Readers' Views on Shooting Sports Issues
For the past week, we’ve featured a Readers’ Poll on the Home Page. The purpose of the poll is to allow our readers to “speak out” on the most important issues facing the shooting sports in North America. We wanted your views on “hot topics” such as gun legislation and military-style rifles. We also wanted your views on how the sport can continue to grow. (If you haven’t voted yet, Click HERE to participate.) The results are very interesting. We asked readers to select the three most serious challenges facing the shooting sports.
The #1 response was “Anti-gun political activity and regulations”, (19% of all votes).
Interestingly, the second highest response was “Equipment is too expensive” (12%). We have certainly seen this trend–with custom actions approaching $1400.00 delivered, and high-end optics now costing over $2000.00. The cost of reloading components was also a concern. (7% of votes).
Readers were also very concerned about range closures. 11% of responses indicated this was a serious problem. We can certainly concur. Here in Southern California, we have witnessed the closure of many ranges in the past few years. The trend is continuuing, as anti-gun politicians team up with developers who want to convert gun ranges to strip malls or housing complexes.
Readers noted that getting new shooters and juniors involved is a signficant challenge. 8% of responses agree that there are not enough junior shooters. Another 8% say that young shooters are “not interested in marksmanship”. 6% of voters agreed that “we need more programs for new shooters”, while 2% say more female shooters are needed. If you put these together, 24% of all responses are concerned with bringing new shooters and junior shooters into the sport.
While the media spotlights handguns and “evil-looking” military-style rifles (such as the AR15), most of our readers did not think that public concern with these kinds of arms represents a serious challenge to the shooting sports. Only 1% of responses indicated that there was “too much focus on handguns” and only 2% of responses agreed that there was “too much focus on military-style rifles”.
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