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Shooting is 'better for children than video games'
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Shooting is 'better for children than video games'
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
(Filed: 27/07/2002)
Learning to shoot is better for the young than playing violent computer games or watching adult films, Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister, agreed yesterday.
A recent survey by the Countryside Alliance showed that 77 per cent of the public believed this to be the case.
Gamekeepers from the Royal Estate at the Game Fair at Broadlands
"As a youth worker, one of the things I saw was boxing," Mr Michael said on the first day of the Game Fair, the annual festival of field sports.
"It was not a sport I was attracted to but it was an activity which involved a manner of learning discipline. The same thing applies to shooting.
"The value of shooting is learning disciplines in a proper way as opposed to the ersatz disciplines of video games."
Mr Michael, who is in charge of the consultation on the future of hunting, went out of his way to reassure shooters that they had nothing to fear from the Government in terms of regulation in the long term.
He told a seminar on shooting at the Game Fair that the Government had "no intention" of interfering with "the sport of shooting or its development".
"There will be no change over shooting," he said, adding that he acknowledged the value of shooting to the rural economy, which has been estimated at a billion pounds a year.
Douglas Batchelor, director of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "The league hopes the minister was referring to the humane sports of shooting targets or clay pigeons. Young people should be given every chance to enjoy the countryside.
"Any suggestion, however, that youngsters could benefit from learning to shoot birds and other animals for pleasure is one with as little credibility as the defence put forward by those who claim that hunting still has a place in today's society for young and old alike."
Mr Michael refused to give an undertaking that there would be no interference in respect of hunting, on which both the Commons and the Lords had voted overwhelmingly for regulation - the Lords voted to license hunting and the Commons voted for an absolute ban.
"Hunting has been a matter of debate for 20 years. It needs to be resolved," he said.
The Government is conducting a consultation on the future of hunting likely to culminate with a three-day debate between the different parties in September.
He told the seminar: "We do change our initial proposals when we are offered sound arguments and approaches. Sound objections and logical arguments are what works."
Mr Michael, who recently took a lesson in clay pigeon shooting at the West London Shooting School, said his sports were walking and running. "It is not something which I would spend a lot of time with," he said.
Nigel Davenport, director of the Countryside Alliance's campaign for shooting, said: "We are encouraged by the minister's clear support for all kinds of shooting.
"We feel that shooting provides an environment where a young person can learn self discipline in a safe environment and at the same time they have to be responsible for their actions."
John Swift, chief executive of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, said: "The future is bright for shooting but it is in our own hands. We need to show that shooting is at all times properly conducted and well run."
Dr Nick Southerton, director of research at the Game Conservancy Trust, said research at the trust's experimental farm in Leicestershire had shown how to reverse the decline of all the presently declining farmland birds, such as grey partridge and corn bunting.
"Why is it left to a small minority group responsible for game to work out the best way of managing the British countryside for wildlife?" he asked.
The Game Fair, at Broadlands, Romsey, Hants, is open today and tomorrow.
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$KGAKQRYAADPJ3QFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2002/07/27/nshoot27.xml&_requestid=129235
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
(Filed: 27/07/2002)
Learning to shoot is better for the young than playing violent computer games or watching adult films, Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister, agreed yesterday.
A recent survey by the Countryside Alliance showed that 77 per cent of the public believed this to be the case.
Gamekeepers from the Royal Estate at the Game Fair at Broadlands
"As a youth worker, one of the things I saw was boxing," Mr Michael said on the first day of the Game Fair, the annual festival of field sports.
"It was not a sport I was attracted to but it was an activity which involved a manner of learning discipline. The same thing applies to shooting.
"The value of shooting is learning disciplines in a proper way as opposed to the ersatz disciplines of video games."
Mr Michael, who is in charge of the consultation on the future of hunting, went out of his way to reassure shooters that they had nothing to fear from the Government in terms of regulation in the long term.
He told a seminar on shooting at the Game Fair that the Government had "no intention" of interfering with "the sport of shooting or its development".
"There will be no change over shooting," he said, adding that he acknowledged the value of shooting to the rural economy, which has been estimated at a billion pounds a year.
Douglas Batchelor, director of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "The league hopes the minister was referring to the humane sports of shooting targets or clay pigeons. Young people should be given every chance to enjoy the countryside.
"Any suggestion, however, that youngsters could benefit from learning to shoot birds and other animals for pleasure is one with as little credibility as the defence put forward by those who claim that hunting still has a place in today's society for young and old alike."
Mr Michael refused to give an undertaking that there would be no interference in respect of hunting, on which both the Commons and the Lords had voted overwhelmingly for regulation - the Lords voted to license hunting and the Commons voted for an absolute ban.
"Hunting has been a matter of debate for 20 years. It needs to be resolved," he said.
The Government is conducting a consultation on the future of hunting likely to culminate with a three-day debate between the different parties in September.
He told the seminar: "We do change our initial proposals when we are offered sound arguments and approaches. Sound objections and logical arguments are what works."
Mr Michael, who recently took a lesson in clay pigeon shooting at the West London Shooting School, said his sports were walking and running. "It is not something which I would spend a lot of time with," he said.
Nigel Davenport, director of the Countryside Alliance's campaign for shooting, said: "We are encouraged by the minister's clear support for all kinds of shooting.
"We feel that shooting provides an environment where a young person can learn self discipline in a safe environment and at the same time they have to be responsible for their actions."
John Swift, chief executive of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, said: "The future is bright for shooting but it is in our own hands. We need to show that shooting is at all times properly conducted and well run."
Dr Nick Southerton, director of research at the Game Conservancy Trust, said research at the trust's experimental farm in Leicestershire had shown how to reverse the decline of all the presently declining farmland birds, such as grey partridge and corn bunting.
"Why is it left to a small minority group responsible for game to work out the best way of managing the British countryside for wildlife?" he asked.
The Game Fair, at Broadlands, Romsey, Hants, is open today and tomorrow.
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$KGAKQRYAADPJ3QFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2002/07/27/nshoot27.xml&_requestid=129235
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878