The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Mike357

We all seem to be angry at the NRA however, I know there is no obligation for the MOD to provide civilians with ranges but why don't those affected make an appointment to see their MP and fight the fight from another angle?

Get your local MP involved ha ha ha ho ho ho You guys crack me up. Why don't we all just surrender our firearms and give it all up.
What planet are you living on I have just reviewed the emails I got back from our potential EU MPS. If it was up to them we would be using pea shooters on our MOD ranges. I despair.

Alpha1 wrote:Mike357

We all seem to be angry at the NRA however, I know there is no obligation for the MOD to provide civilians with ranges but why don't those affected make an appointment to see their MP and fight the fight from another angle?

Get your local MP involved ha ha ha ho ho ho You guys crack me up. Why don't we all just surrender our firearms and give it all up.
What planet are you living on I have just reviewed the emails I got back from our potential EU MPS. If it was up to them we would be using pea shooters on our MOD ranges. I despair.

What people forget (and it includes Politicians themselves) that they are there to represent us and our views.

So, you should be more proactive and engage with your representatives and put forward your case. Alternatively, get into Politics yourself and make your (and our) voice heard or then again do as you, yourself, suggested and "give it all up."

Your call.

Ginger wrote:
I expect I will now get banned for having a pop at the site administration, and defending the NRA (which does come very hard to me ).

I can only assume you are using forums that ban their members, FB has never banned a single member since it started back in 2010 apart from bradders and he knows why. Him and I have discussed this on a few occasions.

Re NRA, I struggle to see the "bitching" as some people are saying is happening here, all I see are different opinions and isn't that what a forum is all about? Debate and exchange of views, a place to come up with ideas to improve a situation?

Cannot cope with criticism? Who is then narrow minded? The people who are saying others are bitching, think about it, is it bitching or is it an attempt to draw people's attention towards a problem?

I like this forum

tackb wrote:I like this forum

Me too

FWIW I have met John MH when I shot the Sharps and Snaps match he arranged at Bisley a couple of years ago, he clearly knows how MoD range operating procedures work, and I am happy to trust his judgement on this.

I have toyed with the idea of joining the NRA as an individual as well as my existing affiliated club membership for some time, perhaps now is the time I did it - far better to be on the inside attempting change than on the outside looking in .

Our club shoots on three MoD ranges - Thetford CGR, Barton Road and most importantly STANTA battle area. Thetford has just been converted to SARTS, and as far as I know the range day there went ahead last week with no problems. As has been said, this appears to be an issue at local range level.

I too think this is a local issue.
I was at Sennybridge yesterday and no problem and this was talked about, albeit briefly!
It was suggested that it was a misinterpretation of the rules.
And my personal opinion is that if the club, or more importantly the club sec, has an excellent track record with Landmarc then there will be no issues. (Rules aside that is!)
I believe there is some history with a couple of clubs using Sennybridge having brought civvy shooting there almost to an end!
The Landmarc RO in charge of F range yesterday was a thoroughly nice chap and couldn't do enough for us.
Just my 2 cents as I am pretty low on the food chain!
Tony

Alpha, instead of sarcasm, go speak to your MP. Have you ever had a conversation with him? Not just listening to his party spin. As I've said elsewhere, my MSP is SNP who are perceived as anti gun yet he isn't and is a driving force behind the Scottish Shooting Centre of Excellence. His party may not go ahead at the end of the day but he tried.


Sent from my boing using "An application"

We need to remember a few things.

The ranges are for the benefit of the military and they are their toys, to do with as they wish. We may not like that, or even agree with it, but it is how things are. On the whole, we do quite well as civilian shooters in that we are generally allowed to play with the toys the army pay for and maintain. Being in a club with a good relationship with the cabbage patch kids (army) and Landmarc always helps, and the NRA do try and assist where they can if and when things go wrong. These things can take time. It's the nature of the system, both civilian and military. Bear with it.

Support the NRA if you can. They are changing and slowly getting better. That particular ship will take a long time to turn around but the current man at the helm appears to have the will and skills to do so. From us he needs support and patience, not harassing fire at his back.

Trouble is I've been hearing that for 30 years and nothing has got better.

If this hadn't been raised here I doubt there would have been any movement as the issue was reported 3 months ago.

Patience I have but an update wouldn't go amiss.

The sad truth seems to be you need to shout to get anywhere, you have no idea how debilitating I find that.

We entirely agree. In an ideal world this particular incident would have been dealt with far faster and more effectively, and with more feedback to those concerned. However, it wasn't. Surely the best thing now is to offer whatever help can be offered to those that require it, learn lessons and take steps to try and prevent any recurrence. We have been critical of the NRA in the past, but there does generally seem to be a sea change underway at the moment. We have personally experienced Mr Mercer stepping in and resolving an issue on our behalf in minutes when several months of chewing other ankles had achieved very little progress.