I'd like to start by commending BASC on obtaining this agreement on conditions. They make no contribution -conditions not BASC!- to public safety and cause all kinds of unnecessary delays and other inconveniences to FAC holders and make extra work for already over-burdened Licensing Depts.
Mentoring is evidently a hot topic, however, as it raises the spectre of compulsory shooter training, along with the questions of who sets the syllabus, the standards to be achieved, and the fees. I'm very much in the "if it's not broke" camp, and don't feel that compulsory training would bring compensatory benefits.
That doesn't mean I'm against shooter education and training, though. In fact, I'd like to see a basic level of training made universally available.
A few months ago I tried out an on-line safety course created for hunters in a US state -memory fails me as to which one- but the point is that it was free, you could take it as often as you liked, and each question and answer was explained simply and with the support of clear illustrations.
It made me think that it would be no bad thing if BASC, with its existing corpus of materials on safe and ethical shooting practices, etc. were to produce a series of such informative, interactive, online quizzes covering the principal activities of their members, so as to get a lot of useful information to a lot of shooters in an accessible format. This could be a phone app as well as a web-based resource.
Fuller information -such as BASC already provides, could be linked to, compete or in chunks- but the idea would be to present the essentials, plus a selection of interest points -the US quiz I tried randomised a proportion of the questions so they weren't all the same each time, a strong encouragement to keep doing the quiz until you'd answered all the questions, thereby reinforcing much of the information through repetition- in a format with wide appeal and that provides almost instant feedback.
It would also give BASC feedback on what shooters are most interested in and what those taking the test do or don't know, enabling the information provided to be developed accordingly.
I'm not suggesting that such online materials would be a substitute for practical training courses, but rather that they could be a way of engaging people who wouldn't normally consider taking instruction, and even people who felt they already knew all they needed to and just wanted to demonstrate to themselves or their mates that this was so by taking "that damn quiz".
Sorry if this is a bit off topic - perhaps I should switch to decaf for a bit!
Mentoring is evidently a hot topic, however, as it raises the spectre of compulsory shooter training, along with the questions of who sets the syllabus, the standards to be achieved, and the fees. I'm very much in the "if it's not broke" camp, and don't feel that compulsory training would bring compensatory benefits.
That doesn't mean I'm against shooter education and training, though. In fact, I'd like to see a basic level of training made universally available.
A few months ago I tried out an on-line safety course created for hunters in a US state -memory fails me as to which one- but the point is that it was free, you could take it as often as you liked, and each question and answer was explained simply and with the support of clear illustrations.
It made me think that it would be no bad thing if BASC, with its existing corpus of materials on safe and ethical shooting practices, etc. were to produce a series of such informative, interactive, online quizzes covering the principal activities of their members, so as to get a lot of useful information to a lot of shooters in an accessible format. This could be a phone app as well as a web-based resource.
Fuller information -such as BASC already provides, could be linked to, compete or in chunks- but the idea would be to present the essentials, plus a selection of interest points -the US quiz I tried randomised a proportion of the questions so they weren't all the same each time, a strong encouragement to keep doing the quiz until you'd answered all the questions, thereby reinforcing much of the information through repetition- in a format with wide appeal and that provides almost instant feedback.
It would also give BASC feedback on what shooters are most interested in and what those taking the test do or don't know, enabling the information provided to be developed accordingly.
I'm not suggesting that such online materials would be a substitute for practical training courses, but rather that they could be a way of engaging people who wouldn't normally consider taking instruction, and even people who felt they already knew all they needed to and just wanted to demonstrate to themselves or their mates that this was so by taking "that damn quiz".
Sorry if this is a bit off topic - perhaps I should switch to decaf for a bit!
