Hillbilly Elegy

placed the gun on his workbench with a
vise to hold it in place and fired
repeatedly at a target. After each shot,
we adjusted the scope, aligning the
crosshairs with where the BB impacted
the target. And then he taught me how to
shoot—how to focus on the sights and
not the target, how to exhale before
pulling the trigger. Years later, our
marine boot camp marksmanship
instructors would tell us that the kids
who already “knew” how to shoot
performed the worst, because they’d
learned improper fundamentals. That
was true with one exception: me. From
Papaw, I had learned excellent
fundamentals, and I qualified with an