Take a young person shooting!

C

Calif Hunter

New member
There are thousands, maybe millions, of young people over 18 who can vote and who have not yet formed hard-line opinions on most issues. Get them to a range or out plinking, and they love it! It sure beats video games. (Just be sure to act responsibly...clean up after yourself and insist upon safe procedures.) Get involved in youth groups like the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts to provide positive gun-related attitudes through safe, fun gun activities. If you meet a young guy or gal at work, ask them to go to the range with you sometime. That's the best way to win future votes...they will see you as a repsonsible, normal person (not the media's image of a "gun nut") and you may just create a new firearms enthusiast and Second Amendment advocate.
 
Sounds good but I am continually amazed at how stupid some gun owners are.

Recently I was at the range shooting a .45 OACP. Another member was there teaching his grandson to shoot a .22 rifle. He came over to talk, the kid saw the Colt, and his eyes got big. I removed the magazine and jacked the slide open for safety and then asked the guy if it was ok to let his grandson hold it a moment. I assumed he'd say, "sure." Wrong. The grandfather's eyes got big and his mouth pinched together and I could tell he didn't want his grandson to even hold a pistol -- on a firing range, being given the oportunity by a qualified adult to hold a safetied pistol.

I was amazed and angry.

What's wrong with gun owners??
 
I never had an experience like that. Most everyone I ever seen at a range will ask me if I want to "try out" their rifle, pistol, shotgun if I seem interested. As for taking young people shooting I have been involed to some degree in the teaching of Boy Scouts (and some of their parents), in the safe use of Firearms.

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-AoW[t]-Dead [Black Ops]
 
Besides children, I think there is a great, possibly missed, opportunity to take the young guy or gal from work that is 18 or 20 years old out to the range. (You can meet them anywhere...church, etc.) They are generally pretty open to new experiences. Say you ask them to go shooting, they act like you're a nut, and you ask them if they've ever tried it. In most cases, younger adults are more willing to give the other side of the question a try than older, "more set in their ways" people. Most young people are very concerned about being hypocritical and want to be seen as being open-minded. And they can vote. Show them that shooting is a legitimate activity and a load of fun, to boot!
 
I have taken my nephews, who live nearby, and they both loved it. On our annual beach vacation I am trying to get a nephew and neice we only see once a year to try it. If the youth doesn't get interested, there won't be another generation of gunowners. I try to work on non-shooting adults also.
 
I'm working on two non-shooting adults now, one of whom owns a pistol (or something) but has no idea of how to handle it. I'm working it slow and easy, with an eye to get them to the range at my expense.
One of them is fairly ready, but the other was horrified that anyone would even shoot a gun. Ironically, this is the adult that owns a gun! :eek:
It will be a while, but when I reach fruition, I'll post the whole story.

As a side note, I will do my best to take as many PYT's as possible to the range. :D

[This message has been edited by TMoney (edited July 28, 2000).]
 
As posted on "The most severely discriminated group"

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I have not been shooting for that long, but I DO pride myself on having brought 9 people to the range to shoot with me.
Every one was anti or at least "uncomfortable" with the idea of shooting - and every one of them had a blast.
I agree the time to shut up is over (WAS there EVER a time). I tell nearly everyone I shoot, usually just by a story of something..."Yeah, I was at the range with a couple buddies the other day and (such and such happened)".
"The driving range?" They say?
"No, the pistol range" I reply.
At this point, they usually grimace, but that opens the door. I'm a great conversationalist, and I can almost ALWAYS get them to agree that it's better to have one and not need it, then need one and not have it. That logic is *really* hard to deny. And even if I don't get them to the range, it's a seed planted.
I would send more money to the GOA, but I think it's better spent on targets, range fees and 22LR ammo when I bring newbies out for the first time. I always pay.
I usually make it up betting the next time we go out
I think that's the best thing we can all do. Just TALK to people. Geez, when I think about how much easier this would be to do in Texas or most any southern state then it is here in Kali, you guys have no excuse.

If every TFL member brought one new person to the range a month, that's roughly 72,000 people who may convert. Conservatively, let's say 1/4 of them buy a roscoe and join the NRA. It's not huge, but it snowballs.

Dont lie down. Dont LET this be the last gun culture generation. Involve your 20 somthing neighbor and he will involve his girlfriend. Get your kids out there spreading the word if they're in their 20's. I'm 25 personally, and I think this age, "Generation X", is where themost important converts are - good resources, culturally influencing, lots of NEW votes, the future of our government in 10-20 years.

SHOW THEM!




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"Freedom is that instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond."
-Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
 
In Switzerland, we have something like the CMP. And guess what? I take
kids to the range, from 16 on, they shoot SIG 550's. Sometimes, they
shoot better than me (admitted, I'm rather into SIG 510's, but then,
the recoil impulse is not quite weak - I prefer them to train with
.223s.)!

If they're really good, I teach them to shoot pistols.

And also, to show them the consequences of a gun shot, I usually show
them how a wild boar looks after a .300 Win Mag made it through the
lungs and the heart. Usually teaches them that shooting living things
is only done as last resort.

When they're major, they go to a real military range where we shoot
moving targets with 3-shot-bursts, and I usually let them fire one mag
on full auto for the feeling. After having done that, you usually have
a Pro Tell member. ;)

[This message has been edited by mussi (edited July 28, 2000).]
 
Last Sunday, I took two new shooters to the range to shoot pistols for their first time.

We spent 6 hours there, 5 hours shooting and one hour for a hot dog & hamberger cook out at the range.

We shot up all my ammo and ate up all my food and had a great time. I ended up certifing both for their State Premit to Carry, pistols and revolvers and I am doing it again with a group of 3 in the last week of Aug.
This gives me needed time to reload all
the empty brass from that last session.

Its way cheaper to use 22 lr but all I have is 9 mm and 357 handguns.
 
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