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At exactly 0900, each student stood up, introduced himself, and revealed his motivation for taking the course. Matt Domyancic, a former Air Force cadet, dreamt of joining the FBI. Quinn Sieber, a stocky firearms instructor from the Wisconsin State Patrol, wanted to pass on sharpshooting skills to his cadets. Fitzpatrick's pal, Paul Circo, a mild-mannered fellow with scant firearms experience hoped to "prove something" to himself. A shaggy-haired software designer -- whom other students soon nickname "The Postman" (as in "going postal")--mumbles something about honing his shooting skills. And an Emergency Medical Technician from Florida says he just wanted an out-of-the-ordinary vacation.
After the 12-step-like introductions, Storm Mountain headmaster Rod Ryan marched to a lectern emblazoned with a "No Whining" sign. A decorated former Army sniper and member of Washington, DC's SWAT team, Ryan opened the school in 1995, offering classes like Security Profiling -- Terrorism Awareness II and Advanced Submachine Gun. His mission: "to help keep police and military guys alive." Civilians, however, account for the majority of his clients. Asked why he allows civilians to study at Storm Mountain, he replied, "I'm a firm believer that if you are not a criminal then you have the rights described in our Constitution."
Self-described "Pro-gunners" routinely defend firearms ownership by citing the Constitution. The Second Amendment clearly grants the right to bear arms, but relates this right to the maintenance of "a well-regulated militia." Whether America's founding fathers, who lived through a brutal war fought on their soil, intended for private citizens to wield high-powered automatic rifles with impunity is a hotly debated question in legal and political circles.
But not in Storm Mountain's classroom. Ryan launched his lesson by reviewing sniper history, which in the US dates back to the Civil War. (In England the British Army had established a sharp-shooting "Rifle Brigade" by 1800.) Today's sniper typically operates in tandem with a "spotter" who calculates the distance to the target and the wind velocity (a breeze can alter a bullet's trajectory) and conveys this information to the triggerman. Yet the public image of the sniper as lone wolf, a sneaky predator that picks off sheep in the middle of the night, remains from an earlier day.
"Snipers didn't fit into the American ideal of the 'fair fighting,' standing tall like Gary Cooper in High Noon," wrote Jeff Stein in The Washington Post.
In fact, Storm Mountain fretted so much about the snipers' embattled reputation that it added the prefix "counter" to the course's title.
"This guy is not a sniper," Ryan later told The New York Times, when asked about the terrorist in the Washington, DC, area. "He is just a crazed gunman, and he is giving snipers a bad reputation."
"The press labels every nut with a gun a sniper," complained Kent Gooch, a former Army firearms instructor who shared teaching duties with Ryan. "Most of us take great offense at that connotation. This is an honorable profession," he argued, as photos of James Earl Ray and Lee Harvey Oswald flashed behind him on a projection screen.
The instructors devoted much of the four-hour lesson to sniper strategies. "If you guys ever come across a woman who is a hostage taker, do not cut her any slack!" implored Ryan. "A woman will make a decision and by God she is going to stick to it!" And "make your first shot count. Go for the ear, the Mafia has been doing it for years, no mess. Personally, I like the eyes. It's a soft entry point."
To execute with efficiency, Ryan hailed the "head shot." Specifically, he recommended aiming for the medulla oblongata, a chestnut-sized part of the brain located at the top of the spinal cord.
"With a head shot [the target] won't even fart," promised Ryan, "The body's electrical system shuts right down." A ruddy-faced man with a bulldog build and demeanor, Ryan sometimes sounded as if he were preparing troops for battle rather than enabling adults to play GI Joe with long-range rifles and live ammo.
"I don't want to hear in the news that you didn't take the head shot. If you can't take the head shot get out of this business," he warns. Later he elaborates: "You must look at this as a job. It is a dirty job. People don't want to clean toilets either. But they do -- not that human beings are toilets."
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