally were based on standard issue firearms used by one or several armed forces and civilian versions of these, while the terms production, factory and stock often are applied to more modern disciplines with similar restrictions on equipment classes.
Jan Foss was a Norwegian sport shooter from Oslo who became the second world champion in practical shooting in 1976 during the IPSC Handgun World Shoot II in Salzburg, Austria. The favourite ahead of the championship was reigning world champion Ray Chapman from USA, who competed with a 1911-pistol in .45 ACP. Foss took the title with a SIG P210 in 9×19 mm with minor scoring, while Chapman and most of the other competitors shot the .45" caliber with major scoring which was considered an advantage due to the scoring system. The competition was described as being versatile, and Foss shot 379 points which was enough to take the title with a small margin of only four points ahead of Ray Chapman in second place with 375 points (98.94%). Foss had been unknown before the world championship, and did not compete internationally afterwards. He continued to compete locally throughout his career with pistol, rifle and shotgun where he took several medals.
9mm Major, also known as 9 Major, ammunition is loaded much hotter than typical 9mm rounds, exceeding 1,550 ft/s (470 m/s) to achieve a power factor of 165. This classification benefits competition shooters as it allows maximum magazine capacity and scoring. However, it is not readily available and dangerous to use in pistols not designed for such high pressure. Most handgun manufacturers caution against using +P and +P+ ammunition and 9mm Major loads, which generate even higher chamber pressures. In tactical situations, the added velocity may improve vest penetration, but it may hinder hollow-point projectiles' effectiveness due to over-expansion. Proper cartridge design is crucial for optimal performance.
