South Mississippi Practical Shooting

This morning, I found out that one of my best friends from our local shooting world passed away last night. Gerald Benton was one of the very first people I met when I was introduced to practical shooting way back in the late 1990’s. That was at the original Deep South Shooters Association matches at the Gulfport police range. His passing deeply saddened me because he was truly one of the nicest people I have met while shooting. He was always involved in not just shooting but also in helping set up at most of the local matches not just for years, but for decades. He helped me get started. If you shot any of the matches, including Gulfport, Poplarville, Biloxi and Pearlington, any time since the mid 1990’s, you probably knew Gerald, too. He shot everything, USPSA, 3-Gun, Steel Challenge and even outlaw matches.

As sad as his passing is, I have tried to think back to the good times I had shooting with Gerald both locally and at the Mississippi Classic in Jackson. The picture above is from the 2014 MS Classic where Gerald was the senior member (at least, USPSA competition-wise) of our squad. If you aren’t too new to our sport, then you probably recognize most of these folks, as well. In case you don’t know everyone, here’s a who’s who…

Front row left to right – Mike Esposito, Michael Smith, Don Evans, Sean Benton, Bryant Willett

Back row left to right – Gerald Benton, Josh Benton, Steven Mosher, Bill Jackson, Chris Brown, Carter Brown, Lee Fraiser

I do not have any details for services that may be planned at this time. However, I will update this post when I have more information.

Gerald, thank you for all the help you gave me throughout the years. You will be greatly missed by your friends in the shooting community. Thank you for all the good times. May you rest in peace.

Bill Jackson