Iron Sights are Overrated
Any minute now legions of retired Marines will show up on my front doorstep bearing torches and pitchforks. Fortunately for me, military service is pretty tough on the knees, so outrunning a bunch of agitated Marine retirees shouldn’t be any terrific chore. However, I would indeed allege most iron sights are contrived more for the firing range than the battlefield.
We Americans have made some simply superlative military gun sights. The sights on the M1 Garand, late-war M1 Carbines, and ultimately, M14 rifles are about as good as they get and as rugged as Margaret Thatcher’s backbone. They are perfect for killing a lazy day on the range. However, when somebody is shooting back I just don’t see my taking the time to fart with stuff like that.
Think back to the last time you nearly stepped on a poisonous snake. Such things happen in the Deep South fairly frequently. A Left-wing counterpart might be if Starbucks runs out of coffee stirrers or somebody inadvertently utilizes something other than your preferred pronouns. Under such unexpectedly terrifying circumstances, a few predictable physiological changes occur very rapidly.
In medical parlance we call this a beta response. Catecholamines like epinephrine and norepinephrine engage their respective G protein-coupled receptors to energize the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). As near as I could tell, the SNS has no practical physiological purpose other than to torment first-year medical students. Just kidding, God designed the SNS to keep you alive if ever you might be chased by a bear.
The pedestrian term is the fight-or-flight response. This near-instantaneous reaction dilates your pupils, increases your heart rate, boosts your blood pressure, mobilizes energy stores and diverts blood from non-essential organs to your skeletal muscles. The same thing happened to me the first time I met my wife back in 1982.
Under these circumstances your body is optimized to move quickly, not solve detailed technical puzzles. On the range you might indeed be fiddling with your sights. In a full-bore gunfight, however you’ll likely be more concerned with maintaining control of your bowels. It’s all pretty natural.
Up until the turn of the latest century, mechanical gun sights just weren’t much use in a close range firefight. Repetitive training creates muscle memory so the gun points where you want it without a great deal of conscious thought. Nowadays, however, electronic red dot sights finally offer a hands-free subconscious sighting solution that works even when you think you might be about to meet Jesus face-to-face.
