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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Adam W" data-source="post: 3433079" data-attributes="member: 81080">You make several interesting points there John, Firstly you are right about this thin end of the wedge idea amongst hunters. Unfortunately we have a situation where there's a huge gap between both sides and too many people in the 'anti' camp who are more interested in hating people and causing trouble than they are conservation that even if I was 100% against Grouse shooting there's no way i'd sign this as I know its not in my own best interest. Before anyone says it I'm of course not suggesting that this is all about hating people or class issues etc but there's no denying that it is a factor. For example let for arguments sake say Grouse shooting got banned do you think the LACS would simply say great job done and leave it at that? of course they wouldn't they'd simply move straight on the the next group of people to hate and it wouldn't be long before that group would include me so there's noway I'm going to try and help that happen.Secondly you say that you see no reason why any non hunter wouldn't sign well what about the fact that even given this weeks events the RSPB still do not support this campaign as they don't believe banning Grouse shooting is the best solution for conservation? I don't think we can overstate just how significant that is, the largest Bird conservation organisation we have with over a million members publicly state that they don't agree with this that's as devastating a blow as I can think of, It's pretty much the equivalent of BASC coming out in support of a ban.Try and put yourself in a neutral position and look at the facts, even with 100,000 signatures that actually means that something like 99.85% of the population haven't signed it, The largest bird conservation group are saying no don't ban it as we don't think its the right answer and even though it's million members are free to disagree and sign it anyway 95% or more haven't. Does that really sound like grounds to change the law and ban something?You are right though to point out that getting 100,000 signatures only means it has to be discussed which is something some people seem to have forgotten as they seem to be under the impression that if we reach the 100,000 mark we just ban Grouse shooting over night. I imagine though that any discussion would be along the lines of shall we ban Grouse shooting? Erm no, next.</blockquote>

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