And Now For A Work From Our Sponsor

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Hello!  This is Average Joe speaking on behalf of the Society for the Prevention of Made-Up Language (SPMUL). 

For many years now I have witnessed the business world heartily develop and embrace newly minted words and phrases that are designed to make the reader think that the business has actually changed an important condition.  I listened to an executive tell us how "planfull" he was in attempt to make us think that he was doing something awfully important (he wasn't).  At another meeting an executive advised us that we should be "articulating our teams" which I'm pretty sure is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.  My favorite was an executive who told us we needed to be working in a more "urgical" fashion.

While I thought this syndrome was something that only afflicted corporate American I have found that it has crept into business of firearms training and journalism.  My particular beef is with those who now tell us to "press" the trigger.  For me the phrase "pull the trigger" has worked just fine for the past 55 years but it seems that the gun training and writing intellectuals have decided that we must now "press" that trigger.   Apparently, from what I can piece together, their thought was that too many people were jerking the trigger when they pulled it.  Now I don't dismiss the importance of trigger control and I certainly don't discount the prospect that too many people haven't yet acquired proper trigger skills.  But I do get my feathers ruffled at the notion that by swapping the word "pull" with the word "press" that anything has changed or improved. 

I guess I also am stuck on the notion that the word "press" is the opposite of what the shooter should be doing in order to fire the weapon.  To me the act of "pressing" something means that I am moving it away from my body.  When I press the "enter" key on my keyboard or "press the number 1 to continue this call in English" my finger is moving away from my body.  Similarly when I am executing a dumbell press I am pushing those weights away.  So in my technical point of view if I do actually press the trigger the weapon is not going to fire as I will be attempting to move the trigger in the wrong direction.

(I tried pressing the trigger but it got stiff because I used too much starch!)

Instead of telling people to "press the trigger" lets train them on the proper way to pull it!   


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