This week we came across a video on /r/CrazyFuckingVideos of someone (presumably a dad) teaching a 10-year-old (presumably his son) to do rifle-to-pistol transitions.
Enjoyed the article but I wonder about the 20% estimate. Literally tens of thousands of kids participate in the Scholastic Clay Target Program and the USA High School Clay Target Leagues, not to mention 4H and Scouting programs, many starting as young as 8 years old. And the Scholastic Action Shooting Program has taken off in the last few years, too. These are highly structured programs and sports that, like so much of the rest of “gun culture” is simply ignored by “mainstream media.” Ten years ago I was completely ignorant of these programs, as I suspect 95% of your readers may be. Now I’m a youth shooting coach wondering how a “lifelong shooter” could go so long without even knowing about these programs. (Not really… I have a pretty good idea.) Thanks for the article!
It's not 20%, it's less than 2%. NRA Competition Division has reported that 2% of NRA members ever participate in any of the affiliate-held Approved or Registered tournaments (i.e., local club matches). That's 95,000 shooters, but 2% of the card-carrying membership.
All of the "name" national shooting organzations (ATA, NSSA-NSCA, IHMSA, USPSA, IDPA, PRS, WA1500, ICORE, IBS, NBRSA, PRS, NRL, ASSA, etc.) average at about 20,000 or less. Meanwhile, the U.S. Golf Association has 700,000 members and tracks golfing handicaps for 15 million core golfers, with an estimated 106 million golfers in the United States. 17 million people run in a formal road race (5K or similar) every year. More stats:
Good points on these programs which do great things and also for your participation. That makes you in the top 2%! Unforunately, that's not common among gun owners.
With respect, you’re talking about participation rates (recreational shooting vs golf?) which I don’t think was the point of the article.
“Consider a spectrum of kids’ recreational activities. The left end of the spectrum is labeled “pretty much unstructured”. There you have things like recess and playdates. The right end of the spectrum is “extremely structured”. There you have high school football at a school with a nationally ranked program.
“Rec league soccer, say, is at about 70% on that spectrum…
“Compare that to shooting, which today is at maybe 20%.”
My point was there are a lot of highly structured shooting programs open to kids that many, including OSD, are simply unaware of. Clay target shooting is one of the fastest growing (and safest, by the way) high school sports in the country. Air rifle competitions through JROTC programs sponsored by CMP have been around for decades. 4H, BSA, SCTP, SASP… these are just of the few programs available in almost every state that continue to attract kids each year.
While “traditional sports” still dominate the attention of most kids, I still challenge the idea that recreational shooting, in competition or otherwise, is still just a pick-up game.
Agreed. Competitive shooting is very structured. I've earned several master classifications or the equivalent so I'm familiar. I made the mistake of interpreting that percentage regarding participation vs. how structured the activity. Sorry about that!
No worries. OSD is right about one thing: “For most kids, what they learn about shooting isn’t the skills-in-a-can starter kit they’d get if they played soccer. It’s just whatever ideas about marksmanship happen to be in their family.“ As a community, we just need to get better at letting “most kids” know that a “skills-in-a-can starter kit” is probably a lot closer than they imagine. Cheers!
Enjoyed the article but I wonder about the 20% estimate. Literally tens of thousands of kids participate in the Scholastic Clay Target Program and the USA High School Clay Target Leagues, not to mention 4H and Scouting programs, many starting as young as 8 years old. And the Scholastic Action Shooting Program has taken off in the last few years, too. These are highly structured programs and sports that, like so much of the rest of “gun culture” is simply ignored by “mainstream media.” Ten years ago I was completely ignorant of these programs, as I suspect 95% of your readers may be. Now I’m a youth shooting coach wondering how a “lifelong shooter” could go so long without even knowing about these programs. (Not really… I have a pretty good idea.) Thanks for the article!
Great call, Mike. Hadn't heard of these programs. Cool to see them accelerating.
It's not 20%, it's less than 2%. NRA Competition Division has reported that 2% of NRA members ever participate in any of the affiliate-held Approved or Registered tournaments (i.e., local club matches). That's 95,000 shooters, but 2% of the card-carrying membership.
All of the "name" national shooting organzations (ATA, NSSA-NSCA, IHMSA, USPSA, IDPA, PRS, WA1500, ICORE, IBS, NBRSA, PRS, NRL, ASSA, etc.) average at about 20,000 or less. Meanwhile, the U.S. Golf Association has 700,000 members and tracks golfing handicaps for 15 million core golfers, with an estimated 106 million golfers in the United States. 17 million people run in a formal road race (5K or similar) every year. More stats:
https://firearmusernetwork.com/tag/participation-rates/
Good points on these programs which do great things and also for your participation. That makes you in the top 2%! Unforunately, that's not common among gun owners.
With respect, you’re talking about participation rates (recreational shooting vs golf?) which I don’t think was the point of the article.
“Consider a spectrum of kids’ recreational activities. The left end of the spectrum is labeled “pretty much unstructured”. There you have things like recess and playdates. The right end of the spectrum is “extremely structured”. There you have high school football at a school with a nationally ranked program.
“Rec league soccer, say, is at about 70% on that spectrum…
“Compare that to shooting, which today is at maybe 20%.”
My point was there are a lot of highly structured shooting programs open to kids that many, including OSD, are simply unaware of. Clay target shooting is one of the fastest growing (and safest, by the way) high school sports in the country. Air rifle competitions through JROTC programs sponsored by CMP have been around for decades. 4H, BSA, SCTP, SASP… these are just of the few programs available in almost every state that continue to attract kids each year.
While “traditional sports” still dominate the attention of most kids, I still challenge the idea that recreational shooting, in competition or otherwise, is still just a pick-up game.
Agreed. Competitive shooting is very structured. I've earned several master classifications or the equivalent so I'm familiar. I made the mistake of interpreting that percentage regarding participation vs. how structured the activity. Sorry about that!
No worries. OSD is right about one thing: “For most kids, what they learn about shooting isn’t the skills-in-a-can starter kit they’d get if they played soccer. It’s just whatever ideas about marksmanship happen to be in their family.“ As a community, we just need to get better at letting “most kids” know that a “skills-in-a-can starter kit” is probably a lot closer than they imagine. Cheers!