USA SHOOTING Safety Coalition

[jhmartin]

I just saw this on the USAS website, and am wondering if this is such a good idea ... i.e. further fragmenting the safety training programs ... is this another hoop for the coaches and instructors to jump thru?

USA Shooting dropped its sanctioning of almost all of the 3-Position Air Rifle events (except for the JO's), and now are getting into safety training?

Is it just me that thinks this is a bit out of their charter?
I'm openminded, so I'd like other opinions.....
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Orlando, Fla. -- Recognizing the need to promote the safe handling, storage and transportation of firearms, USA Shooting announced today that leading firearm instruction and sports shooting organizations are joining with them to form the USA Shooting Safety Coalition.
To date, in addition to USA Shooting, other participating organizations include: the National Shooting Sports Foundation, National 4-H Shooting Sports Foundation, and the International Hunter Education Association. Child Guard, manufacturer of the CS-100 Firearm Safety Device, has agreed to provide technical assistance as well as funding to the coalition’s initiatives. Additionally Child Guard has established programs that will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Child Guard’s CS-100 gun locks to each organization’s safety training programs.
“The development of the USA Shooting Safety Coalition complements our commitment to safety for competitive shooting athletes of all ages. We intend to assemble the best teaching practices from the leading safety training professionals and present this material in a video format that is interesting and exciting view format that will be meaningful to our target audience,” said Buddy DuVall, Director of Marketing for USA Shooting. “This program will create a ”best practices” message that all trainers can utilize.”

The coalition program will create materials for use by instructors to ensure consistent, high level firearm safety training while raising the awareness of shooting as a competitive sport and fun family activity. The program, created in cooperation with USA Shooting, will be the collaborative effort of the best firearm trainers in the country. Training segments will be edited to create 30 and/or 60 second clips to be run as TV inserts. These clips will make a safety point and direct viewers to the USA Shooting’s website to view streamable safety videos and link to coalition member websites to find local, high quality safety trainers and seminars.

[gwtaylor]

I dont think it is out of character at all. USA should realize that the future is in the youth of the community and if they are going to be successful they must have a steady stream of young talent to replace their aging competitors. The one way to do that is to convince parents that shooting sports is a safe activity for their children, much safer than the traditional football, basketball, basebal, soccer, and other sports. Becoming active in developing a safe program and actively promoting its safety will help draw interest. USA needs to get back to the grass roots of their program, that is the youth programs like 4-H and JO. You cant feed the cow without the hay

JMHO


Guy

[jhmartin]

GW .... absolutely agree with you.

However, for the past few years we have had the NRA-CMP-USAS cooperating and pulling in the other organizations. This now seems like they are stepping out on their own.

I think the safety programs are already in place .... just coordination is needed, not another program.

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1/16/2007 UPDATE

Chatted with USAS today via email and was informed that this effort is to provide training and safety materials .... not begin a new and different certification program