Talking about airports, not Africa this time. In Melbourne I was flying back to Adelaide having flown over for the day to pick up three firearms from a gunsmith.

I had told the airline (QANTAS) I would have three firearms on the return flight when buying the tickets and also when flying over.

Coming back they sprung yet another little bureaucratic idiocy that now you have to contact or email a specif person and get permission in writing before flying with a firearm.

Any way they weren't too bad about and the girl at the counter made a phone call or spoke to her supervisor and away we went. By the way the gun case was over weight but agin no excess charges just an overweight sticker to let the baggage handlers know handling this bag may get them a free holiday with workcover if they play their cards right.

After everything was organised the service counter girl said to me she had always wanted to try shooting as a sport!

So I chatted to her about it for a couple of minutes but there were lots of other passengers waiting.

With hindsight I regret not giving the girl a business card to contact me later if she really wanted to try. I probably couldn't invited her to a shoot as I'm not in Melbourne much but maybe a local could have.

I think we really need to take up people like this when they express and interest. Having friends to our sports all over the place can't hurt us. Imagine if this girl with a simple job on the service counter became a shooter. Every shooter who used her counter might just have a simpler 'ride' in the future, not to mention 'goodwill' effects of her sport on her co-workers.

If we all recruited just one shooter per year, it would have a very large multiplier effect overtime. Even if many never took up the sport, the goodwill factor would also be positive.