To quote Britain’s Bonzo Dog Band, dear dear dear oh dear dear dear oh dear dear oh dear no. “Schoolchildren in London are eligible for 125,000 free tickets for the 2012 Olympics next sumer,” theblaze.com reports. “but any event that involves a firearm will be excluded from the massive giveaway.” Yes, it’s come to that. The nation that first enshrined gun rights into law, the nation that went on to disarm their people in the interests of protecting an inherently corrupt class system, has concluded that young, impressionable minds should not watch international shooting competition lest it lead to a life of violent crime. What member of the “loony left” came up with that one?

UDPATE after the jump (as well)

That would be Boris Johnson. The Conservative London Mayor who recently proved he was soft on rioters, soft on the causes of rioting. Hey, at least you now know the truth: in the Land of Hope and Glory, police state thinking unifies all political parties.

Of course, there are still a few pro-gun voices left in the British wilderness, pointing out that Boris and organizations like the Communities Against Gun and Knife Crime are a bunch of morons. I’m particularly fond of this quote from David Penn, secretary of the British Shooting Sports Council:

There is no link between Olympic-level shooting and crime. It’s like saying that a thief would use a Formula One car as a getaway car.

Not it’s not. It’s nothing like that at all. But David’s heart’s in the right place. As are the commentators underneath the post. My fave, from RAYBLUE:

No guns, no knives . . .
Germany, try again. It’s time.

UPDATE [via HAVEGUN]: The Powers That Be have decreed that UK urchins WILL get free tix to Olympic games. The telegraph.co.uk flags the good news:

Outcry from the British Olympic Association, shooting organisations and athletes has forced Locog to open up its free Ticketshare tickets to shooting events to schoolchildren as well as other Ticketshare recipients like Tickets for Troops.

A Locog spokesperson said there had been little demand for shooting tickets from schools, but schoolchildren will now be allowed to access the Ticketshare tickets to the shooting events.

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21 COMMENTS

    • That’s what I was going to put – compared to the rest of the world, our die hard Democrats are pretty sane. They have multiple parties, but all of them are left of center.

  2. Not to worry, all the kiddies will be given free tickets to the Olympic Rioting events. I hear that Britain is the big Gold Medal favorite. The Arabs used to be favored to take it all, but all their teams are otherwise engaged.

  3. Does anyone know what kind calibre rifle that is? I’d assumed it was .22LR from the size of it. If I’m right that leads to my next question… is there actually someone out there making match-grade .22LR ammo?

    • Lapua makes the X-act it runs about .50 cents US a round. but is dead on weight and balance accurate. they also make a few other lower grade but high quality match rounds. Fiocchi makes a very good match grade. The wolf performance ammo is not in the same league whatsoever.

      There are a few others But the one Person I know who had been into match shooting swears by the Lapua.

    • While I know this may offend some people, I think if you’re supposedly “Olympic level”, that you should be shooting with a real gun, not something slightly more powerful than a BB gun with essentially no recoil.

      • Have you ever TRIED smallbore/air rifle competition? I was on a team for years. Comments like yours smack of complete ignorance. They are “real guns” and the marksmanship of some of these high school/college level shooters is incredible to behold.

        Surprise surprise, there’s lots of variety and different disciplines inside competitive shooting.

        What’s your definition of a real gun? .30? .45? .50? 1″ depleted uranium rounds? This is the same kind of macho shit that gun owners get stereotyped for in the first place.

        • Check that vein in your forehead.

          No one ever said it doesn’t take skill, more skill than I’ll ever have, but for me it’s simply no fun to watch because of the hardware used and the lack of interactivity or dynamic. I don’t like watching golf either. And before you undoubtedly start lumping me in with “beer-swilling rednecks” as you have no qualms about jumping to ad hominem attacks, I don’t watch NASCAR either, for much the same reason. It’s strange, it’s almost as if people have different opinions and likes about different sports and hobbies. Scary, huh.

        • So thinking that they should use a weapon that requires skill to deal with recoil is “macho shit”? You do realize that if these “pro’s” were in actual combat, they’d have guns with recoil and would have a much harder time hitting anything since they’re not used to using a gun that doesn’t stay dead still, right?

          Handguns should be a normal handgun caliber – say 9mm or .40 and rifles say a .308? I’m not saying they need to use something that’ll knock them off their feet (speaking metaphorically), but a caliber that’s comparable to something used in real life and death situations would require a lot more skill and thus make being an “Olympic Champion” much more prestigious.

        • Yep. Your game is tough, and demands skill. So is mine. Different set of problems to solve to be good at it. Same as comparing rifle at 1,000 yards (on a gusty day) to a PPC course of fire. Different — very different.

  4. 2011 will go down in History! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future! ….Guess who said that ….

    • Why, that would be the same producer of this gem “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms…” one Mr. Adolf Hitler.

  7. There’s plenty of skill involved, but its not terribly dynamic to watch (even FITA archery is a much more interesting pageant) and the equipment is so hyper-specialized that it’s utterly useless for anything else.

    That said, my uncle coaches a 4-H air rifle team, and they’re essentially offhand benchrest shooters, putting five pellets through a single .177 caliber hole at 33 feet. Its excellent training for other kinds of shooting.

  8. RF says: “… the nation that went on to disarm their people in the interests of protecting an inherently corrupt class system…”

    Well, that’s a few octaves high. Love the Dog Band, though. Pour l’Amour des Chiens. With big, hungry tigers table manners have no place…

  10. I think the fact that it was even suggested and seriously put forth left a stain that a repeal can’t do away with.

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