Sports shooting still popular
By Bobinec, Greg on February 10, 2020.
Herald photo by Greg BobinecLocal gun enthusiasts look through a selection of new guns, equipment and accessories available at the Southern Alberta Rifle Associations Gun Show, Sunday afternoon at Exhibition Park. @GBobinecHerald
Greg Bobinec
Lethbridge Herald
Shooting-sport enthusiasts from all over southern Alberta joined together for the annual Gun Show, to look through and discuss guns, accessories and the sport of shooting.
Over the weekend, the Southern Alberta Riflemen Association invited the shooting community out to trade, sell, and buy a variety of items to get them set up for the new season.
“The Gun Show is a venue for people to purchase or sell firearms, have a look at some of the other technology in terms of reloading, ammunition and gun collection, all aspects of shooting sports,” says Allan Jones, President of Southern Alberta Riflemen Association.
“Shooting sports have become very strong in southern Alberta, and as a result of that, more young people are getting into it. We sponsor a lot of youth oriented shooting organizations and that is what we do from the profit of this show, but all aspects of shooting sports are alive and it shows at this show.”
With a variety of rifles, pistols, hunting and fishing items, people were also able to shop through all of their other needed supplies for sport and hunting such as knives, ammunition, reloading supplies, scopes, archery and antique collectables. Everything that goes in and out of the Gun Show event is regulated and monitored, so that there is no problem or association with illegal gun trade.
“Everything is regulated at every door so that this isn’t an exchange of illegal firearms, there is a commissioner and people from the club who watch everything come and everything go,” says Jones. “We have very strong regulations about who comes in and who comes out, everybody is under scrutiny every time, but we have never had any issues with the show.”
The Southern Alberta Riflemen Association is a group of individuals from all over southern Alberta that share the same love and passion for the sport of shooting. As part of the show, all of the funds raised from the entrance to the show will be going towards supporting organizations that host youth programming in sport shooting.
“We have been running for about 50 or 60 years, but not necessarily every year in Lethbridge, we have been in Lethbridge since 1984,” says Jones. “We are a collector club, we have about 30 members from all backgrounds and they come from all over southern Alberta and the main thing that we do is put the gun show on, but we also do some shooting events and support different organizations that sponsor youth shooting.”
Over the weekend, gun enthusiasts were able to stock up on their supplies, find new equipment and talk with like-minded individuals to expand their knowledge on the sport of shooting.
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