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

Thorney wrote:tbh it doesnt matter if we harness social media or not as long as groups of shooters take pieces out of each other we've no hope.

Spot on.

Social media is good, but it's not a way of driving up support - only raising awareness of something that may not have been in the news.

What target shooting really needs is for the NRA to stop shying away from publicity and to retain an experienced PR/PA agency with a brief to get Parliamentarians talking positively about what we do. The NRA's efforts over the last 18 months have been a lot better than what passed previously, and they've got the groundwork in place to build on - the Vizianagram TR match, Lords v Commons.

All it needs is political will within the NRA and a willingness to accept the rough with the smooth.

[quote="dromia"]
After Dunblane the Snowdrop bigots got 100s of thousands of signatures without "social media".

quote]

Because they had every red topped paper in the UK with their enormous reach screaming for a ban and the 57K pistol shooters had no way of responding. Papers wouldn't take ads, Editors wouldn't print letters etc etc... End result every brainless erk with a biro put their cross on the line whether they really gave a sh1t or not and here we are 18yrs later.

I often wonder if something like twitter or FB had existed then would it have been so easy for the politicians to ban handguns? Perhaps it would have been easier, I don't know?

I have no evidence that points to the effectiveness of social media in furthering our cause but what it does do, and this forum is proof of that, is it enables us as community to share knowledge and communicate like never before. Every time a new member joins this forum we have a new ambassador for our shared sport/hobby/past time and as such we have a greater chance of survival.

That might be true if the shooter was in isolation.

I suspect that the people they shoot with and interact with in real life will have more impact on their thinking than on here or @rsebook.

When the marches were organised in London in support of retaining handguns the clubs and the Sportmans Association managed to mobilize 100s of thousands of gun owners, no social media then.

Social media has its place and can be effectively used to further causes, good or bad, its something you're just going to have to come to terms with Dromia, but seeing as you're still in denial about the metric system i doubt either of us will see that day in this plane of existence

If you want a recent and local example, just look at Alan Barnes, the disabled pensioner from Gateshead that was assaulted outside his home. Had it not been for social media, would anyone outside his street/estate even known about it? Certainly a worldwide collection wouldn't have been held raising £300k, getting him a new home and enough money to enjoy the rest of his life away from the area he was attacked in

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... 0-him.html

I have no problem with social media. If people feel a need to use it then fine they have my sympathy.

However it is been touted here as the magic wand that will solve all our gun ownership ills and I just think it is what it is and of itself it can do nothing, so lets have a bit of proportionality around it. At the end of the day it is about the message not the messenger but listening to some on here one would get the impression that it adds value to the message being put through tw@tter, @rsebook and the rest. That is all I disagree with, I have never said or suggested that social media shouldn't be used.

It's the duty of every target shooter in the UK to introduce non shooters to shooting when ever possible, this will have a more positive effect than anything imo.

Airbrush wrote:It's the duty of every target shooter in the UK to introduce non shooters to shooting when ever possible, this will have a more positive effect than anything imo.

Only if there is robust proactive National leadership and vision driving the gun ownership agenda forward for shooters to identify with, come behind and support.

This is key deficit that gun ownership in this country has, new people are coming into shooting every day but there is no national body worth their support that is looking after their gun ownership interests.

Question for you Dromia.

If such an organisation existed, what should it's manifesto be? Who should it's leadership be comprised of?

I haven't the time to write a manifesto but it should be based on where we are just know and aligning that with the reality of gun ownership and the facts surrounding that and ensuring that the review and development of firearms legislation is based on reality and not just a knee jerk political reaction. That would need to be combined with a sustained publicity campaign around gun ownership and shooting at a national level.

As to the leadership I have no-one in mind as I am far too reclusive to have knowledge or interest in people beyond the handful that are important to me.

Obviously they will need to be good communicators on all the media, doing it because they believe in the message not for the money and/or their ego, be comfortable and convincing around any table, have integrity and be honest.

I suspect that will be the problem finding someone in the public eye with those qualities

We also need more international teams, more victories for British shooters, more exciting IPSC match videos, more participation, more open days, more friends and family days, more exhibition shooting!