![]() ![]() ![]() He was, as usual, flawless on the range, an example of what each of us strived to be. He worked as my Chief Rangemaster in the NSSF Media Education Program, which was as much Dave's as mine and NSSF's. Dave understood evil, but he believed in redemption as well. It takes a man's man to not only arrest a first-time drug offender, but help arrange for his education when he got out. ![]() He took on the tough job of running the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail, a job to which he bought not only toughness, but compassion. As a law enforcement trainer he worked in training for line officers and elite operators as well. At the end of the meeting, Dave and Walt became the formal founders, Churilla and I would work on range officer training.Īfter working on national rules and range officer training, Dave went on to found the International Range Officer Association for IPSC and was Match Director of major national and world competitions. Remember, combat shooting was a major change from traditional position bullseye shooting. I shot one combat match back then that, as soon as someone yelled "Go!," you dropped your gun on floor and kicked it down range, then ran to retrieve it to start the stage.įollowing the FIPT, Dave, Walt, Jake Jatras (editor of the only publication about the fledgling sport, The Combat Shooters Report), Dave Churilla (who would go on to be the first head of the National Range Officer Institute (NROI), Tom Campbell (then with S&W and one of the sport's first top shooters) and me took a yellow legal pad to a strip joint called Thee Doll House in Orlando and created the outlines of USPSA.ĭave was adamant that the new sport become more formalized, especially on the safety rules. "Combat shooting," as it was called back then, had grown like a weed in all directions, and some of those directions were pretty strange. The sport of practical pistol, and IPSC itself, had been created at the 1976 Columbia Conference, called by Col. The "bones" of USPSA were put in place after the first Florida Invitational Pistol Tournament in, I believe, 1980. ![]() Dave and his running buddy Lloyd Harper felt very strongly that the United States, as the largest participant in the fledgling sport of practical shooting, needed its own organization. I don't even know where to begin.Dave, along with Walt Rauch, founded the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) after Dave's initial work with the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). I note the passing of one of my best, and dearest, friends, Captain Dave Arnold, from injuries sustained in a car crash in Virginia this weekend. ![]()
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