Straight shooters: Ranges offer a variety of targets to hone accuracy

With lightning-quick hands, the hero draws and shoots ... six times within a second and hits all six targets, the size of a dime.

Possible? In a movie. But out on the range, facing a small bull's-eye target 25 yards away, even with a steady hand and plenty of time to aim between rounds, it would be difficult for even the most skilled shooters.

Otherwise, it's not as easy as Hollywood makes it look, although it's not uncommon for a new shooter to show up, having seen such movies, and expect to see such accuracy.

Participation in shooting sports is increasing — a result of several things, which include the Olympics, the challenge involved and shooting tragedies such as the one at Trolley Square.

Following a shooting incident, anywhere in the country, people flood to the ranges, gun shops and classrooms offering concealed weapon permits.

"Then, over time, things start to taper off until the next incident," said Ken Collins, an owner in Range Masters of Utah, an indoor shooting range and gun shop in Springville.

Here in Utah, sport shooting, as elsewhere, is becoming more popular.

Collins attributes some of the growing interest to the fact that many of the people out West have grown up around firearms and feel more comfortable handling them.

"Also, a lot of people here in Utah like to hunt, and shooting is simply an extension of hunting. It allows them to use their guns and develop skills at the same time," he noted.

Sport shooting has been around since firearms were first invented. The aim, after all, was always to hit a target. Pistols came later and were made famous in the Old West where, as Sam Colt, inventor of the Colt revolver, always said: "God created men equal, Col. Colt made them equal."

Shooting events in the Olympics have also drawn attention to the sport. These events go back more than a century.

The rapid-fire pistol event was introduced into the Games in 1896, along with the free pistol event. Sport pistol and air pistol shooting came in 1984.

Nowadays, where packing a six-gun isn't the norm, there are two ways people can participate in sport shooting:

• Driving to a remote location where shooting is legal.

• Going to a local range.