Year: 2013-2015It takes my mind off things is a wonderment at and interrogation ofthe shooting culture in the Netherlands. In this provocative piece,Robin Butter poses the question; has the Netherlands always been a ‘secretive’ gun-nation? Secretive in that it has a long-standing fixation with firearms that is systematically hidden and denied. From the political -economic sphere of transnational interactions - the Netherlands place in the top five for creating firearm components in Europe - to the socio-cultural realm of the individual - the joy many Dutchman find when firing at shooting ranges, a tradition that has existed for over hundreds of years. Think of the famous Dutch painting of the ‘Nightwatch’ by Rembrandt van Rijn probably one of the oldestpaintings of a shooters range, in that time called a marksman guild. Without realizing firearms are deeply rooted in thesoil of the Dutch cultivation. Members of Royal Dutch family havealways served as the patron saint, until the death of Prince Bernardin 2004. This made the sport an elitist phenomenon. There are in theNetherlands a legion of shooting clubs, some of which are existingfor over a hundred years, where weekly Dutch men and womanempty with full gratification their magazines. With over eight hundredshooting ranges in the Netherlands with an average of hundred fiftymembers, this is a large group within the Dutch society.In 2011 a horrible shooting incident took place in the Netherlands,in Alphen aan de Rijn. The young Tristan van der Vlis shot severalpeople in a shopping mall, before taking his own life. The shooterwas a member of a range, with a registered weapon licence, whichallowed him to keep his weapon at home in spite of his psychoticand suicidal tendencies. In the wake of the incident, not only thegovernment but everybody wondered how this was allowed to happen.With just a few shots, Tristan van der Vlis cast a dark shadowover the Dutch shooting culture. The pressure on the clubs is present;the rules have been examined and adjusted. Now the clubs havebeen given a huge responsibility by the government. Responsibilityfor their members.
