The latest issue of Gun Trade News features an article by Nick Robbins of the magazine Airgun Shooter in which he discusses how best to raise the profile of the sport. During the course of the article he bemoaned the absence of air gunning personalities whose public profile might then be harnessed to the aim of giving air gun shooting a wider appeal.
Nick may be unaware that he is giving voice to a debate that has been going in shooting for thirty years and which is based on the not unreasonable assumption that everything celebrities do is of interest to the public. There is one caveat to that of course, which is that it has to be the right kind of celebrity. And it is always here that shooting tends to hit a rock because – even allowing for the fleeting interest shown by Madonna a few years ago – shooting sports rarely cut the mustard when it comes to attracting the people whose star appeal sets trends and captures the attention of the media. Vinny Jones, Sir Ian Botham and Marco Pierre White and others like them have all helped the profile of shooting, but let’s face it they are not the sort of recruiting sergeants likely to appeal to the young.