Lives can change, even end, in a single heartbeat. A perfectly healthy adult can leave the house early one morning and only find their way home six months later in a wheelchair, unable to move fingers, arms or legs. Such was the case with my daughter three years ago when her single-car accident left her a quadriplegic struggling to care for her three young children.
It wasn’t the first time I came to grips with human frailty. A blood clot formed when my mother underwent a relatively minor knee surgery, causing her to suffer a major stroke as a result. What she thought was going to be a two-week hiatus from work turned into the last dozen years of her life at home, wheelchair bound.
“Why not allow stroke or spinal cord injury victims to work on their fine motor skills by getting in a little trigger time, instead of spending repetitious hours picking up a spoon, foam balls or blocks?”
Thanks to medical advancements, these kinds of stories promise to become even more routine. Some reading this may also become disabled, seemingly trapped by an inability to work their limbs, ultimately forced to give up those things they hold so dear—including shooting and hunting.
When the NRA established its Disabled Shooting Services Department some 13 years ago, one of the underlying
goals was to aid those who wanted to get behind a trigger, despite physical challenges. What happened was much more, thanks to the efforts of the person the organization hired to establish and run the department, Dave Baskin. His unusual credentials, experience, knowledge and expertise, coupled with NRA’s dedication to the program, have seen it flourish in unimaginable ways.
Baskin came to the NRA after working 33 years with an engineering firm that specialized in the design and manufacture of hospital critical care equipment. His experience as coach of the United States Wheelchair Shooting Team, which won 253 medals and set seven world and 16 Pan-American records—establishing him as the most successful coach of disabled marksmen in United States shooting history—made him an ideal candidate for the new department.
He had spotted something unusual during his coaching tenure and harnessed it by designing the NRA Rehabilitative Shooting Unit. “All but serious shooters underestimate the number of muscles worked consciously and subconsciously in aiming a rifle,” Baskin said. “Why not allow stroke or spinal cord injury victims to work on their fine motor skills by getting in a little trigger time, instead of spending repetitious hours picking up a spoon, foam balls or blocks?” He’d seen it do wonders for the members of his shooting teams—improving their trunk balance, concentration, breathing control and self-esteem—so he decided to make it available to the medical community.
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The concept of doctors and nurses prescribing range time might have seemed a little foreign at the time, but the first unit was installed in 1994 at the Lakeshore Foundation, in Birmingham, AL. It went international in 2000 when it was introduced at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Today the program, which uses precision air rifles and portable indoor ranges, is flourishing in a variety of hospitals and medical facilities nationwide.
Unfortunately, gun paranoia and downright fear by some therapists that publicizing their participation may get the program cancelled precludes Baskin from revealing all of the locations. However, he will admit that it’s alive and well in a number of cities infamous for their anti-gun climate.
In 1996 Baskin established the NRA-Beeman Grand Prix Championship, a precision air rifle and air pistol tour that promotes awareness and respect for the achievements of marksmen with disabilities. Since then, 133 events have been held in 27 cities, 16 states and two Canadian provinces.
The popularity of the tour led to the creation of national records for marksmen with disabilities in 1998. In 2005, visually impaired and blind shooters where included in the championship by employing laser technology.
Along the way Baskin never abandoned his engineering roots. When a doctor called the department’s hotline, inquiring how he could get a patient—who happened to be an avid clays shooter—back on the firing line, Baskin designed a one-armed shotgun. “The key was in balancing the gun,” Baskin said. “Moving the trigger and safety was the easy part.” His rehabilitative pistol rest supports an air pistol’s weight, but provides enough lateral and vertical instability to isolate the fine-motor skill workout to the patient’s hand—unlike rifle shooting, which works on the entire arm and upper torso. He also pioneered now-accepted procedures for visually impaired shooting, introduced marksmanship to Veteran’s Administration hospitals and held NRA Shooting Sports Disability Awareness Seminars in dozens of states across the United States, as well as Canada, Norway and Australia.
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The bulk of his work has been in talking to and assessing individual sportsmen’s needs. On average the NRA Disabled Shooting Services hotline receives 5,500 calls a year. Some are from doctors and therapists interested in harnessing the programs Baskin has polished over 13 years. Others are from patients, most first-time callers, interested in finding out how they might again be able to squeeze off a few shots with the family.
In those cases he provides a Disabled Sportsmen’s Packet, free of charge, but not after listening closely. “Everyone’s disability is different,” Baskin said. “So it’s important to gain an understanding of the challenges they’re facing before recommendations or referrals can be made.” For that reason, Baskin doesn’t have e-mail. “I need to talk to the person, and more importantly, part of the healing process is discovering you’re not alone, that there are others beyond your family and physician who really care.”
In 2000 Baskin received the individual shooting Industry Academy of Excellence Award, joining past winners that include William Ruger, Wayne LaPierre and Charlton Heston. He was also inducted in the Wheelchair Sports Hall of Fame in 2006, the only shooting sports-related person to be included.
On Nov. 2, Dave Baskin is retiring. But shooters and the disabled aren’t losing one of our real allies. “I’m not going to quit helping people,” he said. “I can’t do that.”
