brett1868 wrote:Any of you remember school cadets? By 15 I could field strip and clean a SLR and a couple times a year at camp we got to shoot them. Instead of turning me into gun obsessed mass murderer it gave me a respect for firearms and the dangers they present if not handled correctly. I'm all for school leavers doing 12 months in the military before going to university. They'd get some valuable life skills, exercise, free medical and possibly some direction in life. I'm not advocating they serve in combat roles, far from it but they could contribute to supporting the regulars in Australia.
Likewise, we shot 303s, Bren guns and SLRs at school cadets, all live at the range and using blanks in the 303s when in bush camp at Singleton with "real" exercises defending our camp all day and well into the night while sleeping under a hoochy in a fox hole we dug ourselves.
AFAIK cadets can't even handle a gun these days, let alone shoot one (so I've been told anyway).
Oh, and "as above" re my opinion of the project.