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Monday, December 19, 2005
Rama: Cold range for Christmas
By Karlon N. Rama
Stage five
ERLINDA, 29, was sitting on the terrace of her sister’s seaside home in Barangay Ibo, Lapu-Lapu City, when she heard something hit the wooden railing she was resting on.
The next thing she noticed was a throbbing sensation from her knee that was now suddenly covered with blood.
A violent scream that pierced the merry voices of carolers brought everybody up to the terrace and a quick phone call brought members of the local paramedics unit running to her house and to the Mactan Doctors’ Hospital.
Erlinda Repoyla, who was merely visiting from her hometown of Talibon in Bohol, was then treated for a gunshot. It came from a stray bullet. Lawmen found a deformed bullet in the very spot she’d been sitting.
Repoyla, thankfully, was the only person reported hurt by indiscriminate gunfire in Cebu last Christmas.
This season, I hope you will be one with the entire shooting community in doing our best to keep the number at zero.
In the shooting sports, the term we use is Cold Range. A holstered or bagged firearm is not to be touched unless the shooter is ordered to do so by the match official.
LAST SHOTS. Some friends and I fired our last shots for the year at the Kamagong Gun Club Firing Range yesterday and we did it with style.
The club organized a members-only, three-gun match and people came with their pistols, shotguns, rifles and the child-like affinity for all things that go bang.
And the come-on wasn’t just the shooting. The boodle fight was just as intense and enjoyable.
Among those I got to hobnob with in the match were businessmen Gil Garcia and Concord Fabillar, of the Sizzlers Chicken Roast fame, both sponsors of the recently concluded Kamagong Level II Match.
Shooter Eleno Kong, who now splits his time between KGCI and the newly formed Talisay Aqua City Gun Club, also graced the occasion.
Drs. Bede Ilano, Rogelio Kangleon and Louie Señora, who I don’t usually see in shooting matches, also came in full gear. They had a heck of a time in shooting the stage that Dennis Panganiban and I were handling.
Gerry Velez and Glenn Diaz, both past members of the Philippine Shooting Team, also took part in the event.
The fun shoot was the club’s way of giving thanks to all the good things that has come its way this year – capped by the very successful Kamagong Level II Match that closed last Dec. 11.
It was also its way of telling everybody that, with Divine Providence, better things are in store for next year.
This January, the club intends to host a sport-shooting clinic for members and guests. The instructor will be Rey Abad, a National Rifle Association (NRA)-certified firearms instructor now based in the United States.
A true-blue Cebuano, Abad is the chief range officer at the American Shooting Centers (ASC), a shooting-sport complex at the Westheimer Parkway in Houston, Texas.
He is a US Practical Shooting Association master and currently holds a couple of championship titles, including the Columbus Cup (Nicaragua), the Copa Camaron (Ecuador) and the 2005 Panama Open.
He also competed in the recent Costa Rica Open, the Space City Challenge in Houston, and the World Shoot in Ecuador.
Slots are limited and those interested in taking part need to make a reservation.
(e-mail: knrama@gmail.com)
(December 19, 2005 issue)
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