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SPORTING SHOOTER - FEBRUARY 2005

I am to be more political, on occasion and put aside my red nose. I am sorry about this, but that’s the way the management of this magazine feels about it and that’s the way it’s gonna be.

I met a shooting chappie the other day. He told me that it would be a fine thing when Hunting was banned, as shooting would then be left in peace, both physically and politically and, yes, he was that stupid and I fear that he is not alone amongst you shooting chappies. Many people think that Hitler banned hunting in Germany because he was sentimental about animals (if not ‘untermensch’). In fact he was persuaded by Goering, who felt that hunting interfered with his shooting. So you can see that the spirits of both Hitler and Goering are with us yet – in different parts of the social spectrum.

When I told my shooting chappie that I begged to differ from his point of view, he got quite shirty and pointed out that NuLab had promised not to do nasty things to shooting. I took a deep breath. Then I suggested that anyone who still believed a word that Blair and his cronies said must be a complete ‘pudenda mulieris’. He asked me what that meant and I told him. I can’t tell you because this is a family magazine. I suggest you ring up and ask the Ed – he had a classical education.

There can be absolutely no doubt that if ‘They’ get hunting, then ‘They’ will come round with the baseball bats for all you shooting chappies – the RSPCA has said so; the LACS has said so; PETA has said so. Killing for sport is on the death list. The Government does not have to ban shooting; it can just torture it to death – slowly. You will find it increasingly difficult to get Shot Gun and Firearms Certificates. ACPO and the Home Office will be willing accomplices. The hidden Home Office agenda is that there will be massive civil unrest by the middle of this century. It wants all firearms out of civilian hands.

You will find more and more obstructions placed on rearing birds for shooting. The Emtryl business is just a start.

The conduct of your shooting days will come under increasing scrutiny from Health & Safety, Trading Standards, DEFRA and the Police. I have to say that both you and I know of shoots whose practices will be very hard to justify in the name of Sport. There are various EU regulations that are so vague that they can be made to mean just about anything that those with ‘malice aforethought’ want them to mean.

All shooting chappies use dogs for various purposes. If the Hunting Bill becomes law, many of those purposes will become illegal. I suggest that you read the proposed Bill very carefully.

I am sure that NuLab will keep its promise not to ban shooting. It will not have to. It has all the means at its disposal to strangle it slowly with bureaucratic red tape. You shooting chappies should think, as they say, on.

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