NSSF: Aiming for Accuracy

Good News About Adult Hunters Mentoring Young People

A recent HunterSurvey.com study commissioned by the National Shooting Sports Foundation shows an impressive level of adult sportsmen and women mentoring young hunters, which is good news since developing new hunters means more advocates for hunters' rights and more support for wildlife conservation.

A news release points out that . . . 

--More than 77 percent of active hunters and target shooters indicated they had taken their sons and daughters hunting. Even adults without a child or stepchild got into the act, with 56 percent of them reporting they also took a young person hunting.

--83.4 percent of young people were introduced to hunting, even if they didn’t carry a firearm or bow, before they turned 13 years old, which is a critical factor in ensuring the next generation will be avid, lifelong hunters.  

--The average age of the mentor was 38, according to a concurrent study conducted by NSSF. A majority of adult hunters, 61.7 percent, first introduce a young person to hunting when they are between the ages of 30 and 45. Mentoring is an important component not only for recruiting new hunters but for ensuring experienced sportsmen and women continue spending time afield. 

--The majority of adult hunters, 55.3 percent, reported they took young men hunting while 10.1 percent said they mentored young females, according to HunterSurvey.com. More than 34 percent of hunters reported they mentored both sexes, though, which increases the percentage of adult hunters mentoring males into hunting to 72.6 percent while adults mentoring young women rises to 27.4 percent.

--With 10.3 million big game hunters in the United States according to the 2006 National Survey of Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife Associated Recreation, it’s no surprise HunterSurvey.com showed deer were the most popular game species pursued during a young person’s first hunt. Nearly 56 percent of youth deer hunted with an adult mentor on their first hunt, though the second most popular hunt was for small game with 40.7 percent participation. Upland hunting ranked third at 16.7 percent and wild turkey a distant fourth at 12.8 percent.  

If you hunt or target shoot, sign up to participate in www.huntersurvey.com. Just for completing the survey, you are entered into a monthly drawing for one of five $100 gift certificates to the sporting goods retailer of your choice.

Defensive Gun Uses

A story in the Southern Medical Journal attempts to revitalize the widely discredited theory that a gun in the home increases the risk of firearms-related violence to the gun owner. As with all such stories on this topic, readers should bring a healthy dose of skepticism and understand that the statistics provided are drawn only from those studies researchers decide to consult.

SMJ's conclusion is "based on a review of the available scientific data" and barely mentions defensive gun uses (DGUs). Did researchers include the 1.5 to two million DGUs that occur annually in the United States by law-abiding gun owners? We doubt it. Those estimates are derived from several surveys conducted by Professor Gary Kleck, as well as a survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice. Most DGUs, such as brandishing a gun to ward off a home invader, are never reported. Realizing this, Dr. Kleck specifically developed his surveys to determine a more accurate estimate of DGUs.

Over the last two decades, accidents and intentional shootings involving firearms have decreased greatly while during the same period firearms ownership in America has increased. Accidental fatalities in the last 20 years have dropped by 42 percent overall, with a 77 percent decrease among youth 14 years old and under, according to the National Safety Council.

Three Accurate Stories About Modern Sporting Rifles

Writers Mark Taylor of the Roanoke Times in Virginia, John Weiss of the Post-Bulletin in Rochester, Minneosta, and Colin Moore of  ESPNOutdoors.com each filed stories recently that accurately discuss AR-style modern sporting rifles. NSSF, which has launched a campaign to correct confusion about these rifles, appreciates their professional reporting and invites you to read their pieces.

From Mark's article:

"[ARs are] one of the fastest growing segments in the market and if you've ever shot one you understand why," [John] Fink [of Remington] said. "They're just a lot of fun to shoot. They're light on recoil and they're surprisingly accurate."

Because the guns share the same basic AR-style platform -- the AR stands for ArmaLite, the company that launched the design 50 years ago -- there are many add-on parts and modification products available to shooters, many of whom are avid tinkerers.

From John's article:

Patrick Cellette, owner of Cellette's Guns Inc. of New Brighton, Minn. agreed that troops coming back from Vietnam set the stage for push to the modern rifle. "Everything just took off like a rocket from there,"he said. "These are not evil." About 90 percent of his business is AR-related. 

From Colin's article:

The growing popularity of these rifles follows a familiar pattern. The military adopts the latest, greatest fighting weapon, whether a Winchester lever-action or a Springfield '03 bolt-action, and soon those firearms enter the civilian market. That's also what happened with black rifles, whose fame began in the Vietnam War era. Vets, and second- and third-generation vets since then, notched out a place in their hearts for such firearms long after their terms of duty ended.

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Read more about the modern sporting rifle and NSSF's educational campaign to correct the confusion surrounding these AR-style rifles. AR-style rifles look like military rifles, such as the M-16, but function like other semi-automatic civilian sporting firearms, firing only one round with each pull of the trigger.

Media and the SHOT Show

When it comes to firearms and accessories, there's no better place to soak up knowledge about them than at NSSF's Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show. Media that cover these outdoor activities know this and use the SHOT Show as a combination story generator and education hub, which can pay dividends throughout the year and even for an entire career.

Last week, 1,800 members of the media made a point of coming to the SHOT Show in Las Vegas so they could learn about and ogle (sometimes not in that order) the latest gear the industry produces and sells. Having a better grasp of what products are designed for and how they function helps media gain a better understanding for why industry holds certain positions on legislation and regulations. For example, when you see how popular AR-style modern sporting rifles and accessories are, and that there's an AR for nearly every sporting use requiring a rifle, you can see why millions of owners of these modular rifles are concerned about potential legislation that would prohibit ownership of them.

Factual errors that appear about modern sporting rifles and many other gun-related issues in media stories often occur because of reporters' lack of knowledge about guns and gun ownership. The SHOT Show not only affords media an opportunity to see equipment on the show floors but to attend "media day at the range," where reporters can see, handle and test equipment, and then pose their questions about design and specifications directly to manufacturer representatives. Most "outdoor media" who attend SHOT know the value of this media day prior to the show, and we were pleased to see that mainstream media writers made good use of the range day to learn more about firearms in a hands-on way.

With nearly 40 million Americans active participants in hunting and the shooting sports, it's important that all media, not just outdoor media, better understand our sports and the equipment gun owners enjoy owning and using--lawfully and responsibly. There are many new owners out there after a record year for firearms sales. This sales surge, as NSSF President Steve Sanetti put it in his State of the Industry address at SHOT Show, "is a testament to the popularity of firearms ownership in America and proof that hunting and target shooting remain popular activities among all ages." 

The show itself was a big success. In an economy that is still sputtering, the 58,444 trade professionals who attended nearly matched the all-time record set at the 2008 show in Las Vegas. And there were positive signs that the industry would continue to see robust sales in 2010, building on the extraordinary sales of the last 15 months.

See NSSF's Bullet Points, the SHOT Show blog and @NSSFSHOT Show on Twitter for highlights of the show. There's also lots of show-related Tweets at #shotshow. And here's the SHOT Show wrap-up press release.

Trying to Scare Hunters Who Use Traditional Ammunition

An alarmist article written by Michael Glenn Easter at scienceline.org tries to scare hunters and others who enjoy eating venison by impying that game harvested with traditional ammunition is unsafe to eat. It is not.

The writer never contacted NSSF to get its position on the matter, yet he gives credence to a North Dakota dermatologist who two years ago unscientifically selected non-random sample packages of venison from food banks and "tested" them, saying they were contaminated with lead fragments. North Dakota health officials, who did not collect their own samples for study, then overreacted by ordering food banks to throw out tons of nutritious food. What the article  doesn't say is that the dermatologist's testing method was called into question, that he sits on the board of the Peregrine Fund, an organization whose stated agenda includes banning lead ammunition, and that the release of the dermatologist's "study" was timed to coincide with a Peregrine Fund conference aimed at advancing its agenda.

Eating game taken with traditional ammunition that contains lead-core components does not pose a health risk. A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bears this out. The CDC's study of North Dakota hunters found that their blood lead levels were lower than the average American's. Additionally, the Iowa Department of Public Health has said, "IDPH maintains that if lead in venison were a serious health risk, it would likely have surfaced within extensive blood lead testing since 1992 with 500,000 youth under 6 and 25,000 adults having been screened." It has not.

Here's the data from CDC's North Dakota study: The adult with the highest lead level (9.82 micrograms per deciliter of blood) was still below the CDC recommended threshold for that of a child (10 micrograms per deciliter of blood) and well below the CDC recommended threshold for an adult (25 micrograms per deciliter of blood). Consider too that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn't even require removal of an employee from a job involving lead exposure until that employee's blood lead level reaches 60 micrograms per declilter of blood.

There is no evidence of a single case of human lead poisoning related to eating game taken with traditional ammunition, and no peer-reviewed scientic evidence exists as a reason to ban the use of such ammunition.

To allay any concerns about eating venison taken with traditional ammunition, hunters should point out the CDC study to other hunters, always with the reminder to properly field dress and butcher meat. Food pantries should be made aware of the CDC study as well, so that healthy, low-fat meat donated by hunters to feed the needy is not wasted out of unwarranted fear. To date, the North Dakota Department of Health encourages hunters to continue donating venison to local food banks as long as processing guidelines are adhered to. Food banks in nearly every other state willingly and gratefully accept venison from hunters, something they wouldn't do if it was unsafe.  

We expect less advocacy and more accurate and balanced reporting from a publication with the word "science" in its name.

Why do you love your gun?

That's the question Los Angeles Times reporter Sandy Banks asks on her blog. Although she unfortunately arrives at the question by considering  the actions of basketball's Gilbert Arenas (as if he's the typical firearms owner),  Banks, to her credit, admits to knowing little about firearms and says she's gone to LAPD's firing range to learn more (and while at it discovers she’s a pretty good shot). Now she's asking readers to help her understand why they own firearms.

To her question, posted yesterday afternoon, she's received more than 100 comments, mostly pro-gun. You may want to read some of them and add yours before she writes her Saturday column.

A Math Lesson

When it comes to gun-related crime, it's standard procedure for gun-control groups to toss around numbers without putting them into perspective. The Violence Policy Center tried it recently and got this math lesson from A. Barton Hinkle of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, who calls such tactics "misleading, if not malicious."

Writes Mr. Hinkle,

"Now consider this statistic: Concealed handgun permit holders have killed 107 people since 2007. That news, from the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., sounds pretty bad--until you put it in context. How many Americans have been issued a permit to carry a concealed weapon?"

Using estimates for the number of concealed carry permit holders, Mr. Hinkle writes, "the percentage of concealed-carry permit holders who have killed someone with a firearm comes to two one-thousandths of 1 percent."

Read Mr. Hinkle's full article.

Questions Mount About California's Microstamping Law

First, the state's new law requiring firearms manufacturers to laser engrave identification numbers on a gun's firing pin did not go into effect January 1 because the technology remains encumbered by patents. And now the California Police Chiefs Association raises further questions about microstamping, saying the technology needs more study and is too costly, reversing its original position of support for the legislation.

In a letter sent to state Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, CPCA Acting President Susan E. Manheimer wrote, “There are too many unanswered questions with microstamping in its current iteration” and raised concerns that "statements about the capabilities of microstamping may have been technologically premature."

Several independent, peer-reviewed studies have indicated the technology is flawed and can be easily circumvented using simple household tools. Even wear and tear caused by normal use of a firearm requires owners to replace parts such as firing pins from time to time. For these and other reasons, NSSF opposed the legislation.

Manufacturers have indicated the new law would force them to raise prices of guns significantly, or even abandon the California market rather than go through a costly reconfiguring of manufacturing and assembly processes. Estimated price increases could go as high as $200 per gun. 

Read NSSF's news release on the CPCA letter and the release about why the technology must be certified as patent-free by the California Department of Justice before the law can go into effect.

An Outdoor Columnist Loses His Forum

As newspapers close or cut back on staff, one unfortunate result is the loss of coverage of hunting, shooting and fishing by outdoor writers. With The Washington Times eliminating its sports section last week, longtime outdoor writer Gene Mueller said his farewell in a final column that celebrated nearly 25 years of outdoor pursuits along with the travel and friendship that go hand-in-hand with them.

Gene writes:

Since February 1985, I have been privileged to share with you news and views about fishing, hunting and boating, occasionally giving the devil to the opponents of our time-honored outdoors sports. There can be no doubt that a number of milquetoast "antis" now will rejoice because a spokesman for hunters and anglers has been silenced.

We hope that Gene is not "silenced," which sounds so final, but continues to comment on and promote outdoor activities through other outlets, benefiting what surely is a large, loyal readership.  

If SHOT Show media registrations are any indication (and they are, we're sure), outdoor media is moving to Web-based outlets at a fast pace. There are more Web sites, online magazines and video channels, blogs and forums covering outdoor sports and equipment than ever before.

Millions of hunters, target shooters and gun owners are eager for information from trusted sources like Gene and, with so many new electronic delivery methods available, it's never been easier for outdoor communicators to reach them. You can follow this blog, for instance, through an RSS feed or subscribe to the @NSSFComm Twitter account and receive a link to new posts immediately after they are made. Or find it via NSSF's homepage, www.nssf.org. Outdoor communicators need to keep on telling their stories because, for the most part, it’s the pastimes and products with stories that survive.

Washington, D.C. Homicides Down, Too; Calif. Microstamping Law Takes Effect in New Year

We'd like to draw your attention to two stories in the news today. 

In recent posts, we've talked about how baseless the "more guns equal more crime" argument has always been and particularly in light of FBI statistics showing that while firearms sales were surging in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, violent crime was going down nationally, in all categories, with murders down 10 percent. We noted yesterday that New York City homicides are at an all-time low, down 19 percent. The same is true in Washington, D.C., where, the Washington Times points out today, homicides fell by 25 percent in the district and have reached their lowest level since 1964. 

That's the good news. On the not-so-good-news side, mainly for Californians, is that a microstamping law goes into effect in 2010 that requires handguns sold in the Golden State to have a firing pin capable of imprinting identification numbers on bullet casings. The law was passed despite objections from NSSF and the findings of several independent peer-reviewed studies that showed the technology of microstamping is unreliable. Microstamping can be easily defeated in mere seconds using common household tools, or owners can simply replace the engraved firing pin for an unmarked one, thereby circumventing the technology. Even normal firing, cleaning, and wear and tear over the years can obliterate the microscopic numbers. As NSSF President Steve Sanetti has said, microstamping makes about as much sense as requiring the VIN number of a car to be marked on its tire treads.

As a result, handgun manufacturers may introduce fewer new models of handguns in the state rather than adopt the technology, which would add significant cost to new firearms and reduce manufacturing efficiencies. That means law-abiding Californians will have access to fewer new models, or as as NSSF's Larry Keane, senior vice president and general counsel, noted in the Sacramento Bee, "California will become like Cuba with cars. You will only be able to get very old models of guns."