Children & Guns Cont;
I hope lots of schools will take up the offer. There is no other sport which is quite so disciplined as shooting. Unfortunately there is an attitude which says watching shooting sends out the wrong message to youngsters. I totally disagree. Letting youngsters see how guns can be used responsibly would be a bonus. It would show them that they have a positive use rather than something which is used for street crime or as a threat. Legitimate shooting has no connection with gun crime just as Formula One racing cars do not encourage fast drunken driving.
One of the reasons the Olympic shooting events are being held at Woolwich instead of Bisley was, according to Seb Coe, to give more people the opportunity to see the sport and to use it as an opportunity to inspire more youngsters to take it up.
Although the story in the Evening Standard was wrong and the outcome satisfactory, it is worrying that it appeared in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere behind the scenes there are those who are ‘prejudiced against shooting’ at LOCOG ticket distribution, or someone who thought that this edict might be the political correct thing to do. The worrying thing is that such a bigoted and silly ban is entirely possible these days, which is why initially so many people believed that the story could be true.
One legacy from the London Olympics and Paralympics would be if shooting was more easily accessible to young people. I will never forget taking a group of inner city youngsters down to Hampshire for a day’s clay shooting. After their extensive safety demonstration of how to handle firearms safely they thoroughly enjoyed the sport. Their whole attitude to discipline changed and by the end of the day they were correcting each other’s mistakes on safety.
There is no way Governments will ever ban all guns and so it is important that young people have impressed upon them the need to handle firearms safely and responsibly. Even better, some of them might realise that with skill, training and effort they could even win Gold at a future Olympics or Paralympics.
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