It Isle of Man is hosting the 2011 NatWest Island Games and among the sports that are being showcases are a number of pistol disciplines including:

50m – .22 Free Pistol
25m – .22 Standard Pistol
25m – .22 Sport Pistol (Women)
25m – Centre Fire Pistol (Men)

It is nice to see the sport in the UK but it would be lovely to see it in my local club also.

Let’s hope that with a successful event the NRA, NSRA and SAGBNI will push a little harder for the pistols used in the games to be moved back to Section 1.

For more information on the games please take a look at:

http://www.natwestislandgames2011.co.uk
http://www.natwestislandgames2011.co.uk/targetarticle.aspx?page=S633637275551550000

It has been reported in the last couple of days who is charging the committee and it is Labour’s Keith Vaz, and after looking at his voting record I think that the shooting world has an uphill struggle. It is important that not only our national organisations put up a good showing but that we as shooters show our support for our sport / pastime and or life style.

As normal BASC have been leading from the front and have asked for a mass response to this from the shooting world and they have even produced a crib sheet for shooters to refer too.

It is everyone’s responsibility to respond to this request and please do not think that someone else will do it because they will not do it. 

So read up on your sport and subject get your submission in stand up and be counted.

For those of you who want to keep politics out of shooting, I am sorry to say that you can not avoid it it is well and truly in the realm of politics please get involved and try to do the best for the sport.

See the following for more information:

http://www.basc.org.uk/en/media/pressreleases.cfm/prid/082B96BB-4C04-4507-838B21363E1A8DFB

http://www.basc.org.uk/en/departments/firearms/the-home-affairs-committee-inquiry-into-firearms-control-2010–a-guide-for-submitting-evidence.cfm

http://www.basc.org.uk/en/utilities/document-summary.cfm/docid/24882C4D-0C51-4203-BAB973C89B574257

and

http://www.shootinguk.co.uk/news/493852/Firearms_review_to_be_chaired_by_antishooting

They will then write to you letting you know what they think, if enough people do this the profile of shooting will go up in the eyes of the elected and you as a voter will be able to hold your MP to account if they say one thing during the run up to an election and something else after as you will have thair reply in writing.

So please show your support for shooting by going to the:  BASC General Election 2010 site, it will only take a moment of your time.

It s nice to see BASC trying to get people to speak with one voice, all we need is for the NRA, NSRA etc etc to wake up and do the same.

This PDF file can can find it at: EXTENDING OPPORTUNITIES: A CONSERVATIVE POLICY PAPER ON SPORT

RTS would like to let everyone know about page 8 where it says the Conservatives would:

Amend firearms legislation to ensure the UK target pistol shooters can train and compete in this country. This will end the absurd situation where we use public money to support athletes to train abroad in an activity banned in this country.

In the last couple of weeks the The Liberal Democrats have come out in support fo the The Sportsman’s Association calls for the 2012 games location and now this.

This is from the site.

Why the judges were impressed

The legal and funding restrictions around Georgina’s training have added some significant hurdles in her ambition for success in 2012. Having re-applied for Great Britons she has shown she will not take no for answer and flights could make all the difference.

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I am the British number one Lady Pistol Shooter and I want a London 2012 Olympic medal. This is an awesome challenge in itself, but I have further difficulties to contend with.

One of the two Olympic events I compete in uses a .22 Pistol which is currently banned in the UK since Dunblane 1996. Therefore we are forced to not only compete, but train abroad too. This is task that British Shooters have had to contend with for the past 12 years and but has now been heightened further more due to the recent UK Sport funding in January. British Shooting was hit hard, with an 80% CUT in their allocated money for the four year lead up period to London, of what they had for Beijing. Consequently there are no funds to continue sending me abroad to train / compete and I am having to fund myself.

So how can I improve? How can I win an Olympic medal for my country…..in our very own capital City, if I can’t even train? Trying to train Sport Pistol, the .22 Olympic shooting event at home with my Air Pistol is hopeless. The two guns are as different as chalk and cheese. I liken the situation Brisish Shooters are in to tennis. It is like me training with a Badminton racket at home and then going to Wimbledon and competing with a tennis racket……against Roger Federer!

Winning Great Britons would enable me to travel abroad to train and compete and help me stand on a more equal playing field with my fellow competitors. But more importantly be the lifeline to make my Olympic dream become reality.

OLYMPIC ATHLETES SUFFER £16m CUTBACKS WHILE LOCOG WASTE £20m ON A FENCE

The so-called "No-Hoper" sports (Fencing, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Water Polo, Handball, Table Tennis, Volleyball, and Shooting itself) have had their funding pot more than halved from £25m for Beijing in 2008 to a mere £11m for London 2012. A reduction of £14m. In addition, Athletics and Badminton both had reductions in funding amounting to £1.5m.

But Dartford Clay Shooting Club says one simple decision to move the Shooting venue from Woolwich to Dartford could see a similar amount of money saved and potentially find its way back to the athletes who need it most.

Richard Bailey, spokesman for Dartford CSC said:

"To make the current shooting venue at Woolwich safe, a massive fence and screen must be erected at extraordinary cost. We simply cannot stand back and allow money to be wasted on a fence while the prospects of sportsmen and women suffer through lack of funding."

"Governing bodies have a right to be angry when they realise that they are losing out to wasteful resource allocation and are justifiably questioning Olympic funding priorities."

In January this year, UKSport slashed the funding of eight Olympic squads because of a £50m shortfall, prompting fears that the UK may not fulfil the pledge to field a team in every sport. The shortfall has been blamed on the inability to raise private funds. Four Paralympic sports – fencing, goalball, volleyball and wheelchair basketball (women) – will also be getting less than anticipated.

Current ODA figures suggest that the Woolwich venue construction costs are estimated at around £42m, an increase of around £20m on the original budget.

London businessman and owner of DCSC, Peter Duffield, has offered the DCSC club site as a venue for the 2012 Shooting competition, and has confirmed that it can be delivered within the original 2005 venue budget (£22m).

Supporting Dartford’s bid to become the shooting venue, Phil Boakes, Chairman of British Shooting, said:

"It is totally unacceptable to see UKSport and athletes starved of funding. If there is money being spent from the overall pot, it should be spent in the pursuit of sport and medals not the construction of temporary facilities that leave no legacy.

"This is a wasted opportunity. Like virtually every other sport, Shooting is desperate for a legacy from the 2012 Olympics. A shift of venue from Woolwich to Dartford is a win-win decision. Shooting would move to a permanent venue and receive the legacy it so badly needs and LOCOG get the perfect shooting venue for the games. That the money saved might trickle back to restore funding to the other Olympic sports is probably a hope too far.

"Every athlete understands that the recession means sacrifices need to be made and they will compete to the best of their ability whatever happens. But athletes in all sports deserve to be given every opportunity for success. And if they have to rein back on expenditure, LOCOG and the ODA should do so too."

Dartford Clay Shooting Club spokesman, Richard Bailey continued:

"The simple fact of the matter is that by moving the shooting venue to Dartford, the Olympics get more for less.

"Moving the shooting venue to Dartford will save the taxpayer £25m at the stroke of a pen. And beyond 2012, while other facilities lie redundant, a tangible ‘Bricks and Mortar’ legacy for the sport and the local community is secured.

"International Shooting competitions will come to Britain for the first time in 30 years and the dual purpose sports facilities will be open to the local community all year round.

"Dartford has everything LOCOG want: space, accessibility, safety, proximity to the Olympic village, and sporting and community legacy. It even comes with a stunning backdrop of the QE2 Bridge."

Notes to Editors:

For further information, contact Richard Bailey on 020 7397 8459 or 07714 756215 or Richard@mediahouse.co.uk

Interviews and filming / photo opportunities with Spokesman Richard Bailey or Martin Murphy, Project Manager, available on request.

DCSC is situated on 180 acres of the Dartford Marshes along Joyce Green Lane. Formerly the locality was used for munitions and fireworks manufacture and testing.

DCSC was founded on the site in 1974 by local enthusiasts and has grown to one of the biggest member clubs in England. The Club already offers the best Olympic clay shooting training facilities in the UK.

DCSC shares the Dartford Marshes with a multitude of other passive public amenities, such as bird watching, cycling, walking and livestock grazing without interference or safety issues. Improvements to the Club have been undertaken with full respect for the local bio-diversity. Community access and amenity value could and would be radically improved.

DCSC is under 30 mins from the Olympic Village at Stratford (and a mere 10 mins further away than the original Woolwich venue); 5 mins from the QE2 Bridge and the M25; less than 15 mins from Ebbsfleet rail link; 20 mins by an extended river taxi route from London Bridge.

If you think you should please visit: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/freeshooting/ you have until 19th November 2009.

It looks like the Sportsman’s Association is the first organisation to break ranks and call for UK shooters not to volunteer to man the pumps for London 2012. As many readers of ESB will be aware pistols where banned in the UK many years ago and when London won the games there was a hope that some form of pistol shooting would return to the shores of the UK, sadly the promised Section 5 route has yet to be seen and with the decision not to host the shooting at Bisley I guess enough is enough.

“The Sportsman’s Association, … announced today that they will campaign to dissuade all UK shooters from assisting in the running of shooting events at the London 2012 Olympics.”

It will be interesting to see just how much support that this call will get from the shooting community and other organisations, I for one say about time and I hope it does well.

For more information please see: http://www.sportsmansassociation.co.uk/?p=152
http://www.sportsmansassociation.co.uk/?p=152

Earlier this year my 10 year old daughter was watching the news and she watched a clip from the Beijing Olympics turned around to me and said can I do that? I looked at the screen to see what she was watching and it was the woman’s final in pistol shooting so I told her that she could not even try for the sport as it was not legal where we live and understandably she was a little disappointed but as with all 10 years olds she was happy 5 minutes later when sponge bob square pants came on.

Now my daughter is a good shot (I know, I know she is my daughter and I am bound to say that) with a rifle but she struggles with the size of the thing, I went out and got a collapsible stock and that helped but it is still heavy, she enjoys shooting with the air pistol we have and is quite good so when I read about how she could try the pistol shooting that had caught her eye on the TV earlier this year I thought I would see what I could do.

I thought pistol shooting was illegal?

Well it is not illegal it is just prohibited. Pistol shooting is not illegal and neither is the private ownership of pistols illegal but very few are able to take advantage of the acceptable areas of pistol ownership.

Muzzle-loading pistols – You can have a muzzle loading pistol on a normal FAC (See http://www.charcoal-burner.com). 

Section 7.1 – firearms fall into historic firearms that can be stored at your home.

Section 7.3 – firearms fall into those of special interest of as part of a collection and can be stored & used at ranges given heritage status.

Section 5 exceptions (for want of an official classification)

This is the area that interests me as this allows for competition pistol shooting within the current primary legislation.

The government has agreed in principle to allow cartridge pistol training to those who aspire to compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games, the home office have put strict rules around this and all shooting will be administered by British Shooting on a few Ministry of Defence ranges.  

Now my daughter aspires to compete as do I so I have kept an eye out to see how I would be able to have a go and the instructions have finally come out.

According to British Shooting you need to turn up at one of the regional British Shooting training sessions and try out, you will be required to be approved in advance by both the local police and the Home Office for inclusion in this program. British Shooting recommends that you do all the shooting you can with an air pistol to increase your chances of being selected at one of the training sessions.

What I am doing.

I have decided to get the ball roiling for the members of my family who are interested and am in the process of penning the letters to the Home Office & my local Chief Constable asking for whatever vetting process to start.

Since my daughter has express an interest my son has become very interested as well so I will be adding his name to the list, he is a good shot with the rifle and enjoys the air pistol but he will have a head start as he is also good with my .32 patriot pistol

I should be ready to post my Home Office & local police letters on 31^th December 2008.

What can you do?

Well I think it would be good to show that there is still a keen interest in pistol shooting in the UK, the more people we can get approved to attend the regional centres the better as British Shooting will have many people to select from, perhaps even some people who are not on the radar at the moment, the instruction on the British Shooting website do not even say you need a FAC so if an interest in competing and a willingness to train is all you need.

I would like to encourage everyone who is interested in trying out for the pistol shooting events to write into the Home Office and request approval for attendance at one of the regional training sessions, I hope that this would be a shot in the arm to British Shooting as with a show of support and a wide pool of people to select from we could have a real chance of doing well in 2012.

It would also give the Ministry of Defence ranges time to prepare for the correct number of people to try for their place then could plan to provide the necessary range space, parking, road access control & facilities for the day after all I would not want to see such an important day descend into an unorganised farce due to lack of planning. 

I will be completing my application letter to the Home Office over the Christmas break as I am very busy until then, and I’ll post it on New Year’s Eve, perhaps you will do the same?

The Home Office address is:
Home Office
Direct Communications Unit
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

For more information please see:

Olympic Cartridge Pistol: –  http://www.nsra.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=403&Itemid=55

British Shooting Briefing note: – http://www.britishshooting.org.uk/content/view/220/31/

British Shooting pathway: – http://www.britishshooting.org.uk/images/stories/docs/pistol-squad-policy-on-selection-2008-issued-v5.pdf