Though many of the officials representing the Manchester Games organising committee have tried to allay fears in this regard, many shooters are worried. Some officials have revealed that there was, at one point, a move to drop shooting from the programme for the 2002 Games. Since the host country has the option vis-a-vis some events, shooting faced the danger.But certain countries, notably India, Canada and Australia protested against any such move.

Baljit Singh Sethi, president of the National Rifle Association of India, said, ``We are trying to stop any such moves (of dropping shooting) and have also asked the Indian Olympic Association to guard against this. After all, shooting is a major sport for us and we have been doing wellin it.''

India, winner of four gold medals, two silver and one bronze at Kuala Lumpur, will try and enlist help from other member countries of the Commonwealth Games Federation. India has one thing going in its favour and that is the recent election of Randhir Singh, the IOA secretary-general, as one of the vice-presidents of the CGF. Randhir Singh, a former Asian games gold medallist in shooting, has assured that India will not allow this to happen.

English shooters, in particular, are severely affected by the ban on weapons as they can't keep or bring weapons into Britain. Many of the British shooters train and live in Switzerland for a good portion of the year. Apart from pistols, which are banned, even other weapons have to be kept in an armoury and cannot be taken out by the shooters themselves.

Roopa Unnikrishnan, gold medallist in sport rifle, who is based in Oxford, where she is studying management, says she is affected by the ban. ``I have to leave the weapons in the armoury and I go fortraining twice a week at the Bisley Range. It is a problem but one has to live with it,'' she said.Jaspal Rana, double gold medallist here, who confesses to liking the feel of weapon in his hand, would simply be unable to live with such a situation.``Part of my mental training is concentrating with a pistol in my hand. This is to get used to the feel, the its grip and ensure that it (the gun) is in perfect condition,'' said Rana.

Rules regarding possession of weapons differ from country to country, and are generally relaxed for major sporting events. But there has been no official word from the organisers in Manchester.