It would seem like the organizers of the London Olympics want to pretend as though gun control doesn’t exist. I noticed that their page on Shooting has a “Get Involved” section that pretends shooters don’t have to leave the country to practice.
Shooting is a fun way to learn discipline and responsibility. In the UK, more than 350,000 people currently practice the sport, with equal numbers of boys and girls entering competitions.
If you want to get involved, British Shooting is a good place to start.
As with many sports, there are schemes to encourage young people to reach a high level.
Find details of all the Shooting clubs and facilities in your local area in the ‘related websites’ section.
It’s just so casual, like British shooters haven’t been effectively ostracized by society and the UK sporting world. Let’s just pretend like there’s a local gun range where you can pick up any gun to shoot so conveniently for every British youngster! It’s almost as if they choose not to mention that the only reason the world’s shooters are even allowed to compete in the London Olympics is by special exemption and that these athletes will have to go abroad to even practice.
But there is one thing that stands out to this description of how to get involved in the sport. There’s a justification for why people would even want to consider involvement. There’s no list of reasons why people want to play handball or go swimming. It’s as if they feel the need to make excuses for why shooters are even being listed as athletes.
To be fair, I suppose, it’s “only” handguns and semiautos that are flatly banned over there. Taking up rifle shooting, though a pain in the butt, is doable in the long run for most interested folks who own their own homes. I know a Briton who, after getting addicted to rifles on visiting the States, is planning to jump through the hoops to take posession of his grandfather’s WWI-era Lee-Enfield from another family member.
Not to say the partial bans, the needless legal hoops, the abusive extra expenses, the dwindling ranges, and the social stigmatization are okay–not by a long shot. But to the British writer, it’s probably less “pretending gun control doesn’t exist” and more “thinking that a strictly-regulated system that bans the ‘most dangerous’ kinds of guns is the proper, civilized way to handle shooting sports”.
Practice? It’s just a drive through the Chunnel to sunny France! It’s not like they’re an independent country anymore – they’re a part of the Euroborg.