To clear things up about this post where I’m rightfully deriding IDPA; I am not opposed to them ruling that .38 Short Colt out of a .357 Magnum revolver is not allowed. I actually approve of this ruling, because based on what IDPA sells itself as, it’s the right ruling.
My problem is solely with how the “ruling” came about. It’s not in the IDPA rule book, and it’s not published on the official IDPA website at www.idpa.com – instead it’s on a little known and unofficial web forum dedicated to IDPA. IDPA can and should make whatever rules they want to preserve the integrity of their sport, I’m 100% in favor of that. However, those rules should be easily found and readily available for anyone looking to try IDPA.
I have my issues with USPSA’s rulebook and the way they do things, but one thing that USPSA does well is make sure that official rulings are published on the official USPSA website. IDPA needs to get with the program on that. Seriously, it’s not hard: put up a section at www.idpa.com that is labeled “rule updates” or something like that, and then just publish all this stuff in there.
I haven’t been IDPA active for many years. We used to get a rule book issued every year via the local club. That’s not happening anymore, or are the rules not being updated properly? I’ve heard many a RO say if it’s not prohibited in the rule book, it’s allowed.
The official IDPA rulebook hasn’t been updated since 2005. What’s happened is IDPA staffers have been issuing equipment rulings since then via email and on unofficial forums. These rulings aren’t published anywhere on the main idpa site.
That explains it. I haven’t shot a match since 2002-2003. At that time, the big issue was legal holsters and Jim Higgenbothem (sp?) was releasing monthly updates.
Times have changed.
Yes they have.
It’s not at ALL dififcult to set up section of teh IDPA website that contains the latest official PDF of teh rule book, and as many PDF addendum files as necessary to cover changes since the last time the official rule book was recompiled and updated.
Everytime you recompile and update the rulebook, simply delete the addendum files that were incorporated into the rulebook.
It’s fine if the addendums lag behind the latest rulings by a month (or a couple of months), but FIVE YEARS without a single official update co-located with the rulebook?!?
That just encourages the rules lawyers, who are willing to mine the “unofficial” forums and forwarded emails for favorable rulings to print out and keep handy, while ignoring any they find are unfavorable (and hope the match officials aren’t aware of either).
It’s actually worse than if they left everything but the bare bones to “Failure To Do Right” calls on the spot.
This.
“The official IDPA rulebook hasn’t been updated since 2005. What’s happened is IDPA staffers have been issuing equipment rulings since then via email and on unofficial forums. These rulings aren’t published anywhere on the main idpa site.”
This is unacceptable. I would say any ruling that comes down through a website that is not an official arm of IDPA should be discarded. If the ruling is to have weight it needs to be done on the record. I would encourage all clubs to dismiss any rulings done in this fashion and let IDPA know that if they want to modify their rules they need to do so on their website and/or in their Tactical Journal which they send out quarterly.