Your point being?

Did you know that the UK has dropped from 7th place to 38th in the European competitive rankings for pistol shooting since 1997?

You may not care, which is fair enough, because not all sports appeal to all people. For instance I think athletics is extremely boring doing, as it does, absolutely nothing for me.

But that's not the point.

Did you know that Britain’s most successful medal winner is Mick Gault? He has 11 gold medals to his name which by anyone’s standards is an achievement worthy of a great deal of national and international recognition.

No, I suspect more of you know about that boaty guy, you know, the one that does all that rowing.

But that’s not the point.

Did you know that MPs and peers have been told that the ban on pistols in Britain threatens London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics? It’s all due to the fact that, effectively, the Olympic pistol shooting competitions are illegal in this country and that, apparently, even special dispensations from the ban for Olympic competitors would not be enough to salvage the pistol shooting competitions.

Fancy that, eh? I take no great pleasure in pointing out to all you sporting fans and competitors that the result of the whole world and his dog turning their backs on some of Britain’s finest sporting competitors is potentially the failure to bring to this country the finest and most prestigious sporting event in the World.

But that’s not the point.

Did you know that since the ban on handguns and the total destruction of the Olympic sport in this country handgun crime has gone through the roof? It shouldn’t be a surprise to you to find out that only the law abiding abide by the rules and that the ban has done nothing to reduce the availability of guns to the criminals who desire them. The ban was more about political opportunism than about public safety.

That’s the point.

So as I sit here wrestling with the notion that the UK authorities want to host an international competition which is, in part, illegal for the British to take part in on British soil I begin to hear the voices in my head.

“Oh those pistol shooters. That gun lobby. These pursuers of that most evil of all sports. They always moan and groan and complain. They want their own way, you see. Always their own way.”

But we never get it.

“We need more and harsher gun laws.”, cry the anti-gun organisations. “Young people shouldn’t be allowed to take their airguns like they used to on a Saturday morning to their shooting range. Shotgunners need to be more harshly licensed what with all their clay shooting and all that. We need a ban this kind of low powered airgun. We need more laws”

And they get them.

“Gun crime is a dreadful problem”, cry the media, the citizens, the families that have had great tragedy visited upon them. “We want it reduced; we want it gone. We want a life free from its terror”.

But they never get it.