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.

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.

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.

Violent Crime Continues Decline (Even While Gun Ownership Increases)

Preliminary statistics released by the FBI for the first half of 2009 show that violent crime continues a downward trend that began in 2006. The figures show crime falling in all categories--robbery, aggravated assault, motor vehicle thefts, etc.--with murders down a remarkable 10 percent from the previous year.

The FBI statistics undermine a favorite argument of anti-gun groups and some mainstream media that "more guns equal more crime," especially when you consider that the decrease in violent crime from late 2008 through the first half of 2009 occurred at the same time that firearm sales were surging.

The most popular firearms selling at that time were handguns and modern sporting rifles (AR-style rifles)--two types of firearms that anti-gunners never miss an opportunity to demonize. Law-abiding handgun owners have been filling concealed carry classes across the country, and AR-style rifles--long a favorite of target shooters--are growing in popularity among hunters as new calibers are introduced for small and big game.  

People across the country continue to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Consider this story from yesterday's Boston Globe:

The number of gun permits issued in Massachusetts surged by more than 15 percent over the past two years, reversing nearly a decade of steady declines and marking a pronounced departure for a state known for its antigun sentiment.

The rise in gun permits (and, presumably, purchases) in the Bay State is reflected by National Instant Criminal Background Check statistics showing an increase of 25 million background checks from a total of 75 million to 100 million initiated by Type 01 federally licensed firearms retailers between April 5, 2007, and April 4, 2009 . (Background checks are required under federal law for all individuals purchasing either newly manufactured or used firearms from federally licensed retailers. The checks serve as a gauge of sales but do not reflect the actual number of firearms sold.)

Crime is down. Gun ownership--by law-abiding, responsible citizens who pass a mandatory FBI background check at retail--is up.

Don't let anyone get away with telling you that "more guns equal more crime."

Outdoor Media Gearing Up for SHOT Show

More than 1,100 outdoor media professionals have pre-registered so far for next month's Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, where the latest gear for hunters, shooters and outdoor enthusiasts begins its journey from manufacturer to marketplace. The annual show, which brings together the largest gathering of outdoor media in the world, will draw 60,000 industry professionals to do business over four days in Las Vegas.

If you are a working media professional who covers the shooting sports or writes about the equipment and accessories used by hunters and shooters, there is still time to register for a SHOT Show media badge. To receive a badge, you must provide proof that you cover the industry on a regular basis. Read the media registration guidelines at www.shotshow.org.

At the show, which is owned by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and is open to  trade professionals only, media representatives join firearms retailers, shooting range operators, law enforcement and others to learn about the latest products. Media also has the opportunity to attend several "media days." These are invitation-only events, but most will allow bonafide media professionals to attend.

At least three events have been planned by exhibitors and their representatives that allow media to handle new products and, in some cases, test them at Las Vegas area shooting facilities.

Here is a profile of three such events, all of which take place on Monday, January 18, the day before the SHOT Show opens.

--Bass Pro presents Media Day at the Range, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Boulder City Pistol & Rifle Club. See www.media-day.com for more information. More than 40 companies are participating.

--2010 New Product Event, 9 a.m. to noon, Desert Sportsman's Rifle & Pistol Club. Kevin Howard, coordinator, khoward@howardcommunications.com. Participating are Browning, Winchester Repeating Arms, Bushnell, Winchester Ammunition, Mossy Oak, Browning Footwear, LaCrosse/Danner Boots, Taurus, Polaris, Birchwood Casey and Crimson Trace.

--2010 Smith & Wesson Shoot Out, 12:30 to 4:30, American Shooters. Tonya Giudice, coordinator, info@blueheroncomm.com. Participating are Smith & Wesson, Thompson Center, Walther, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Coleman, Dallas Safari Club and Trijicon. .

Note: All of the media days are independent of the SHOT Show and are not official SHOT Show events.

NSSF Responds to Boston Herald Anti-hunting Column

To the Editor:

Howie Carr’s column, “It’s hunting season, time to duck…and cover,” in the Sunday, Nov. 29, edition, was a hard one to figure.  If it was a humor column, it wasn’t funny.  If it was an attempt at journalism, it wasn’t accurate.  When Mr. Carr attempted to depict the deer hunters of Massachusetts, and the entire nation, as beer-drinking buffoons that are an accident just waiting to happen, he chose to ignore the facts.

With a handful of accident reports, Mr. Carr chose to present deer hunting as a reckless activity.  If he’d chosen bicycle riding, bowling, fishing or swimming, he could have really skewed the statistics and caricatured the participants.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission tracks injuries treated in hospital emergency departments.  A report earlier this year indicated that in a 12-month period among 37,400,000 bicycle riders, 505,413 while participating in their sport sustained injuries that required treatment at an E.R.  Among the 43,500,000 bowlers, 21,819 visited the emergency department because of an injury received while bowling.  Of the 35,300,000 fishermen, 71,615 went to the E.R. with fishing-related injuries, and, finally, 171,704 of the estimated 52,300,000 swimmers incurred swimming-related injuries.

The National Sporting Goods Association estimates that there are 19.4 million active hunters in the United States, a number less than the enthusiasts mentioned above, but a sizeable group nonetheless.  Yet, the total injury incidents reported for the same period were 916.

Numbers present an accurate picture.  Unfortunately, Mr. Carr didn’t.

Steve Sanetti,

President/CEO

National Shooting Sports Foundation

Urbanites Discover Hunting

Another good story about hunting and responsible gun ownership appears in The New York Times today.

From the "Urban Deerslayer," written by Sean Patrick Farrell,

Jackson Landers, an insurance broker by day, teaches a course here called Deer Hunting for Locavores. Mr. Landers, 31, started the classes earlier this year for largely urban adults who, like him, did not grow up stalking prey but have gravitated to harvesting and cooking their own game.

Read the story.