Parkstone Gun Club

History

1 INTRODUCTION

Home
Introduction
Range & Contacts
Location

2 APPLICATIONS
Application Guidelines
 

3 HISTORY
History

Photo Gallery
 

4 ADMINISTRATION
Membership fees
Juniors
Links

5 GUEST PAGE

DSRPA

(Continued from previous page)

 In 1980 we approached the Council with a view to taking over an existing Sea Scouts building on Newtown Recreation Ground.  Before negotiations with the Scouts and Poole Borough Council were completed the pre-cast concrete building, approximately 6 metres wide by 20 metres long, was stolen!!!  However after submitting revised plans we eventually agreed terms with the Council.  How we raised the finances would make another story, but in 1982 after two years of applications, fund raising and moonlighting we moved into our range at Haskells Road.

Shortly after opening the Club invited representatives of the British Sporting Rifle Club to give an introductory lecture on their discipline, resulting in a participation in this field for some years.  With one Member attaining Junior Squad status, and a British record in the static events by another, we made our presence felt.  Eventually shortage of suitable ranges (I believe only two in Britain), and the constant travelling  led to a decline.

1984 saw a belated official opening of the range by the Mayor of Poole, and later in the year a brief appearance on Southern Television.  The Club had always been prominent in the rifle disciplines, but in the next few years they also rose to prominence as a pistol club, establishing a position as one of the premier gun club's in the south-west.  Apart from the odd financial crisis and almost continual upgrading of ventilation and target mechanisms, the intervening period was tranquil, but on the horizon was one of the most significant and far reaching events to affect shooting sports.

In Hungerford in 1987 Michael Ryan ran amok with a rifle and several pistols, killing a number of people before killing himself.  Subsequently laws were passed prohibiting self-loading rifles and restricting shotguns.

The next few years saw restrictions increasingly imposed by an antagonistic Home Office and inevitably membership began to decline, halving in a five year period.  On the brighter side a pistol member was selected to shoot for Britain, and a junior member won the British Air Pistol Championship.  The Club logo was also revamped by substituting modern firearms for those previously shown.

During 1994 the Charity Commissioners decided that gun clubs would be removed from charity status.  Potentially this could have been disastrous for the Club losing both the tax element of the subscription and the rates concession we enjoyed as a charity. Despite approaches from various quarters the majority of clubs lost their status on 1st April 1995.  The national associations jointly lodged an appeal in the High Court, but whilst that was in the process of being researched a far more onerous event occurred

The event I refer to is the Dunblane massacre. Because there was a General Election at the time, and because the media in their usual fashion predetermined what the outcome should be, the end result was far more devastating for clubs than would otherwise have been the case. Pistols were made illegal in 1997. 

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Last updated July 2004