[Jeff Higgins]

I fully appreciate the need, in competition, to maximize one's advantages. The reduction of recoil is a decided advantage in every shooting competition there is. No doubt about it. And, well, participation in these types of shooting sports speaks for itself - these are incredibly popular. One hell of a lot of fun. I've shot both IPSC and Cowboy Action and had a ball doing it. I did rather poorly at both, but that didn't keep me from having a great time.

Against a backdrop of highly specialized and absolutely impractical pistols that had been developed for competition, the IPSC - International Practical Shooting Confederation was formed. Its sole intent was to encourage, through competition, the development of proficiency with one's carry gun. Practical pistols in serious defensive calibers shooting full power loads. They even delineate "major" caliber pistols from "minor" caliber pistols, scoring the "majors" higher for the same hits.

That was the original intent, anyway. It's largely been lost. Not that the "new" game isn't fun, it's just that it's in no way "practical" anymore. I would like to see a return to the original concept (in addition to, not instead of). I'm not sure how many people would play, maybe not many at all.