The Irish aren’t even being discrete about it:
Mr Ahern said he was determined to stamp out a practice known as “practical shootingâ€. His department had monitored with concern “competitions in which people shoot their way through multi-stage target courses based on real life combat scenarios, such as a home invasion or a hostage rescueâ€.
He said: “This activity is one that seeks to glorify and normalise attitudes to high-powered handguns and promote their use and ownership,†he said. Mr Ahern said “practical shooting†was a “highly undesirable†recent development in Irish shooting sports.
So government bureaucrats get to decide what is and what isn’t a shooting sport? No consideration for police to participate in these types of sports to hone their self-defense shooting skills? That’s why they are called “practical” sports, and apparently it appalls Irish authorities that people might make a shooting game out of it.
I kind of wonder if Airsoft and Paintball are illegal in Ireland, which involves people actually pointing guns at other people, and practicing things like assaults on fixed positions, etc. How appalling is that? I’ve also heard there might be some kids playing army in Derry. Gotta put a stop to that!
Well even though they are the Irish, remember that they share much of the nonsensical politics of the U.K.
I think his quote about normalizing attitudes towards firearms is dead on. This crook doesn’t want people to accept them and be familiar with them, otherwise his gun-grabbing agenda will be seen for what it really is.
It’s crazy.
People even complain about Cowboy Action scenarios.
After reading that article, it appears that this guy just simply put, wants to eliminate guns. And it’s interesting that he compares Irish gun owners to rural Americans.
They’ll ban all shooting sports, and they’ll call any “gunplay” shooting sports. Can’t have the peasants learning how to defend themselves against the gov’t thugs now, can we?
You left out the various ‘laser tag’ games too. They’d probably crap themselves over those.
Sorry, some fun memories there :)
I can’t help but recall that the first Creedmor rifle match was between the Irish and US national teams. The Irish team were feted as sports heroes all around the country, and they enjoyed a western hunting trip at the invitation of the President, who provided an expert guide–George Custer.
In the 1920’s, the Irish Gun Canard was true. Ask Thompson.
It was gunnery that made Ahern, and his darling little nation.
How the Wild Geese must be rolling in their graves, tara.
The action three gun matches I participate in via a small town gun club is run by the town chief of police partly as an activity to keep his officers trained. We usually have 30-40 attendees and all but about 3 are civilians.
I remember reading that the UK did the same thing, or at least tried to, just before its sweeping handgun ban.
And it may interest some to know that the AT-F officially believes that IDPA/USPSC is outside the scope of “sporting use” regarding the 1968 Gun Control Act.
Some interesting reading may be found here: http://www.atf.gov/pub/treas_pub/assault_rifles/index.htm
Quote p17:”We received some comments urging us to find “practical shooting” is a sport for the
purposes of section 925(d)(3).48 Further, we received information showing that practical
shooting is gaining in popularity in the United States and is governed by an organization
that has sponsored national events since 1989. It also has an international organization.
While some may consider practical shooting a sport, by its very nature it is closer to
police/combat-style competition and is not comparable to the more traditional types of
sports, such as hunting and organized competitive target shooting. Therefore, we are not
convinced that practical shooting does, in fact, constitute a sporting purpose under section
925(d)(3).”
I love how they researched views of practical shooting sports on Al Gore’s Internets and automatically determine IPSC and IDPA are “extreme” shooting sports. I’d love to see their sources cited. And if you ask me “High-powered” Handguns really don’t start till the .44 Mag – .454 Casull range. ;)