maillemaker
New member
I shoot N-SSA. I agree it is a sport of old, white men. I'm probably one of the 5 youngest there at 46. Most guys are 65+ and retired. A couple of women also shoot.
Cost and time is certainly a concern. Many of our competitions start on Friday afternoon with individual shooting at targets. While there is also individual shooting on Saturday morning, it is hard to do 4 guns in 4-5 hours, though it can be done especially if you do no re-entries. But Friday shooting makes it much more relaxed. That means vacation time.
Then there is the cost of competing. My ammo costs me about $.30 a shot. I make up 100 rounds per gun and shoot about 75% of it. So figure $100 in ammo for 4 guns. It's $25 a night for camping so that's another $50. About $60 in gas to drive the RV down and back. Say $50 in food. $25 for individual targets, and about $7 per team event so $28 to shoot 4 team events. Works out to about $340 for the weekend. Every other month of the year.
And this is just for a "daddy activity". When you have a wife and children, you have to start asking yourself (and your wife and kids will be asking themselves) whether this expense is really fair for just daddy to go have fun by himself for the weekend. Yeah, mom and the kids can come along "camping" but that really just means mommy babysitting in and around the RV while daddy is down at the range having fun. Contrast this with taking the family camping for a weekend or buying a boat and the family spending the weekend out on the lake boating and fishing together.
The middle class in this country is shrinking. People have less and less disposable income. 42% of the country makes $10/hour or less. 47% of people with an income don't make enough income to have to pay income tax on it. More and more young people are coming out of college with their "disposable" income being tied up in student loans.
It's getting harder to find young people with both the interest and the time and the money to participate.
Then there is the demographics problem. It has been said that if you look around any NRA convention and you will see a sea of white and grey hair. The torch of the second amendment is mostly born by older Americans. I did not vote for him, but I was surprised but pleased to see Trump win in that at least the 200 or so justices he has to appoint will probably be pro-2A, and so the second amendment may be protected for another generation. But I don't have much confidence in this to last indefinitely. My feeling is that the younger generation skews left on most social issues. And since the second amendment's champions are on the right, this does not bode well for what is going to happen as the baby boomers start dying off. My hope is that we make inroads with firearms and shooting sports with young left-leaning people. But I don't have a lot of confidence in that happening. I hope I'm wrong.
Steve
Cost and time is certainly a concern. Many of our competitions start on Friday afternoon with individual shooting at targets. While there is also individual shooting on Saturday morning, it is hard to do 4 guns in 4-5 hours, though it can be done especially if you do no re-entries. But Friday shooting makes it much more relaxed. That means vacation time.
Then there is the cost of competing. My ammo costs me about $.30 a shot. I make up 100 rounds per gun and shoot about 75% of it. So figure $100 in ammo for 4 guns. It's $25 a night for camping so that's another $50. About $60 in gas to drive the RV down and back. Say $50 in food. $25 for individual targets, and about $7 per team event so $28 to shoot 4 team events. Works out to about $340 for the weekend. Every other month of the year.
And this is just for a "daddy activity". When you have a wife and children, you have to start asking yourself (and your wife and kids will be asking themselves) whether this expense is really fair for just daddy to go have fun by himself for the weekend. Yeah, mom and the kids can come along "camping" but that really just means mommy babysitting in and around the RV while daddy is down at the range having fun. Contrast this with taking the family camping for a weekend or buying a boat and the family spending the weekend out on the lake boating and fishing together.
The middle class in this country is shrinking. People have less and less disposable income. 42% of the country makes $10/hour or less. 47% of people with an income don't make enough income to have to pay income tax on it. More and more young people are coming out of college with their "disposable" income being tied up in student loans.
It's getting harder to find young people with both the interest and the time and the money to participate.
Then there is the demographics problem. It has been said that if you look around any NRA convention and you will see a sea of white and grey hair. The torch of the second amendment is mostly born by older Americans. I did not vote for him, but I was surprised but pleased to see Trump win in that at least the 200 or so justices he has to appoint will probably be pro-2A, and so the second amendment may be protected for another generation. But I don't have much confidence in this to last indefinitely. My feeling is that the younger generation skews left on most social issues. And since the second amendment's champions are on the right, this does not bode well for what is going to happen as the baby boomers start dying off. My hope is that we make inroads with firearms and shooting sports with young left-leaning people. But I don't have a lot of confidence in that happening. I hope I'm wrong.
Steve