Clay Shooting

Stand up And be counted

We all have a role to play in over­com­ing the threats to shoot­ing

- Belgium · Iceland · Belarus

This year alone we have seen sev­eral at­tacks on shoot­ing sports, par­tic­u­larly game shoot­ing. OK, so you may be a ded­i­cated clay shooter, and not ter­ri­bly both­ered about pi­geons, pheas­ants, par­tridges or grouse. But shoot­ing faces other is­sues too: re­us­able plas­tics, lead shot, noise, the list goes on. In a world in­creas­ingly wrapped up in red tape, now is the time for the shoot­ing com­mu­nity to stand up and be counted.

So what can we do about it? First and most im­por­tant, we must stick to­gether, regardless of what type of shoot­ing you are most in­ter­ested in. Di­vided, we will be picked off one by one. Sec­ond, we should all join one or more of the as­so­ci­a­tions, and en­cour­age our friends who go shoot­ing to do the same.

So far so good, but there is more. We are all am­bas­sadors of shoot­ing, regardless of whether we shoot clays, rab­bits, deer, game or metal tar­gets. No one ever hears about the shoot or shooter that does things right, only the one that does some­thing wrong. So do the right thing all the time and don’t give the me­dia or those who op­pose shoot­ing any am­mu­ni­tion to use against us.

Next, get in­volved. Join­ing an as­so­ci­a­tion isn’t like giv­ing a cou­ple of quid to a char­ity col­lec­tor. Don’t be tricked into think­ing ‘OK I’ve done my bit’. There is much more you can eas­ily do.

All the as­so­ci­a­tions are in­volved in lob­by­ing and re­spond­ing to con­sul­ta­tions – and it’s a chance to add your voice. Check your or­gan­i­sa­tion’s web­site for in­for­ma­tion about what they are do­ing and how you can help. Don’t as­sume some­one else will jump in and do it for you – just get on and do it!

At BASC, part of our mis­sion is to cre­ate and main­tain ‘all party’ political con­sen­sus in sup­port of sus­tain­able shoot­ing sports, and the con­ser­va­tion ben­e­fits de­rived from the shoot­ing sec­tor. Pub­lic per­cep­tion is crit­i­cal to this, as well as en­dorse­ment across key opin­ion for­m­ers. By work­ing to­gether and do­ing the right things, ev­ery shooter can play their part in helping to se­cure the fu­ture of our sport.

BASC has just launched a weekly email news­let­ter, to keep mem­bers and oth­ers up to speed with the lat­est is­sues, cam­paigns and news. To sign up for the news­let­ter, go to: basc.org.uk

?? ??
?? ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from UK