Archery and Crime
In ancient times a bow and arrow was used for many purposes. From hunting to warfare and to being used by criminals and their captors, archery had many uses and purposes. But with the invention of the gun, that all changed. Now the simple bow and arrow almost became banished to the history books until it was revived as a sport. Now archery is used primarily as an athletic sport while guns are used to commit or suppress crimes all over the world. Is it possible that guns will see the same fate as the bow and arrow combination? We can all hope.
Archery was used widely in warfare and hunting all over the world before the invention of the firearm. With the banishment of the bow and arrow, guns became the dominant force for warfare and hunting in the world. They are also used primarily to kill others. Archery was romanticised for many years and still is with things such as stories of William Tell and Robin Hood. Now most archery is done as a sport, which is a test of an archer’s skill and a test of their hand eye coordination. Archery is a very popular sport across the world and is a big draw for people with some skill in hitting targets a fair distance away. “Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archery).
This description from Wikipedia says that nowadays Archery is mainly a recreational activity. Later on in the article it also mentions that archery is also used as a form of sport. There is field archery and also target archery. Archery is also an Olympic sport these days and attracts talents from all over the world.
Guns made the bow and arrow obsolete in wars and so they were then used in sports. But guns thrived in wars and in cities all around the world. America for one is a gun crazy nation with their love affair with guns seeing no decline. Guns are so popular that they didn’t even have to be made obsolete in order to become an Olympic sport. Shooting is a very popular sport as well all over the world. Gun use in sports probably came about in the same way archery did, people saw that there is a certain type of skill required in order to hit a small target from a distance and if points could be assigned then voila, a sport was born. What happened different though is that instead of guns going obsolete then appearing as a sport, the popularity of guns is just increasing year after year. Firearms have become a worldwide phenomenon with guns appearing in movies, TV shows, music videos, people’s homes and on the streets of cities all across the world.
What is baffling to see is that guns are unbelievably destructive and are much better at killing people than bows and arrows were. People might have had a chance of survival in an attack by a bow and arrow. Now a semi automatic gun can kill 20 people before they even have a chance to scream. So if anything should have been phased out of society and made into a sport it should be shooting guns. England has taken a very strong lead in this regard, because recently because owning firearms is not legal in England, Olympic shooters had to travel to Ireland where it is legal to get some practice before a competition. That should ideally be the only time someone has a gun or is allowed to fire a gun; when they are practicing for a sporting event.
Maybe in the future some humane method to debilitate criminals will be introduced, maybe it will be the taser maybe it will be something better, and then truly we will only see guns in museums and in sporting competitions. We can all hope that in the future shooting will have the same fate as archery and become only an Olympic sport and guns will be banished from our everyday lives.
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