Firearm User Network

All Soldiers in the Army received several spam emails about this. I’m sharing two that I personally received.

The U.S. Army not only authorized this spam, they shared name and contact information of their Soldiers and paid money to put up the supporting websites. I know this because I have never signed up for anything related to this activity, military or civilian, yet the email was addressed directly to my Army (mail.mil) account and addressed by my current rank and full name.

Marksmen in the Army (the few of us there are) wonder why the Department of Army would spend money to fund video game eSports. Simple: demographic reality.

I’ve since learned that eSports not only attracts large numbers of active and dedicated participants, the best players can make a good living streaming their gameplay to their fans. I once attended a Meetup Group for programmers thinking the subject was going to be about video game design but turned out to be a discussion panel of professional video gamers. While they had all won money in tournaments (some eSports tournaments are valued at $10 million USD), their primary, regular income was derived by ad revenue from spectators watching live and recorded streams of their play online. Noone on that panel had a corporate sponsor or another outside source of income.

Pause and consider that: video game players drive enough spectator interest they can remain unsponsored and still make a living. Now consider the vast majority of these players and fans are of the demographic most sought after by military recruiting.

So, how many shooters were at that last match you attended?

Shooting failure example 1: The NRA Competition Division reports that only 2% of the card-carrying membership holds a Classification, and you get Marksman class by merely shooting the match. Anyone shooting two matches without being disqualified for a safety violation will receive a Marksman Classification, even if they post the lowest score ever recorded. 98% of the NRA has never bothered to do this.

Shooting failure example 2: Team members of the U.S. Army Reserve Entitlement Team (oops, I mean “Marksmanship Program”) routinely fail to submit an AAR for shooting competitions or training they attend while on orders. Public Affairs grants our Team unlimited access to official Army Reserve News, with every article guaranteed to appear on official Army websites, in the official Army Reserve news feed, and on the USAR Double Eagle app. But articles can’t be written if info is never submitted. Submitting an event AAR (a junior enlisted task expected to be done for all training and events) is even routinely disregarded by Team leadership and senior NCOs in charge. Talking with other public affairs personnel supporting other programs tell me this is the norm for them as well.

eSports players build and support their activities. Shooters, with a head start of over a century, fail to do the same. That’s one reason why Army leadership pushes eSports instead of shooting.

Spam 1

Skilled Online Gamers Needed

From: postmaster@mail.goarmy.com

SFC BUOL,

The U.S. Army e-Sports Team is a highly successful, DA sanctioned program run by the United States Army Recruiting Command (USAREC). The organization fields competitive teams & gamer streaming talent to represent the U.S. Army both online and at events across the country. The mission is simple: connect America’s Army to the American public through a passion for gaming.

We are looking to expand our talent pool of Active Duty, Army Reserve, and National Guard Soldiers across select e-Sports titles and platforms. Current e-Sports titles include:

 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
 – League of Legends
 – Apex Legends
 – Rocket League

We are also interested in Soldiers with exceptional abilities in other titles, Soldier gamers with significant social media followings, and Soldiers who have very strong streaming/commentator abilities.

Soldiers selected for the team must be prepared for a PCS assignment to Fort Knox and understand that joining the team will involve outreach engagements and interaction with the public on a daily basis. There is also an opportunity to be a part of the “at-large” team if you are not selected for the Fort Knox based resident team and/or cannot PCS to Fort Knox. The current U.S. Army e-Sports at-large team represents dozens of additional game titles.

 ++ ELIGIBILITY
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 – Active duty, Army Reserves, or National Guard
 – E-1 to E-8, O-1 to O-3, and WO1 to CW3
 – Must be in good standings (no flags/pending actions)
 – Able to compete at the highest level of e-Sports competition in their perspective title and/or be talented as a streaming personality.

To be eligible for TDY opportunities:
 – Must have up to date DA 705/ DA 5500 and Active Government Travel Card and DTS account

 ++ INTERESTED?
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

To inquire about joining the U.S. Army e-Sports team at Fort Knox or join the at-large team, join our Discord server at https://www.discord.gg/usarmyesports.

All interested Soldiers should join the Discord server no later than 01 DEC to be considered for the team. Additional instructions on the selection process and timelines will be put out through Discord.

++ FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAM 
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 – https://recruiting.army.mil/army_esports/
 – https://facebook.com/usarmyesports
 – https://twitter.com/usarmyesports

Social and streaming accounts are twitter, Instagram, Facebook @usarmyesports.

Streaming channels: 

 – twitch.tv/usarmyesports
 – mixer.com/usarmyesports
 – youtube.com/usarmyesports

********** To remove yourself from the mailing list click the following link **********
https://armystrong.goarmy.com/a/url.aspx

Please do not respond to this email. Replies are routed to an unmonitored mailbox.

© 2020. Paid for by the United States Army. All rights reserved. Information subject to change.

Spam 2
Talent Call – Join the Army eSports Team

From postmaster@mail.goarmy.com

U.S. Army eSports is a highly successful, DA sanctioned program run by the United States Army Recruiting Command (USAREC). The organization fields competitive teams to represent the U.S. Army both online and at events across the country.

We are looking to expand our talent pool of Active Duty, Army Reserve, and National Guard soldiers across all games and platforms. We have regular tryouts for our competitive teams and are looking to maximize participation in order to maintain our competitive edge.

Teams that are currently or soon to be in the process of tryouts include:

 – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (PC)
 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PS4)
 – Overwatch (PC)
 – Rocket League (Cross Platform)
 – Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (PC)

 ++ ELIGIBILITY
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 – Active duty, Army Reserves, or National Guard
 – E-1 to E-8, O-1 to O-3, and WO1 to CW3
 – Must be in good standings (no flags/pending actions)
 – Able to compete at the highest level of eSports competition in their perspective title

To be eligible for TDY opportunities:
 – Must have up to date DA 705/ DA 5500 and Active Government Travel Card and DTS account

 ++ INTERESTED?
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

To inquire about opportunities or to interact with other soldiers in an active gaming community, join our Discord server at https://www.discord.gg/usarmyesports.

++ FOR MORE INFORMATION
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

https://recruiting.army.mil/army_esports/https://facebook.com/usarmyesportshttps://twitter.com/usarmyesports

Social and streaming accounts are twitter, Instagram, Facebook @usarmyesports.

Streaming channels: 

 – twitch.tv/usarmyesports
 – mixer.com/usarmyesports
 – youtube.com/usarmyesports

This message was sent to: my.official.email.MIL@MAIL.MIL

To stop receiving messages about Army eSports please use the link below:
********** To remove yourself from the mailing list click the following link **********
https://armystrong.goarmy.com/a/url.aspx

Please do not respond to this email. Replies are routed to an unmonitored mailbox.

© 2020. Paid for by the United States Army. All rights reserved. Information subject to change.

Our program seeks ranges, hunting guides, shooting preserves, and any other business or non-profit organization that offers marksmanship opportunities for gun owners.

Lets say you wisely decide to host marksmanship events as a means to promote your organization or business. This entails three factors:

– Operations, or physically running an event. This is setting up shooting courses and targets, signing up and running participants through those courses, scoring targets, notating the results, etc.

– Administration, or preparatory and follow up work for each event. This is building and maintaining a web site for the group/club/range, maintaining contact lists of participants and other interested people, processing scores and tabulating event results, updating the web site, writing and sending out newsletters for the events, etc.

– Marketing, or promoting the events. This is notifying the local community of the events, and consequently, your business or organization. Maintaining contact lists of prospects, writing press releases for the events, contacting local media and getting the events (and your organization or business) in the local news.

Our service greatly automates all these tasks. Typical individual tasks can be accomplished, start to finish, in about one minute’s time. Management of complete events that would normally require about four or more person-hours of office work can now be completed with greater effect in mere minutes.

It works for local shooters who want organized events but don’t enjoy the hassle of running them. It works for local hunting and shooting businesses who want to sponsor regular hunting and shooting events but don’t have the time to make them truly effective. It will work for you.

I invented the word altrutising, a portmanteau of altruism and advertising, as it represents the only form of sponsorship accepted by the Firearm User Network.

We only accept advertising that altruistically benefits our membership, or altrutising.

Altruism
al·tru·ism [al-troo-iz-uhm]

– The principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others.

Advertising
ad·ver·tis·ing [ad-ver-tahy-zing]

– The act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, need, etc., especially by paid announcements: to get more customers by advertising.

When considering options to accept sponsorship and support from third party companies, vendors and manufacturers I wanted the ensure that it served to help Firearm User Network members. Traditional advertising, paying to place interrupting messages in front of readers, viewers and/or members, rarely does the end user any good. We avoid this by only accepting Altrutising.

Any outside source of support is returned to the FUNshoot membership in a way that directly and obviously benefits them. Sponsors offset our operating costs, making it less expensive for members to benefit from our services.

For example, a vendor wishes to advertise with us. Rather than broadcast an ad to our membership in exchange for money, sponsors cover our overhead expenses which is passed on altruistically. Members hosting FUNshoot events agree to allow the company to be listed as an official event sponsor in exchange for a deep discount on event processing fees. Individual premium memberships are extended free of charge. Thus, every sponsor dollar is passed directly to the membership.

Rather than spending money to interrupt people with an ad, sponsor companies are forced to think how they can directly benefit the people they are trying to reach. The advertising becomes altruism. Altrutising.

Exercising your rights means just that.

Exercise requires taking action, getting trained, participating in other people’s events and/or hosting your own.

Exercise your rights by going out to actually do it and getting others involved.

Firearm User Network merely offer proven guidelines and suggestions on ways to better conduct that exercise for best results. More importantly, we offer tools that make facilitating this much easier. Our formats are quick and easy to administer, safe, inexpensive, effective and fun for the participant. We offer incentives to those who benefit from our programs and we formally acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of active marksmen and event directors by promoting them within their local community.

You don’t have to use Firearm User Network services or conduct these events to exercise your rights. Get involved with another organization or create and run events on your own if you like. However, if you aren’t doing something that organizes yourself and gets others involved, you’re failing to exercise your rights.