Abstract
In connection with the Napoleonic wars, volunteer shooting clubs or militias, sometimes called “shooting guilds,” were founded in many European countries. These often later developed into sports organizations, sometimes with a preserved strong connection to the armed forces, sometimes without. In this paper, the Swedish Volunteer Shooting Association, also known as “The Sharpshooter movement,” is used as a case to describe the development of such organizations. Beginning with Finnish War in 1809, a number of militias or clubs emerged in Sweden. They were later organized under an independent umbrella organization, with joint volunteer and government control. The organization came to play a role in the defence of the Swedish realm until the end of the Cold War in the 1990s. The organization also played other societal functions, both social and political. The Sharpshooter movement also played an essential role in training competitive shooters and making sport shooting one of the largest sports in Sweden and one where Swedish athletes have proven very successful in many international championships. The paper contributes to the literature on total war, volunteer forces, and civilian-military cooperation. Using archives from the sharpshooter association, the armed forces, and historical media sources, it has been possible to describe the functioning of the association and isolate the critical junctures in the development of the sharpshooter movement. It was found that the Sharpshooter movement played an important role in the democratic movement at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century and in the Swedish Cold War defence strategy and the doctrine of “total defence”.