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In 2005, I was in a class conducted by a primary instructor whom I knew and had shot with before. Class of 16; two squads of eight rotating on the line, with two instructors overseeing.

This was a Saturday classroom-first, range-second course, with a break for lunch and about a five-mile drive to the range in between. At lunch, I sat next to a gentlemen who seemed to be the oldest in the class, and who wore a VFW cap; his wife was with him, but driving, not taking the course.

I nodded toward his cap, thanked him for his service, and asked him what branch. It was Navy; he had enlisted almost as soon as he turned 17 and served in the Pacific during WWII. I didn't actually ask his age (I figured 80 or just under), or prod about any details of his service. But we had a great chat, and he and his wife were both friendly and engaging folks. I did notice, however, a distinct tremor in his hands and arms...obvious when relaxed, much more so when he used them. We ate at a Subway, so sandwich and and a drink with a straw in it; don't know what kind of difficulty he'd have had with a fork or spoon.

He shot in the same squad as I did that day, but not near me on the line, so I didn't actually see him shoot. Range time done, scores checked, paperwork signed, goodbyes said, we all grabbed our bags and headed to the parking lot...all except the Navy veteran.

I went back to the range the next day and saw the CHL instructor, asked him about the day before. He said it fairly broke his heart. The Navy vet had Parkinson's, and the more fine motor control he tried to exert, the greater the degree of tremor.

The instructor said the vet had owned guns all of his adult life, had shot skeet and clays in competition decades ago, and was very knowledgeable and safe with the handling of his pistol. He was also very aware of what I refer to as "minute-of-wobble," that bit of sight movement common to everyone who has functioning respiration and circulatory systems.

He'd scored badly on the first run, and the instructor kept him back to try again. He said before he had the vet shoot the CoF again, he worked with him a bit on his shooting in general. That's when he learned of the Parkinson's, and he said there really wasn't much to correct regarding grip, stance, site-picture, etc. Two factors were in play: the neurological tremors themselves, and the fact, even though the vet wasn't gripping the gun too tightly from the perspective of someone healthy, his disease meant that to exert enough pressure to keep the gun under control after a shot, the subjective feeling was that he was gripping it with all his might...which naturally magnified the wobble.

They tried the CoF again, and again he failed. The instructor said he then took a different tack. He positioned the vet at seven yards and told him there was absolutely no timer; in fact, the instructor was going to walk to the rear and straighten up after the class, make sure all the ammo boxes and such were in the trash cans. He told the vet to fire three rounds at his own pace, and he'd be back in five minutes or so ('course, he was still watching the shooting very closely from a few yards back). The rounds were spaced a long time apart.

After three shots, the instructor came back to the line, checked clear, and saw three well-placed center-mass holes in the target.

What he determined was that the vet, when the sights were first brought on target, had huge arcs of motion going on. After some concentration, he was able to shrink and slow the arcs a bit but, more importantly, got their timing down so he could squeeze the trigger as they intersected the point of aim. Even with the age and Parkinson's the man could still shoot...he just couldn't do it quickly.

For the third attempt, the instructor told me he wasn't certain if he had gray-lined the standards or not, but he told the vet to, before each string, take as long as he needed to get settled in on the sight picture, and just say "Now" when he was ready. Then the instructor would gently say "Fire" and the timer would start. Almost worked.

The first rounds at all distances (except I think one at 15 yards) were decent hits,--a few in the "X"--as well as some subsequent shots at three yards. Some second shots a seven-yards scored well. The final results, though, still came in well below the 175 minimum.

The instructor offered to have him come back and take the course again at no charge, and the range portion would be private, one-on-one. He was sure he could get this. The old Navy vet thanked him, shook his hand; told him he appreciated the offer, but that it just wasn't meant to be.