Because oftentimes there are benefits to doing a thing you were already going to do.
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Oh, I agree, but so will any costs, which people seem to be moaning about a lot.
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HQ has no stock of them, and didn’t want to order any more which is why this has been released now. People were trying to order badges from HQ and Logs had none.
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The term ‘Marksman’ is also gender-neutral, and more aspirational sounding than ‘shot’ or ‘shooting badge.’ Becoming skilled with a rifle takes a lot of effort, after all.
And why change the name of the qualification badges if ‘marksmanship’ is still used? 
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The simple answer is we control the badges, we don’t control the wider shooting terminology in use by the armed forces.
I was thinking of John Milius’ 1984 film ‘Red Dawn’ myself.
Strangely enough, Hamas’ corporate logo used to feature a hooded terrorist holding an M16 rifle with Arabic script and Palestinian colours around him: the figure looked like an IRA Provo of the late '70s Troubles.
But then the Iraqi insurgents we faced during Op Telic switched on to the IED technology and methods used by the IRA within months of that operation kicking off. There would have been some cross-pollination of ideas between the bad guys. And the 7/10 Hamas raid was pretty much an IRA ‘Flying Column’ attack upon a security forces in N Ireland permanent checkpoint scaled up: something the Provos would have loved to have done to us back in the good old bad old days.
The IRA used the M16 as their iconic weapon, but they had a weapons collection that an American gun-youtuber would envy: classic Mauser 98s and M1 Garands, M16, AR18, M60 and FN MAG 58 GPMGs, FN FNC, H&K G3, AKMs, RPG7s and DShK 38s courtesy of that great guy Muammar Qaddafi, etc etc.
I was never briefed on PIRA’s diversity & inclusion policy at the time: they’d just murder anyone they felt like as far as I could tell. The Baader-Meinhof gang had several female members who proved that women terrorists could be just as vicious as the men, so that’s a form of equality between the sexes, at least. ‘Terrorist’ has always been a gender-neutral term as well (pathetic clutching at straws attempt to return to topic…). 
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Last time I was in Belfast whilst travelling into the city from Aldergrove there were still sniper at work signs and ‘peace’ walls, red white and blue and green orange and white ketb stones…
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Some of those still existed as of September, but it in a much diminished manner. Hell, the last time I was there I walked along the Falls Road and right past the front door of the Divis Flats, which shows just how much things have changed in the past 25 years. I’m there again next week and looking forward to it.
Not sure how any of that is relevant to the new RAFAC badges though.
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I heard they doubled up as tourist attractions as well as territorial markers.
cough TOPIC cough
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To be fair the pathetic moaning had got boring, so it was a nice change
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Whilst discussing this at a recent staff meeting our resident RCO told us the way things are going with increased budgetary controls, centralisation of weapons and therefore a reduction in access to transport, training and inevitably therefore shooting the revised PTS Shooting Badges (only available via cadet direct probably) will be: blue - spell gun, rifle etc; bronze - throw 9 darts & score a minimum grouping of 30cm; silver - travel to any of the locations with air rifles (if CACE is approved) a look at one; gold - awarded only to those within walking distance of Bisley and lucky enough to touch any other weapon system.
I suspect the tongue was firmly in the cheek but stranger things have happened……
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Right, back on topic then… I think what’s winding up everyone here with the name changes isn’t the fact that the new terminology is gender neutral - the campaign for diversity and inclusion was won long ago - but it’s the use of changes in language to tell us what and how to think.
The English language is better used in the fields of politics, social reform, literature and leadership in a persuasive rather than a didactic manner, based upon logic and correct definition of terms.
If the term ‘Marksman’ was gender specific and therefore limited in its application, it would have to be changed to one that was gender neutral. But it already is gender neutral, so doesn’t need to be changed.
I’m being resistant to change here: I don’t mind someone in authority changing things partly in order to establish their command presence, because I’ve had to do that, but only if it is an improvement upon how things were done before. If change is not an obvious improvement the minions won’t get behind it, let alone implement it. 
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Is it expected that someone that gains a bronze shot on an air rifle could directly step in to long range shooting on an L98 to obtain the silver shot?
No. You still need to follow the correct CLF lessons/exercises in order per weapon system.
No. Each rifle is still independant.
So, if you gain Bronze Shot (the badge formerly known as Marksman) on the L144, and progress to L98, you still need to start at the beginning of L98 CLFs, (IWT, WHT and Blue Shot)
Which is what makes the changes so stupid.
I can get my Cadets to Advanced Marksman on the Scorpion pretty easily, achieving the same standard on an L98 or an L81 is significantly more difficult and yet they will have the same badge.
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Which is why I take this as an indicator that in the future, as other weapons systems retire, RAFAC will only have air rifles. I’m certainly not dismissing concerns around needlessly abandoning the established word marksmanship, and replacing it with the meaningless ‘shot’, but this early indicator of a move towards an air rifle-only LFMT offer concerns me more.