Please forgive this intrusion but we need to act as our sport is under constant attack.
We are under attack, make no mistake, the mentality that promotes fear and prejudice in our society will be our undoing. While we sit back and hope that things will all work out there are forces at work in our community that result in division and discontent. Deliberate or not the results are evident in wasted time, resources and energy. We need to work together as a community, pooling our energy, resources, and experience. Vigorous political discussion in an open forum is a good thing and must be encouraged.
We are often subjected to rumor and misinformation by those who have agendas that are unclear and would perhaps not be popular. We must stand together as shooting sport enthusiasts and discourage anything but open debate.
Our sport has been subjected to apathy and over 50 years of negative propaganda. We know that people trained in the safe responsible sporting use of firearms are much less likely to be a burden on our society. Let's talk about that in our communities. We know that firearms are no more dangerous than automobiles, truckloads of gasoline or trainloads of oil. Why are people afraid of firearms and comfortable driving down the highway?
We have people that have been involved in competitive shooting sports from their teens into their eighties. This is a lifetime sport and we need to take the sporting use of firearms out of the closet, the only way we can do that is to stand up in our community and talk about our sport and what we get out of it. Join our clubs, our provincial and our national associations so that our political voice will be heard with strength and unity.
I often hear the argument that "guns were designed to kill people", to that I would say so were pointed sticks should we ban trees? Unfortunately it is true that war or the threat of it has been a major driver of our technology and the original development of many things that we now use regularly was to "kill people". It should also be pointed out that right or wrong our intended purpose of developing the tools of war is to deter it.
Our sport promotes sportsmanship and has no provision for any of the unsportsmanlike behavior that is common in some of the "spectator sports" that have become such a large part of Canadian culture. Shooting sports reward the athlete and have little spectator appeal, we have no "dirty hits" and certainly no need to exact revenge or employ enforcers on our teams. The only negatives in our sport are perceived by those who live in a world dominated by fear and prejudice.
Please take the time to help to educate a non shooter .
This is a personal message from the President of the Royal New Brunswick Rifle Association.
Michael Lutes
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