Why is shooting so unpopular?

[bobt]

I have organised a clay shoot for our office staff a few times now,

they all enjoy themselfs, and I can usually get them to hit a few,

the vegan lentil knitting girl even said she could get to enjoy clay shooting, but not game, she accepts I shoot and eat things,

Im pretty sure its because most modern people dont know anyone who shoots, so assume we are all some kind of rambo.

[Katzenjammer]

Some good replies on here and reasons why etc etc.

 

My sister is anti shooting but tbh she's anti everything I do. The points I tend to make are very much as outlined in some of the replies above. I also point out that lack of pest control can devastate the wild bird population - that always tugs on heartstrings, the fact that what we shoot to eat has had a wild and free life up to the time it goes on out plates - probably a better life than intensively farmed animals and if they are meat eaters then you should be prepared to kill, prepare and cook it and not just buy some prepackaged supermarket meat. That Julia Bradbury series was good from a while back.

 

In general the media does us no favours with bleeding heart liberals. One good thing is that a lot of lawmakers and people in power shoot.

[gazzthompson]

Every one of my friends ive taken clay shooting have loved it, have a few outstanding requests to join me as well, but for obvious reasons i only ever take 2/3.

 

I would love to see shooting more "mainstream" , more clubs etc.

[smegbrains]

My feeling is that we don't often help ourselves by being secretive about the fact we shoot. I'm sure there was a thread on here asking about if people tell others they shoot and a lot of replies implied that it's a hidden hush hush thing just in case someone decides to pinch their guns.

 

That also plays both ways - too quiet and nobody will know they know someone who shoots and could give them the leg-up into shooting. I actually only discovered someone I work with is a shooter after I bumped into him at the local club which I'd found after a lot of searching.

 

(Also this is my first post, hello all)

[Elmer Fudd 1]

possibly because every single one of us 'big bad nasty shooters' is in a gang committing crime and going around shooting people

[pat g]

My feeling is that we don't often help ourselves by being secretive about the fact we shoot. I'm sure there was a thread on here asking about if people tell others they shoot and a lot of replies implied that it's a hidden hush hush thing just in case someone decides to pinch their guns.

 

That also plays both ways - too quiet and nobody will know they know someone who shoots and could give them the leg-up into shooting. I actually only discovered someone I work with is a shooter after I bumped into him at the local club which I'd found after a lot of searching.

 

(Also this is my first post, hello all)

My sentiments exactly How can you portray a good image of shooting and educate people if you keep it hush hush.

Good first post and welcome by the way :good:

ATB,

Pat

[Graham M]

We genuinely are our own worst enemies......we really are.

I took my eldest son shooting some 25 years when he was 16 and one of the other older shooters moaned about him wanting to shoot in competitions.......

He became very aggressive towards my lad and I had to step in and warn him off. Things got very heated and in the end I left that club and joined my present club so; my son left shooting for good because he thought shooters were a load of moaning old farts.

 

My youngest son wanted to shoot .22 prone target rifle with me so I took him along and he shot for the next 20 years. At one point I took him along to shoot long range .22 at the City of Birmingham club in the hope that he would join. Whilst he was there he shot a couple of cards in his usual manner (fast and accurate) and was pulled by one of the top shooters who claimed that he had “Put him off” with his “Rapid firing”. The fact that my lad had shot very well was of no consequence, because he hadn't shot in accordance with this man's personal ideals.

 

Yup!!!! my lad never went back to that club and only shot indoors for the rest of his shooting career.

 

And only last Friday I took my 13 year old grandson to the range to let him have a go at sporting rifle. Like most lads he blew off a couple of boxes of cheap Remington ammo through a 10-22 in short order, and came off the firing point with a big grin across his face, only to have to listen to another old **** moaning about being “Put off” by all the fast shooting.

 

Needless to say he doesn't want to go again, and to be honest when the season ends I will just continue with my prone rifle and knock the “Sporting Rifle” shooting on the head.

 

No wonder we can't get new blood into the sport. There are too many silly old jerks who want the range to themselves so that they can shoot in peace without all these young kids in the way.

G.M.

[Katzenjammer]

IMO these shooters cannot have been that good then if they were put off by what was going on around them? Surely a true professional should be able to blank off what is going on around them and focus only on the task and their achievement?

[gazzthompson]

Good point Graham As a younger guy, This is why i love my local club (lakenheath). The atmosphere is very relaxed and sporting, As opposed to a exclusive 'gentlemen's' club my friends assumed it would be. We still get the odd look from people walking around in our shorts and t-shirts having a laugh but i make sure they are all extremely safe and handle and shoot properly and safely.

Edited May 30, 2012 by gazzthompson

[Breastman]

Reasons shooting is not as popular as it could be imo;

 

- Because most people live in towns and cities and don’t come into contact personally with lawful shooting unless they have a friend/family member who does it.

- And on that note, most people’s only ‘contact’ with shooting when is when they read/hear about gang shooting etc on the news.

- And on THAT note, the news rarely if ever makes a differentiation between legal and illegal gun ownership. Guns are bad, full stop. Game/pest shooters are murderers/target shooters are Rambo-wannabe's

 

After that I think its;

- There is no single organisation to represent and promote shooting.

- The fractious nature of shooting in this country and the back-biting of one niche on the other, as seen on internet forums including this one.

- More people these days prefer to get there entertainment in the comfort of their own homes.

- The lack of opportunity to get into shooting – there are rarely any occasions where you can just turn up and shoot and it’s a regular thing. Yes you can go clay pigeon shooting but it’s still usually something you have to find/organise for yourself. Open days in rifle clubs are few and far between if you can find them at all.

- Advertising shooting events/gun clubs/gun shops is illegal on both TV and radio. (Shooting may be advertised as an ancillary activity to a larger event but not as the main or sole activity).

- The hassle of going through the ever more onerous application process, (A.K.A. the slow strangulation of the sport by the authorities – wait and see what happens to airgun shooting in Scotland.)

- The initial cost of starting.

- The death of 'cute' animals side of game/pest shooting and the denial of bubble-headed meat eaters.

[Graham M]

IMO these shooters cannot have been that good then if they were put off by what was going on around them? Surely a true professional should be able to blank off what is going on around them and focus only on the task and their achievement?

You are half right. The chap last Friday is bloody useless and seeks to blame anyone or anything for his ineptitude. The chap at the City of B'ham however, was one of the UK's top shots......but was having a bad shoot that day, so someone had to take the blame.

 

When I started shooting we were regarded as a rather elite bunch by the rest of the nation and it seemed to most people that you had to be ex-military to join a club. I was given so much BS by shooters in the early days; such as “You can't have more than one gun”, or “You can only own a .22 if you are a member of a gun club” etc, etc. And it was years before I realised that I could own a couple of rifles in .22fr and a .222 and a .308 as long as I had a good reason to do so.

 

When one of the club members at Halesowen rifle club got married in the early 70s the club members formed a guard of honour with their rifles outside the church, and no-one batted an eyelid. And when we took every club title around in the 80s, we we reported in the local press and had our photos taken with our rifles proudly presented for all the world to see. And this continued right up until 1988 when Michael Ryan went on the rampage at Hungerford, at which point the gubmint saw a way of getting fullbore semi auto's out of the hands of civilians. The main villains at the time were Douglass Hogg (a deer stalker) and Douglass Herd (a game shooter). They produced new laws in which they made sure that stalking rifles and double-barrelled shotguns weren't affected. In fact Douglass Hogg (after being found to be shooting someone else's rifle on a Scottish estate) ensured that a new clause where “Estate rifles” could be used was entered into law.

And they had to ensure that the local squire wouldn't have to toddle off down to the local gunshop himself to buy cartridges, so they allowed for a clause whereas the butler could take his Lordships shotgun cert' to the shop to buy them for him.

 

And so it went on until the fateful day on 13 March 1996 when a murderous ******* named Thomas Hamilton went mad in Dunblane.

 

That was that cue for Nu-Labour to unleash their agenda, and armed with the backing of Rupert Murdoch they went for an all out ban on ALL guns. It was only by a huge amount of effort that we were able to retain what we now have. But the damage was done, and with labour MPs standing in front of TV cameras, crying into their handkerchiefs and stating “It's for the children”, we had to endure the full wrath of politicians seeking to gain popularity by crucifying those nasty people with GUNS (always said with venom).

 

We saw the chairman of the superintendents association Brian Mackenzie, acting as a mouthpiece for the labour party and despite calls from the ACPO president Jim Sharples and his deputy, Inspector Tolley, (my old FEO) not to ban pistols as it would be a useless gesture, the press focused on the demands of Mackenzie who seemed hell-bent on banning ever thing. It soon became clear why, when he was awarded a peerage by Tony B, liar and became Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate.

 

So much for the police not being allowed to have any political leanings!!!!

 

G.M.

[HDAV]

No wonder we can't get new blood into the sport. There are too many silly old jerks who want the range to themselves so that they can shoot in peace without all these young kids in the way.

G.M.

I am quite sure crown green bowls has a similar set up......... However to be put off by one idiot on one occasion is silly..... I went to Jersey and shot .22 pistol they guys there were brilliant and 70%+ of the people shooting were there as a first time or similar (holiday makers) IMO the most welcoming intro into shooting i have experienced.

Edited May 31, 2012 by HDAV

[Guest Mr Pieman]

I agree we shouln't be so sercretive, but I also think we need to be more subtle how we market ourselves. I have noticed a significant increase in the last few years in a growing obsession in showing photos and video coverage of killed animals. It has become real Alpha Male/cavemen stuff - which I think shows us in a very poor light.

 

Piles of pigeons/birds don't seem to cause too much consternation, but does a well written article really need to show a garphic image of a fox with half its head missing, or a deer running around in the throes of dying. Yes, these are facts of shooting, but they repulse antis and will have a strong sway on those sat on the fence in choosing 'the wrong side'!! I cannot deny I find it less than pleasant too - and I've shot most things over the years.

 

What happened t the days of conversation between anti/shooter/uninformed people, where we would describe what we do, the benefits ot the countryside etc. These days, multimedia lets us all too easily display imagery that does not endear us to the general polulation. We are a significant minority; indeed we need all the friends we can get!!!