How to promote the sport?

[Gh0st]

I was shattered, I’ve done tv work before but never shot a lot of different sections in one day before, so not sure how good it will be......but it’s a start.

Good editor will make the difference!

[Dellboy]

Our local club never had room for new member (we had 60 if you counted the ones you never saw ) but since April when the comitee changed and we started dragging the club into the 20th (i know little by little) century and affiliated with the NRA to enable Bisley as another option we have lost about 6 members but gained about 15 with 2 more possibles coming this week . Next step butt zero and maybe overseas trips ...
Variety keeps them interested and the younger ones are attracted by the pretendy AR'S(so am i ) But soon realise there is a whole lot more out there .

Trouble with new members is i havent shot for 2 months while looking after them .....

[Gh0st]

Our local club never had room for new member (we had 60 if you counted the ones you never saw ) but since April when the comitee changed and we started dragging the club into the 20th (i know little by little) century and affiliated with the NRA to enable Bisley as another option we have lost about 6 members but gained about 15 with 2 more possibles coming this week . Next step butt zero and maybe overseas trips ...
Variety keeps them interested and the younger ones are attracted by the pretendy AR'S(so am i ) But soon realise there is a whole lot more out there .

Trouble with new members is i havent shot for 2 months while looking after them .....

You’re not wrong, our club runs training every Friday night, full members and the training committee dedicate a lot of time to getting probationers competent and signed off! A great job they do to!

[KaelSmith]

I believe you hit the nail on the head

One thing is for sure, the future of the sport certainly does not lie with the boring bunch of old farts we are ...

Nearly all my 13 yr old son generation has some sort of "exposure/knowledge" of guns & shooting but on PS4. Give them the choice between trying a prone anschutz and an AR type fitted with an Eotech, and see which one they will pick first. In a similar way, tell them to stand/lie down still or to move from shooting place to barricade and see what they prefer - I think that gives us a good clue on how to recruit a good contingent for the future of our sport

Agree with Mark, social media has been a great platform in helping people interested find information about the sport

[Thorney]

The issue is the police I'm afraid.

They use social media as a sword against shooters now, I know of a couple of RFD's who have been warned that their social media was a 'concern' and they should stop if they wanted a simple renewal. I was told by one senior FEO that they thought that any social media promotion of shooting should be grounds for refusal and that it was implicit in their job that firearms numbers should be controlled - in other words they saw their job as preventing people getting firearms licences.

Its very hard to grow a sport when the licensing authority does its best to stop you.

[Gh0st]

The issue is the police I'm afraid.

They use social media as a sword against shooters now, I know of a couple of RFD's who have been warned that their social media was a 'concern' and they should stop if they wanted a simple renewal. I was told by one senior FEO that they thought that any social media promotion of shooting should be grounds for refusal and that it was implicit in their job that firearms numbers should be controlled - in other words they saw their job as preventing people getting firearms licences.

Its very hard to grow a sport when the licensing authority does its best to stop you.

One of my biggest gripes is the fact that each force has different rules!

[Thorney]

Its not the Firearms Act, thats simple enough and is the law, its the HO guidelines are the issue as every police seem to 'interpret' these in different ways, its also not law, they are just guidelines, they have no formal legal affect and yet the police treat them as such, they are in effect creating law as they see fit. The issue is of course that most shooters dont know that, or just assume their FEO is the one in the know when in fact so many really just seem to make it up as they go along. For example there was one post here that the OP said he couldnt get a variation until he'd had training taken at a local range - there is no legal basis for that requirement. Thats not to suggest that training isnt a good idea but to refuse a variation on that basis alone is outside of the terms of the Firearms Act.

I'd be the first to recommend the Firearms Act needs complete review but stop short as if they did they would use it as a chance to ban some other kinds of guns they dont like the look of and as the Govt idea of consultation is 'we'd made our mind up, we're just asking as it looks good' I'd rather have what we have (and deal with those who try to create their own law on a case by case basis) than open us up to more restrictions.

[Dellboy]

The issue is the police I'm afraid.

They use social media as a sword against shooters now, I know of a couple of RFD's who have been warned that their social media was a 'concern' and they should stop if they wanted a simple renewal. I was told by one senior FEO that they thought that any social media promotion of shooting should be grounds for refusal and that it was implicit in their job that firearms numbers should be controlled - in other words they saw their job as preventing people getting firearms licences.

Its very hard to grow a sport when the licensing authority does its best to stop you.

I know of two young lads 13 and 14 who bought a couple of tatty bootsale air rifles and were really dangerous due to their lack of knowledge ,but now there in a proper club potentialy saving loads of agg for them their parents and the police .

[Gh0st]

The issue is the police I'm afraid.

They use social media as a sword against shooters now, I know of a couple of RFD's who have been warned that their social media was a 'concern' and they should stop if they wanted a simple renewal. I was told by one senior FEO that they thought that any social media promotion of shooting should be grounds for refusal and that it was implicit in their job that firearms numbers should be controlled - in other words they saw their job as preventing people getting firearms licences.

Its very hard to grow a sport when the licensing authority does its best to stop you.

I know of two young lads 13 and 14 who bought a couple of tatty bootsale air rifles and were really dangerous due to their lack of knowledge ,but now there in a proper club potentialy saving loads of agg for them their parents and the police .

assuming their parents brought them the air rifles....

[Dellboy]

The issue is the police I'm afraid.

They use social media as a sword against shooters now, I know of a couple of RFD's who have been warned that their social media was a 'concern' and they should stop if they wanted a simple renewal. I was told by one senior FEO that they thought that any social media promotion of shooting should be grounds for refusal and that it was implicit in their job that firearms numbers should be controlled - in other words they saw their job as preventing people getting firearms licences.

Its very hard to grow a sport when the licensing authority does its best to stop you.

I know of two young lads 13 and 14 who bought a couple of tatty bootsale air rifles and were really dangerous due to their lack of knowledge ,but now there in a proper club potentialy saving loads of agg for them their parents and the police .

assuming their parents brought them the air rifles....

they didnt even know