Marksmanship Is Front-Page News Again
Not since the golden age of marksmanship in the Victorian era has a shooting-sports event commanded the front page of daily newspapers. During the latter part of the 19th Century, articles about the shooting matches at the National Rifle Association’s range in Creedmoor, New York, regularly appeared on the front page of the largest-selling publications of the day, such as Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News and Harper’s Weekly.
But for the past 100 years, shooting-sports competitions have very seldom made the nation’s front pages. Sunday, August 20, 2006, brought back memories of marksmanship’s golden age, however, when the San Antonio Express- News ran a front page story about the NRA-Beeman Grand Prix Championship finals being held in the neighboring city of New Braunfels, Texas.
Then, as if to emphasize the importance of the event, the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung ran a front-page article about this unique competition for marksmen with disabilities in its August 23rd edition. The Texas event was not the first time that the 12-city precision air-gun tour demonstrated its ability to capture the interest of the general public.
During the past 10 years, over 90 percent of the tour’s 121 events have been covered by the print and television media, which is the best record of any shooting-sports competition in the nation. One of the most novel approaches to shooting-sports coverage occurred on July 7, 2005, when the West Virginia Outdoor Radio Network recorded the NRA-Beeman event that was staged in the capital city of Charleston.
The occasion was the introduction of the first visually impaired/blind marksman to ever compete against sighted shooters in a national competition. This event also marked the first time in shooting-sports history that a marksmanship event was broadcast statewide on the radio. Beginning in March of 2007, the NRA-Beeman Grand Prix Championship Tour will embark upon its 11th season of offering shooting-sports opportunities to Americans with disabilities.
For more information, call Dave Baskin, Manager of NRA Disabled Shooting Services at
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