First of all, even though I am talking about a recent fast draw competition with the Ohio Fast Draw guys in Ohio, I am not talking about that event, but many other things that are relevant in ways that aren’t always so obvious.  Human nature is what it is, and all things are applicable.  But this particular example is appropriate across the tapestry of competition.  And to that point, I am used to extreme ruthlessness in human nature.  I don’t see the smiles that people provide to disarm your sensibilities as being innocent.  I see the worst in people because that’s my experience based on years of opinion.  So, when I attended a recent Ohio Fast Draw competition in Cleveland, I went out in support for the group because the attendance was dropping, and I wanted to boost the membership with my presence.  But from my point of view, it was hard in the second half of the year to attend the events, starting with the one in August, which I missed.  It was a late night with many good GOP people, including Bernie Moreno, Warren Davidson, George Lang, and many others, and we stayed way too late listening with a VIP perspective to a Jason Aldean concert.  I didn’t get on the road in time to get to Cleveland, which broke my routine for the year.  Up until that point, I had attended all the Ohio Fast Draw competitions.  But August, September, and the rest of the year until Christmas are too busy for me.  My goal for the year was to get to all the Ohio Fast Draw competitions and show my support for them.  But once I missed the one in August, it bothered me to have that intention disrupted.

I learned at the next event I did manage to get to that other shooters were not unhappy that I did not show up.  I had been winning many trophies, and people felt that because I wasn’t there, they’d get a better chance to win themselves.  I didn’t let it bother me because I like the people who are typically in Fast Draw.  I understand and respect the ruthlessness of human nature.  So, I put those thoughts into a category of their own to deal with as I saw fit.  Even so, I tried hard to make the next competition to support the organization.  I didn’t have time for it.  I didn’t need any more trophies for the year.  I just wanted to see attendance grow, not recede.  I think Fast Draw should be a sport that more people participate in; it’s better than golf, bowling, or other competitive events.  But a lot of young people these days don’t know much about gun fighting because it’s not part of their cultural experience, as more woke activities have become part of their lives.  So, I am interested in seeing organizations like Ohio Fast Draw survive well into the future, and I would like to see them grow in popularity.  But when I showed up to the most recent Cleveland event, I was already strung well too thin, and didn’t have the time to give.  I attended to support friends.  I was disappointed that I wasn’t very welcome and that many of them hoped I wouldn’t show up.  Now, things get murky because people often don’t say what they really mean.  And they usually hide malicious intent behind appearing helpful.  So people think that what they believe deep within themselves is hidden from the outside world and that nobody really knows what’s going on if they don’t admit to something.  Well, I know everything that goes on.  I understand every aspect of human nature, so nothing stays hidden from me.  I know what is going on with everyone at all times.  And it wasn’t hard for me to figure out what was happening when I arrived at the Cleveland competition. 

In Fast Draw, severe rules for activity on the firing line, safety, and other considerations are rigorous.  Some of the more competitive people in these events go crazy when they hear a cell phone and people whisper in the background while shooting.  They get mad at every little distraction.  So, given that context, I thought it was highly unusual that at my gun check at this event, there was so much concern over my gun having a sticky trigger.  I didn’t ask for any advice; it was the same gun I had used to win several competitions that year, and it worked well for me.  But many Fast Draw shooters perform a lot of work on their guns, hoping to give themselves a slight edge in speed.  So it mystifies them that I use a mostly stock gun and that it has a heavy hammer pull.  Now, given some of the people involved in volunteering to tear my gun apart looking for a problem that wasn’t there, I thought being friendly and respectful was more important than showing anger that I was missing the opportunity to practice before the competition started.  I think they were genuinely trying to be helpful.  But I also felt that something more malicious was going on, and the longer it went on, the more angry I got. 

At the end of a lot of work, several shooters offered to loan me a gun to shoot with that day, which, on the surface, appeared helpful.  But they all know what distractions and changing anything on the firing line do to the process.  So, I found it disrespectful to see that they had made a point to look like helpful behavior to sabotage my approach to shooting in that competition.  I didn’t ask for help.  I didn’t want any help.  And I would have rather been left alone because there was more going on than trying to appear helpful.  The combined efforts were an attempt at sabotage because as the day progressed, it became pronounced that I was the center of many of their thoughts, and they had prepared for that event with an intention against me personally.  Here’s the deal: I won a lot at these competitions because of my shooting method, not because of the tricks of the gun or luck.  My times are consistently good because I shoot close to the hip in a fashion that looks slower to go fast.  And the frustration against me has been that I look like I’m not trying to go fast all the time and shoot in the .300s and even .200s.  I could, but in Ohio Fast Draw, missing the target would become more common, and you would get penalized for missing.  You are judged on speed and accuracy.  I ended up doing OK for the day.  The worries about my gun and the overall process of the day did have an impact, but I worked through it.  Part of the benefit of competitions like that is that learning to manage stress under tremendous pressure is the real takeaway.  So I thought it was a positive experience.  But I was very disappointed to see that so many of those other shooters were happy to see me having a bad day.  They wanted it, which was a good lesson that applies to most things.  It’s the way people are.  You hope that people will overcome that natural tendency.  But Fast Draw is meant to be ruthless, and people being friendly to each other is only a cosmetic ruse for their true intentions.  While I wanted to think more about people, it wasn’t enjoyable to see where their minds were.  The main rule in gun fighting competitions is that you don’t point out every little rule that might distract a shooter on the line, then break all those rules to gain personal advantage.  That behavior might help a person win a few times here and there.  However, it will destroy the initiative of any future shooters who want to take up the sport and grow in a positive direction.  This is precisely why attendance this year has been light and is only getting worse.  When it comes to human behavior, I don’t miss anything, and the moral to the story in this case is that a short-sighted win only hurts the future, which is becoming obvious to everyone.

I expect ruthlessness out of people.  And again, I’m talking about more than my experiences with the Ohio Fast Draw Association.  I would like to relax and spend time with people of common interest in shooting sports.  But often as it is in most things in life, you don’t get what you want.  You get what you get, and you either deal with it, or you are crushed by it.  So with that in mind, don’t try to hide ruthless behavior through a thin veil of helpfulness.  I see it all for what it is, at every level that it’s presented.  There is nothing about human nature, or action, that I do not see. And I see it in ways that most people even hide from themselves. There’s a reason I don’t say much to anybody, it’s because I am perpetually let down by other people all the time and I don’t expect much out of them.  And I don’t ask much of anybody because I don’t want them to have to lie to me when they have no intention to live up to my expectations. I have to manage my disappointment in people by limiting how much I interact with them.  But never think I’m not going to see the truth that is really there looming in the background.  Even if it’s just a shooting sport in recreation, or if it’s millions of dollars at stake.  It’s all the same game played by all the same kind of people for all the same reasons.  People in life want the least path to success with the least effort.  And they hate people who work hard and develop themselves skillfully.  As I have said many times, which is a big feature of my book, The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business, “Rules are made by the losers of the world to give them an advantage over the competent.”  And as much as I know that rule to be the fact of life, it does bother me each time it is confirmed true by reality. 

Rich Hoffman

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