Here’s something that could benefit your local shooting club. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has a Steel Target Grant Program to help shooting ranges that plan to begin or expand NSSF Rimfire Challenge target-shooting events. With support from Action Target, 20 steel target grant packages (valued at $2100.00 each) will be available. The targets are suitable for both indoor and outdoor target shooting ranges (rimfire only). CLICK HERE for more information.
Who May Apply: Any NSSF member ranges that plan to host public NSSF Rimfire Challenge events at least 4 times a year may apply for a target grant. NSSF range members shall be given priority. Ranges can use the steel targets for other matches, such as centerfire pistol competitions, or any other competitions the range wants to create for which the targets are suitable.
GRANT OPTIONS:
Packages will consist of 12 targets, with which participating range recipients can set up two (2) Rimfire Challenge stages. Each grant package will include:
Grant recipients will receive the Evil Roy target stand with their steel target package. If a range needs stand heights taller than 3′ recipients can inform Action Target of this upon confirming their orders. The awarding of grants and the number of grants available is at NSSF’s discretion. The steel target package is valued at $2,100. The Steel Target Grant Program is a cooperative effort between NSSF and Action Target, which provides steel targets to NSSF at a discounted rate.
Welcome to the wacky world of Municipal Anti-Gun Ordinances. San Francisco and Los Angeles have city-specific magazine bans and gun storage requirements, and now it appears that Seattle may target gun owners with new “sin taxes” on firearms and ammunition.
$25 Per Gun and Five Cents Per Round
The Seattle City Council will soon vote on a new local law that will add a $25.00 surcharge to every new gun purchase. In addition, the proposed Seattle City Ordinance will add a $0.05 (five cent) fee to each and every centerfire round sold in Seattle. Rimfire .22LR rounds will be taxed $0.02 per round.
The stated purpose for the new Gun and Ammo Tax is to raise money to combat crime, according to Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess, author of the Gun Tax ordinance. Burgess told local KING-5 TV reporters that this is essentially a “Sin Tax” on guns and ammo: “We’ve been working on this for several years. Sure, I wish we would have done this 20 years ago, but we know what the problem is. We tax cigarettes and alcohol and even wood-burning stoves for public health purposes. Why not guns and ammunition?”
While supporters of the Gun and Ammo Tax, including Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, claim the new city tax would raise over $300,000 to fight crime, in reality this measure is more about getting rid of guns that it is about making Seattle safe. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has opposed the Seattle Gun and Ammo Tax, stating: “[This ordinance] will have no effect on decreasing gun violence. It is designed to place a huge burden on legitimate firearms retailers and law-abiding gun owners. Additionally, the proposed ordinance is a gross violation of Washington’s firearms preemption statute.”
Daniel Xu, writing in OutdoorHub.com notes that gun buyers already pay Excise Taxes with each purchase: “However, unlike the [Federal] Pittman-Robertson Excise Tax, which retains funds for conservation and habitat-protection efforts, the funds collected by the ordinance will go entirely back into the city for ‘gun violence research and prevention programs’. City leaders have yet to specify… how the funds will be spent.”
Looking for work in the gun industry? The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has you covered. NSSF recently launched a new online job resource to help job seekers locate potential employers. With an active nationwide database of job opportunities, this new, improved platform replaces the NSSF’s previous job posting service, which was pretty basic. The new NSSF Jobs Site site offers robust search features, plus a modern, mobile-friendly interface. It’s easy to upload your Resumé, and the Job Alert feature can send you new listings via email as soon as they post. Using “advanced search” you can filter job offerings by location, category, or experience/education requirements. Visit jobs.nssf.org for current employment opportunities in the shooting, hunting and outdoor industry.
Team Smith & Wesson shooter Julie Golob has a message for Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10th). Julie writes: “While some are using Mother’s Day week to push a gun control agenda, I’d like to encourage moms to ‘Take a Moment’. Talk to your kids about firearms safety. Help them learn what to do around firearms and have an open, honest discussion about guns and gun safety.
I truly believe that, no matter if you are pro-gun or anti-gun, everyone should know and understand the basic rules of firearm safety. It is equally important for parents to have the discussion about guns and what to do if your child finds one. Both the NSSF’s Project ChildSafe and the NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program are excellent. They offer resources for parents, educators, and child care providers to help ensure kids stay safe.
In this video, Julie encourages parents to have “the talk” about firearm safety with their kids sooner rather than later, and provides tips for how to have a helpful discussion. Sherra Scott, a mom and a certified NRA instructor, agrees with Julie: “Whether you have firearms in your home or not, if you have children in your life, please watch this video and talk WITH them about firearm safety and what to do if they come into contact with a firearm.”
Here are four FREE fun targets from the NSSF. These can be downloaded as PDF files for easy, scalable printing. Choose from four fun targets: Orange Clays, Fish in a Barrel, Cans on Fence, or Bacon Xs. To download any of the targets, right click and “Save Link As”. You can also click on the four large targets and they should open up in most browsers if you have the PDF reader installed. Have Fun!
Orange Clays
Fish in a Barrel
Cans on Fence
Bacon Xs
Download FREE Bullseye Targets
The NSSF also offers conventional bullseye-style targets on the NSSF Targets page. Here are two, high-contrast printable targets. With five (5) bullseyes per sheet, these are good for load development. They also work well at short range for pistol shooting.
Add the Washington Post to the growing list of sources that credit President Obama with being the best salesman for firearms and ammunition that the country has seen since Samuel Colt. Using a simple linear trend analysis based on NSSF-supplied data, Washington Post writer Philip Bump calculated that the U.S. firearms industry has enjoyed a $9 to $10 billion increase in sales of guns and ammo during President Obama’s terms in office. CLICK HERE for full story in Washington Post.
Take a look at this chart — it shows a huge increase in sales of long guns, handguns, and ammunition during the Obama presidency. (NOTE: There is a decline at the extreme right of the chart because 2014 data only goes through the third quarter of the year.) You can seen why there have been shortages of ammunition. Look at the huge spike in ammo sales (orange zone) over the past six years. This may explain why some retailers ironically refer to the nation’s top elected official as “President ObAMMO”.
By comparing past industry sales numbers with figures for the past six years, the Washington Post calculates that the firearms industry has enjoyed a remarkable period of growth: “If you calculate out the difference between what might have been expected and what was, it’s about a $10 billion increase [in sales]”. We’ve seen evidence that things are cooling off, but according to the Washington Post: “The $9 to $10 billion in increase under Obama will keep growing, through the end of 2016. At which point gun manufacturers will probably be sad to see Obama go — even if gun buyers are not.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is seeking to ban commonly-used 5.56 M855 “green tip” ball ammunition as “armor piercing ammunition” and is seeking public comment on the proposal. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) urges target shooters and gun owners to contact ATF to oppose this proposed ban.
For decades, under the “sporting purposes” doctrine, commonly-available “green tip” M855 and SS109 rifle ammunition has been exempt from federal law banning armor-piercing ammunition. There is no question that this 5.56 ball ammo has been widely used by law-abiding American citizens for sporting purposes.
Winchester-brand 5.56X45 62gr NATO M855 FMJ Ammunition
The NSSF has an online form that makes it easy to voice your opinion on the proposed ban on 5.56 ball ammo. This form will direct your comments to Congress and/or the ATF. Click the button at right to navigate to the NSSF online form.
Commentary by Jim Shepherd, The Shooting Wire
Should the ATF reclassify surplus (and widely used) M855 and SS109 ammunition as armor-piercing, it would then be illegal for consumer consumption. This weekend, we received word that apparently many gun owners didn’t find this to be a compelling reason to record their objections with the federal government. With only a few days remaining in the ATF’s solicitation of comments, fewer than 6,000 shooters have registered their displeasure with the proposal.That, as one of my least-favorite instructors used to say, is simply unacceptable.”
The number of women target shooters, hunters, and gun owners has increased dramatically since the start of the new millennium. Consider this, women now comprise 19% of hunters. That’s an 85% increase since 2001. Women are also more important as a purchasing segment of the the shooting market. Women gun owners spend nearly $1300.00 per year on guns and shooting accessories, $870 of that on firearm purchases. That number has gun-makers paying attention — even if some of you guys spend more than that each year just on powder!
Jessie Duff, sponsored by Taurus and Weatherby
Women are definitely becoming a more important segment of the hunting/shooting world. This is a good thing. The larger the “fan base” for the shooting sports, the less political pressure there will be to close ranges and restrict the activities of target shooters and hunters.
Click either image to see a full-size “Girl Power” Infographic.
More guns, fewer fatal accidents — that’s the “take-away” from a report recently published by the National Shorting Sports Foundation (NSSF). We’re pleased to see that efforts to increase firearms safety are working. Even though the ranks of gun-owners have grown dramatically, the rate of unintentional firearms fatalities (per 100,000 persons) has dropped to an all-time low.
There has been a huge decrease in accidental gun-related fatalities over the last century (measured as a percentage of the population). NSSF reports: “The 2012 Center for Disease Control and Prevention WISQARS accidental fatality data shows the lowest number of unintentional firearm-related fatalities per year ever reported (going back to 1903)”. As Dean Weingarten of Gun Watch explains: “The accidental fatal firearm rate has dropped by 94% since we started keeping statistics, even though the total number of firearms per capita has likely at least doubled. You need to look at the rates — accidental firearm fatalities per 100,000 population — to see the stunning reduction in the last century.”
Only 0.4% of unintentional fatalities now involve firearms. The biggest killer, to our surprise, is poisoning, which accounts for 28.4% of accidental deaths. Motor vehicles, not unexpectedly, rank second at 27.3% (see chart below). Even suffocation, at 4.9%, accounts for 12 times more unintentional deaths than firearms.
In this NSSF Video, Ryan Cleckner, a former Sniper Instructor for the 1st Ranger Battalion, defines the term, “Minute of Angle” (MOA) and explains how you can adjust for windage and elevation using 1/4 or 1/8 MOA clicks on your scope. This allows you to sight-in precisely and compensate for bullet drop at various distances.
For starters, Ryan explains that, when talking about angular degrees, a “minute” is simply 1/60th. So a “Minute of Angle” is simply 1/60th of one degree of a central angle, measured either up and down (for elevation) or side to side (for windage). At 100 yards, 1 MOA equals 1.047″ on the target. This is often rounded to one inch for simplicity. Say, for example, you click up 1 MOA. That is roughly 1 inch at 100 yards, or roughly 4 inches at 400 yards, since the target area measured by 1 MOA increases in linear fashion with the distance.
Team Smith & Wesson shooter 
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is seeking to ban commonly-used 5.56 M855 “green tip” ball ammunition as “armor piercing ammunition” and is seeking public comment on the proposal. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) urges target shooters and gun owners to contact ATF to oppose this proposed ban.
