Big bang theory

Tag : Padded Waistcoats


Teenagers and guns can be a lethal combination. But it has beensuggested that boys should learn to shoot to control their need forviolence. Ruth Campbell takes her boys to a shooting school to findout
PERHAPS because I grew up in Northern Ireland in the Seventies, Ihave always had an aversion to guns. When my sons were little, theyweren't allowed toy rifles or pistols or anything that firedbullets. So they made them out of sticks. They built them from Legobricks. They even used bananas.
Eventually, I relented and got them pop guns, then water pistols.It seemed a small step from there to cowboy pistols and holsters.
Before I knew it, we had such a huge armoury of weapons andammunition we could easily have invaded a small foreign country.
While I'm not sure I agree with Tory peer Norman Tebbit when hesaid recently that young boys have a need for a degree of violence(sounds too much like a convenient excuse to me), I do concede thatthere is a dynamic physicality about the way they play.
They love action, they love competition, they enjoy the thrill of aphysical challenge. And they have excess energy to burn.
Lord Tebbit went on to add, controversially, that teenage boysshould be taught how to shoot in order to learn how to behaveresponsibly around guns.
His call was intended as a radical answer to spiralling gun crimeamong inner city teenagers.
However, my boys . William, 16, Charlie, 14 and Patrick, 12 . arefar from hardened gangsters. I am taking them for a clay pigeonshooting lesson because they want to have fun.
Warren Gill Shooting Ground, near Masham, sits in the peacefulcountryside of North Yorkshire on a beautiful 20-acre site, set ina narrow, wooded valley that is teeming with wildlife.
Instructor Ann Elgie launches straight into a talk on gun safety.This is serious stuff. No nonsense. A reality check. She informsthe boys that they must always carry their gun open and empty ofcartridges, so everyone can see there is no threat.
And before they shoot, they must remember to look down the barrelevery time and check it is clear. If it is blocked with mud ordebris, they have created a bomb, she tells them. Their faces arefull of concentration.
I am hoping that something that Lord Tebbit said about shootinglessons teaching boys how to vent aggression while learningdiscipline and the ability to listen and take instruction will ruboff. "They learn to take responsibility for their actions," hesaid.
Ann makes it clear that safety comes before being able to hit yourtarget. "I am trying to frighten you a little bit. It's not a toy,it's a gun," she says. "We are very strict, very safety conscious.This is an implement that can kill somebody. I have to be veryfirm."
We are clearly in good hands here. Ann's husband Dave, who has morethan 45 years experience, is one of the finest shots in thecountry. A former builder who was raised on a farm, he gave up hisjob to set up Warren Gill five years ago after many years ofcoaching at shoots and giving private, one-to-one lessons.
He taught Ann, who used to work in export, 25 years ago. "I used togo on clay pigeon shoots with him. It was a case of join in or sitin the car and watch. I enjoyed it," she says. Along with their sonRoss, 26, they are now all qualified instructors.
Their family-run business now attracts people from all over thecountry. It's an activity popular with stag parties and forcorporate, team-building exercises. Women are, increasingly, alsowanting to learn. Ann reckons they are good pupils. "Women reallylisten to what you say. A man doesn't want you to know he can't doit, he knows. Sometimes he isn't really listening," she confesses.
The children's lessons, more for boys than girls, are becoming morepopular she says, with youngsters from as young as about 12 signingup for lessons. Some are from farming or shooting families. Butmany young novices are arriving from towns, often when they're hereholidaying at nearby caravan parks.
In a half-hour lesson, beginners will fire around 25 cartridges atclays . saucer-sized targets fired from hidden radio-controlledtraps to simulate the flight of game birds. It takes about sixlessons, we're told, to get the hang of it.
My boys are given their protective clothing .
waistcoats with padded leather shoulders, ear defenders and hats.Children use smaller-calibre shotguns, along with subsonicammunition, which has half the recoil of a standard cartridge.
I watch as, in turn, and under the reassuringly close supervisionof Ann, they raise the gun to their shoulders. "Pull" shouts Annand the clay rises from the ground and is fired across the sky.
They follow it with the gun, sighting along the barrel as they'vebeen shown. You can almost hear the rush of adrenalin. Sometimesthey miss it. But then, bang. It is shattered into smithereens.They're thrilled. I can't help feeling pleased.
Ann gives them advice on how to perfect their aim and time theirshots better. They need a keen eye and quick reactions. Every timeone of those little black circles explodes into a cloud of blackdust, there are smiles all round.
"It is a discipline. They have to listen. They are learningsomething. They are enjoying what they are doing and they dosurprise you. We often have them grinning from ear to ear when theyleave,"
says Ann.
THE boys are at the beginners' shots but other targets at WarrenGill simulate game shooting with clays zipping head-on, crossing inboth directions and heading away. Each trap throws the clay at adifferent speed and angle, simulating everything from grouse anddriven pheasant to bolting rabbit and springing teal.
For the more experienced shooter, there is the challenge of astaggering 60 metre high target. But that is all for another day.For now, the boys are pleased with what they have achieved.
Teenagers and weapons can be a lethal combination and there is nodoubt a loaded gun can appear dangerously attractive. But I amtempted to agree with Lord Tebbit when he argues that learning toshoot, in the right environment, can be character forming.
Today, the boys have learnt nothing but respect for the shotgun.And as they walk back to the shooting lodge, carrying their open,and empty, guns ever so carefully, I can't help thinking that theylook just that little bit older then when we arrived.