My name is Homer and I am a shooter.
Its a sport I enjoy and my only pass time.
Now I really am starting to hate the way I am being shown as a shooter in public.
We are being painted as blood thirsty killers with no regard for wildlife or humans.Walking time bombs waiting to go on a killing spree in our local kids school.
Everything in the media regardless of what the cause,be it from terrorists to greenpeace gets both sides of their story told but I have yet to see a report , or documentry for us shooters.WHY???
Why is it that animal rights groups are displayed as "such deacent people" saving us from those evil men with guns.Yet they do nothing to help wildlife in the way the shooting community do.
I am in a small club (15 members) we rear 1200 phesants and 500 ducks every year for the past 10 years. I have been involved with this since the very start, we have built up a strong relationship with the local land owners by making certain areas sancturys and releasing birds in such a way the land owners can see that we are putting more back in to the habitat than what we are taking out. Do we get recognition for it ...not one bit.
We are all members of the NARGC, a umbrella body for clubs in Ireland.We have been working for the past few years in providing wetland sancturys for geese and ducks at an international level,is this broadcast? not one bit.Why? Yet if we did not do this these lands would be drained and developed.
Each year it is getting harder and harder as the shooting community come under more pressure from activists trying to change the laws on hunting. A local row lately between the department of the enviroment and a local club over shooting rights led to a complete shooting ban along a river.
Submissions were made to this body on removing or keeping this ban. 25 were handed in ,3 for the removal the rest against. Out of the 22 against there were only 5 from the country, the rest were from foreign anti shooting bodies.They network better than any terrorist organisation......How can we survive as a community with such forces against us?.
Its time the shooting organisations made their voices heard, let the politicians and those who try to prevent us from doing what we enjoy be made quiet aware that we will use our vote and put someone in there who can look after our interests.
My name is Homer and I am a Shooter, and I am proud of it
