On “Chick Lean”…

Why does it not surprise me that the Most Powerful Man in the Free World R exhibits a serious case of “chick lean?”

Sad, but not surprising, I guess.  This is a man who is ordering our troops into harm’s way, to use guns and explosives and every manner of death-dealing weaponry, and he is leaning away from a low-base load in a heavy stacked-barrel 12 gauge because he is compensating for the weight of the gun and shying away from the recoil (I wanted to add “like a goddamned nancy-boy” after that last sentence, but chose not to because it is common for first time shooters to shy from the recoil because of all the urban legends that they’ve heard about “kicking like a mule” and so forth, so I realized that wasn’t entirely fair). 

Just for a little background, this is called “chick lean” because, as offensive as the term may be, it is a shooting tendency that is usually reserved for first-time female shooters for two reasons:

1.      The gun is heavy, and so they are leaning back away from it to try and balance themselves against the weight of the gun;

2.      They are apprehensive about the recoil and so are shying away from it.

A far better long-gun stance is to have your feet shoulder width apart, turned slightly, and either stand straight or lean forward a bit to brace against the recoil.  Like a shock absorber in a car, this actually reduces felt recoil because it allows you to “give” a little, whereas in a case of “chick lean” you’ve already given all you can, so the recoil is usually worse with this poor stance. 

Also, add in the fact that you are accommodating your body to the gun instead of the other way around, and it becomes harder to aim, harder to hold steady, and harder not to allow the trigger pull to affect your aim point – so the typical shooter affected by a case of “chick lean” is also usually not that accurate. 

This is not the only mechanical issue with stance and grip that I can see in this picture, and that, coupled with the “chick lean” factor leads me to conclude (with pretty good evidence) that this is probably the first time that President Obama has ever fired a gun – and I’m sorry, folks, but that makes him ignorant about them, and as a result, makes him the wrong guy to be coming up with good gun policy.  Kind of like that New York Times article the other day that labeled the front sling swivel on an AR-15 as a “grenade launcher mount.”  If you don’t know what you’re talking about, then shut the hell up and let the adults talk.