dromia wrote:I think the NRA should seek to affiliate itself with UKPSA so as to help support practical shooting, that would be the "right" thing to do now that the decision has been made.
No decision has been made !
A motion has to be voted on at an IPSC general assembly.
NO VOTE HAS BEEN TAKEN TO DATE.
Before a motion is put forward to be voted on certain criteria need to be met.
When the bid was first submited clearly not all the criteria were met.
I suspect the new NRA shotgun league & anything else they introduce will be in support of that effort.
There is nothing to prevent the NRA from re-submitting it to IPSC once they have addressed any shortcommings highlighted, this is what the guys in Northern Ireland had to do on more than one occasion before they successfully gained their independence, this they did despite the UKPSA attempting to sway the decision with their $30,000 "incentive" offer to the IPSC, their latest accounts also shows they spent £24,000 on legal fees fighting the Northern Ireland bid, its worth mentioning that since breaking away from the stifling UKPSA control Northern Ireland has gone from strength to strength, the match attendance figures prove it.
Also I think that far from being a negative the creation of F4i & laterly the NRA bid has forced the UKPSA to do things they never would have done if these things had not come about.
However along with the limited number of positive changes came some negative ones, the UKPSA tried to put a stop to an F4i match at Bisley by writing letters to the NRA & also Surrey Police as well as expelling some of its members it sees as being central to the creation of F4i & the latest NRA bid.
Unconfirmed reports also say they are encouraging & spreading the notion that the same people who created F4i are just a bunch of trouble makers, which they are not, the F4i ethos is to promote matches accessable to all & not just those who are members of a select organisation.
Prior to F4i being created you never saw the UKPSA promote level 1 matches, after they saw the success that F4i & laterly the NRA were having by promoting the sport at grass root level they have had to climb of their elitest pedestal & role up their sleves.
F4i will not work with UKPSA there is too much bad blood, lets not beat about the bush here, if you expell people & prevent their access to international competition & try to prevent their matches happening by writing to the authorities it is hardly a basis for good relations, if however the NRA were to take on the IPSC franchise your wish for a united group would most likely be the outcome, maybe not overnight but it would happen, because the majority of shooters on all sides just want to shoot.
The UKPSA shooters could still shoot all the same events, likewise many of the large number of new shooters at F4i & NRA matches would then also have access.
The important thing to remember is UKPSA do not run matches, their affiliated clubs do, those clubs would most probably continue to run events the only difference would be who's banner would be over the door, it would still be IPSC & thats all that matters to the shooters.
4I