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ICHOR AIRSOFT LLC
WELCOME TO ICHOR AIRSOFT!
Come out & play!
We love to shoot our customers!!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Pro Shop will close @ 1pm on Friday, Oct 11th
Huntress Can't wait to see Skillet again!!!
PRO SHOP HOURS:
Monday ------- CLOSED
Tuesday ------ CLOSED
Wednesday -- CLOSED
Thursday ----- 11am to 6pm
Friday ---------- 11am to 6pm
Saturday ------ 10am to 5:30pm
Sunday -------- 10am to 4pm
ARENA HOURS:
Monday ------- CLOSED
Tuesday ------ CLOSED
Wednesday - CLOSED
Thursday ----- CLOSED
Friday --------- CLOSED
Saturday ----- 10am to 5:30pm
Sunday ------- CLOSED
Phone: 928-830-0649
2125 Old Home Manor Dr
Chino Valley Az
AIRSOFT FOR KIDS? ISN'T THAT A BAD THING?
Airsoft. I hadn’t heard of this until my brother became involved. It sounded fun, but my world was revolving around other things at the time. Then he invited me to come out and play one day. Yeah, I was hooked!! The more we played, the more it became clear to me that my 3 young sons would someday want to do this. If for no other reason then it’s what I do for fun. I also realized that the ‘someday’ would be soon. I gave it a lot of thought, I mean we are running around trying to shoot each other after all. What would this teach my sons? I’m a pro’s & con’s kind-a gal, weighting the choices with lots of facts and proceeding from there. The more I thought about it, the more pro’s I came up with and in 10+ years I haven’t seen any con’s. The biggest con most people see is the violence. But I ask them, why is violence a bad thing? Violence CAN be a bad thing, but it isn’t ALWAYS a bad thing. Even Christ knew there was a time for violence (John 2:14-16).
As a society we tend to smother violence and aggression, especially in our boys. And yet the main roll of a man is to be a warrior. This can not be accomplished with out aggression and, yes sometimes, violence. Admittedly this isn’t the way it may seem in the everyday life of man of this
world and yet it is. A warrior can (and should) fight, especially when the fight isn’t physical battle. But how to teach all the things required of a warrior to take on these battles? It can sometimes be too late by the time they are ‘old enough to handle it’ and words have little meaning when they are young enough to learn. It is easier to build a boy then to mend a man. What is the middle ground? How do we foster aggression and the self-control to balance it? How do I teach my sons self-confidence in this arena? Airsoft.
Then there is always the argument of: ‘they can be mistaken for real guns and get someone killed’. Hmmm, I know this has happened and it saddens me. But I truly see battling this mainly with team involvement. My children know that our airsoft guns are similar to our real guns, neither are toys! They are tools and are used as such only in certain situations. Not to say that my sons won’t make mistakes and do or say stupid things. However, they will learn within the team what gun safety is, how it is applied and that it is applied at all times. Even though I try to take them shooting with our real guns often, it is expensive and we don’t go near enough. With Airsoft they get a much larger amount
of exposure. It’s this regular involvement that forms good habits, consistent safety and unconscious precautions, all of which will be taken with any gun, real or airsoft.
Occasionally I find people speaking of another possible con: dishonest/mean players. I have to try hard not to laugh. Really? I shouldn’t let my children play this because they might run across someone who isn’t playing ‘fair’? My usual reply is, “Good point, I guess since they will not encounter anyone in ‘the real world’ who acts this way it wouldn’t be a good idea to expose them to it here.” The hardest part is saying this with a straight face. Seriously though, I get the point, yes there will be people who come through the games that don’t call hits, go out of bounds, etc. etc. I take this as another lesson for my boys. What do we do about this? How do we, as Patton’s, respond to that kind of disrespect? I can go on and on about second chances, giving the benefit of the doubt and knowing when to step in with understanding or step in with dismissal.
When the rubber hits the road I must lead by example. I’m out there playing and my sons are watching (sometimes at the other end of the rifle that just shot me). I know how hard it can be to keep a cool head when you’ve just been shot by someone who isn’t playing by the rules. I have also been known to holler out colorful things in the pain of the moment. This is good for me to deal with, looking my own ‘fairness’ in the eye. And this is the very battles I spoke of above.
What my sons learn out on that field will help to see them through the unfairness they will encounter everyday for the rest of their lives. I want to know I helped nurture the warrior in them so that they can stand firm in the face of a bully in 7th grade, against the wave of peer pressure in high school, in self-control before a vindictive boss, and in so many other battles we all face.
So I can truly say that this, more then any other area of growing up, is where I want my boys to learn to deal with the battles of life. When they leave the field after a game they take away how to lose & how to win, how to lead & how to follow, how deal with pain & how to deal with hurting others, how to communicate & how to listen, how to work as a team & how to work on their own. I know in this game I can help guide them in how to push through personal disappointment & how to celebrate personal success, how to help others through rough times & how to
be helped by others, how to keep their cool & how to deal with losing their cool, how to plan & how to deal with a plan falling apart, how to be all that they are called to be & how to call others to similar heights. I can say all of this with confidence because I have dealt with it all on the field myself. If a parent were to ask me, “How can you let your sons play airsoft?” my reply would have to be, “How can I not?”
~Crystal Patton AKA Huntress
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