COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE

The Countryside Alliance has launched a ground breaking national survey to investigate the number of young people coming into shooting, and how they are being introduced.    
The survey will be open online until February 2012.
Recognising that shooting faces a demographic timebomb owing to an ageing population and fewer opportunities for youngsters to enjoy the countryside and natural world, the Alliance is running a census to discover how to boost participation. Take part here. While initiatives such as National Shooting Week, run by the Countryside Alliance, aim to introduce newcomers to shooting sports, more needs to be done to promote shooting. 
Countryside Alliance Shooting Campaign Manager David Taylor commented: “While there are many exemplary people around the country who help young people try shooting for the first time, we feel that not enough youngsters are coming into shooting. Does shooting suffer from too much regulation? Is it lack of available land? Is it too expensive? Are shooters simply too busy to help? Our survey aims to answer these questions and get to the root of the problem. 
“For us to assess the makeup of the shooting population, we are asking all shooters, young and old, to spend a few minutes of their time to fill in a quick online survey. The results of the survey will allow us to identify areas which prevent young people entering the sport. These can then be specifically targeted to ensure that shooting is an option available to all young people. This also ensures that money and resources are spent in the most effective and efficient ways possible. We also want to identify those dedicated people who do help young people, and reward them for their hard work and dedication. So if you, your club, syndicate or shoot are involved with young people, please do take the time to fill in the survey. The future of our sport depends on it.”