What Is Going To Happen ?

[villaman 9,983]

What is going to happen to our sport of shooting airguns in the future . It Seems most who shoot nowadays are over the 40+ mark, even a few clubs i go to most are in the 50's with no youngsters coming in.

I have a daughter of 16 and none of the lads who come round have ever shot a airgun of any kind and i have asked them if any of the youngster they know who have shot a gun and they all said no and no one even knows who would have one or where to go and buy one .

Is this just the area i live in or is it widespread across the country ?

When i was 13 every lad i knew had a airgun of some sort , we use to have shooting competitions most weekends or after school

What a crying shame these youngsters are not coming through into our great sport ,if that is the case i have found !!

[David.evans 5,323]

I think your right Mitch

My lads been out twice , when he was 15 , he's now 22 , and never been since

Atb

[The one 8,484]

my lads keen as fcuk and is my shadow , but i see huge changes how i was allowed to progress with a hobby compared to him he still says he will stick it out as long as he can by applying for a shotgun and firearms cert , but the snares and traps will go and he will be more into his dog work

Its sad but theres a stupid few out there whos fcuked it for us who would of thought i would need a licence for snares or a airgun and its just the tip of the ice berg more and more folk want a horse or a pony buy a bit of land in the countryside to keep it then that areas a no go , more houses getting built more land lost in another twenty years we will look back and wonder where it went

[Gary73 62]

When I was a nipper (born 1973) all the kids on the estate played Brits vs Germans, cowboys vs Indians all with replica toy guns 303's, luger pistols you know what I mean kids replica toy guns.

 

It was never frowned upon and was the norm.

 

Move on 35 years and kids toy guns are frowned upon by many parents and anything gun orientated is now viewed in what I would class as a non rational manner.

 

A rifle is a tool, like a hammer/axe or a car. All are designed to fulfil a purpose but any can be modified or used in a fashion which is dangerous to others if required.

 

Imagine kids doing we I did the armed police would turn up because someone noticed people with what looked liked guns.

 

We have become a nation of weak willed pacifists on the whole. Scared to voice opinions as only to be labelled as racists etc. Could you imagine the youth of today in this country showing the same resilience if an uprising like in 1939 etc was to happen again, I just don't know.

 

Call me old fashioned or insular but England is not what England was even in the 80's and its decline is continually ongoing and when it is finally realised it will be to late to rectify.

Edited September 3, 2016 by Gary73

[charlie caller 3,654]

I actually feel sorry for young lads now, they will never have the freedom that I had as a youth, we would wander miles with the air rifles often out all day and sometimes all night as well if we decided to camp out, ok we went places we had no real right to go, but we never did any harm, we would have the odd rabbit etc, and get shouted at from time to time, by some farmer, who was fat too busy to chase us, the age of the mobile phone has killed it now, a quick call from a busy body and the helicopter is hovering above, but its not all doom and gloom, I still meet young lads from time to time that are into their shooting /hunting etc the urge to hunt is still very strong even in modern man,and I think always will be.

[villaman 9,983]

When I was a nipper (born 1973) all the kids on the estate played Brits vs Germans, cowboys vs Indians all with replica toy guns 303's, luger pistols you know what I mean kids replica toy guns.

 

It was never frowned upon and was the norm.

 

Move on 35 years and kids toy guns are frowned upon by many parents and anything gun orientated is now viewed in what I would class as a non rational manner.

 

A rifle is a tool, like a hammer/axe or a car. All are designed to fulfil a purpose but any can be modified or used in a fashion which is dangerous to others if required.

 

Imagine kids doing we I did the armed police would turn up because someone noticed people with what looked liked guns.

 

We have become a nation of weak willed pacifists on the whole. Scared to voice opinions as only to be labelled as racists etc. Could you imagine the youth of today in this country showing the same resilience if an uprising like in 1939 etc was to happen again, I just don't know.

 

Call me old fashioned or insular but England is not what England was even in the 80's and its decline is continually ongoing and when it is finally realised it will be to late to rectify.

You can thank Blair and Brown for that ,those two between them killed everything about being English

[PeskyWabbits 464]

Maybe it's a reality thing. The kids that should be outside are in their bedrooms shooting zombies and aliens. Soft kids with poor social skills, no exercise and bad diets.

Imagination and creativity depend on what film, game, etc they are watching. Not the blank paper and crayons, or empty box that a toddler would play with.

 

Are there really danger areas everywhere? Or is this a fear whipped up by the media after an unfortunate event when a nutter or pervert has crossed the line.

Parents daren't let their kids out of sight, or lazy parenting leaving the TV or X box to do the nannying.

[j j m 6,546]

all the kids on our estate had air rifles,very rare to see youngings with guns these days

[Rez 4,961]

What is going to happen to our sport of shooting airguns in the future . It Seems most who shoot nowadays are over the 40+ mark, even a few clubs i go to most are in the 50's with no youngsters coming in.

I have a daughter of 16 and none of the lads who come round have ever shot a airgun of any kind and i have asked them if any of the youngster they know who have shot a gun and they all said no and no one even knows who would have one or where to go and buy one .

Is this just the area i live in or is it widespread across the country ?

When i was 13 every lad i knew had a airgun of some sort , we use to have shooting competitions most weekends or after school

What a crying shame these youngsters are not coming through into our great sport ,if that is the case i have found !!

 

But they'll still know the BC of FAP's when they leave

 

Social media, technology, image, fake tanning, caring about what people think... thats what gets in the way these days. f**k me, if I had to stay in doors and sit in front of my phone or computer when I was young, id of been a utterly bored. I get like that now too.

 

Get out and shoot something. Anything. Even tin cans. Building slingshots and knives out of sticks.

[villaman 9,983]

 

What is going to happen to our sport of shooting airguns in the future . It Seems most who shoot nowadays are over the 40+ mark, even a few clubs i go to most are in the 50's with no youngsters coming in.

I have a daughter of 16 and none of the lads who come round have ever shot a airgun of any kind and i have asked them if any of the youngster they know who have shot a gun and they all said no and no one even knows who would have one or where to go and buy one .

Is this just the area i live in or is it widespread across the country ?

When i was 13 every lad i knew had a airgun of some sort , we use to have shooting competitions most weekends or after school

What a crying shame these youngsters are not coming through into our great sport ,if that is the case i have found !!

 

But they'll still know the BC of FAP's when they leave

 

Social media, technology, image, fake tanning, caring about what people think... thats what gets in the way these days. f**k me, if I had to stay in doors and sit in front of my phone or computer when I was young, id of been a utterly bored. I get like that now too.

 

Get out and shoot something. Anything. Even tin cans. Building slingshots and knives out of sticks.

 

And every other pellet as well

[Welsh_red 4,652]

I'm 32 . When I was younger I used to use my dad's 177 pistol all the time , first few times he was with me and showed me what's what. After that he'd just give me the gun and I'd be down garden shooting plastic milk bottles and tin cans hidden in trees . He gave me and my brother own knives at a early age . He let me go up the woods and fields with my younger brother and play all the time . Most parents of kids my age wouldn't allow that let alone take a gun . It is easy to blame the kids but parents being stringent and worried about their kids is what's caused it . My boss was a farmers kid but did no farming . He tells me when he was a young boy him and his friends would take their dad's shotgun and walk thru the village and go shooting all day m nobody cared . Hrs now 50 odd and says he can't believe how dangerous it was being kids with guns . If his kid wanted a gun I know he would put him off it , he'd be to worried. Now not all parents are like that but I'd imagine a lot are . Theirs a kid round here who is a massive throwback , he's 19 now . But in his young teens he helped out on farms and loved his shooting . Adults in the town looked down on him " wouldn't trust that kid with a gun" etc .

 

The kids arnt interested because their parents and adults discourage that kind of behaviour . sure some get older and do it . Myself and that young kid included but many of the parents who were kids in the 's have long since forgotten what it was to be a kid and explore and play and shoot and don't want their kids doing it . Don't know why

[villaman 9,983]

I think the do gooders and the lefty's of this country have killed fieldsports since labour got into power in 1997

[Gary73 62]

I think it goes deeper than a labour govt coming into power. It's a complete culture turn around, driven by many different ingredients from the end of the 80's onwards.

[reaper6 84]

I carried a airgun in the streets ...shot sparrows of peoples roofs...collected birds eggs...walked about with a 10inch bowie knife in a sheath and even took it to school.....mind you it was 1972.....HAPPY DAYS

[villaman 9,983]

I carried a airgun in the streets ...shot sparrows of peoples roofs...collected birds eggs...walked about with a 10inch bowie knife in a sheath and even took it to school.....mind you it was 1972.....HAPPY DAYS

Good old days remember them well