Should the Brady Campaign ever wonder just who owns all of those evil rifles they keep trying to ban, NSSF has put together some interesting survey numbers.
The average owner has 2.6 EBRs MSRs. Isn’t that about the same number of children American families tend to have? I guess it’s one for each kid – or fraction thereof.
The overwhelming majority of you bought your first scary-looking rifles before the Great Obama Gun Rush, but 30% waited until the guy who wanted to ban them entered the White House & gun prices went through the roof.
Only 1% bought an EBR MSR as their first gun.
The top two reasons you guys aren’t shooting your guns as much as you’d like is because of time and cost of ammunition. Of course, just barely half of the rifle owners even have a regular place to shoot, at least in the form of a shooting range membership.
Just wanted to say that I enjoy your posts. My post today was about how the news media calls the NRA “the gun lobby” in an attempt to prejudice the viewing public agains gun rights organizations…
Keep up the good work with snowflakesinhell!
Virgil
http://evolvenow-alp.blogspot.com/
FYI back in My Maine days I shot regularly at people’s houses out in the sticks, or in sand pits that were not posted. The Northeast Blogger shoot is on private property too.
There are a zillion shooting ranges here in Mass where there is almost no private or public land one can shoot on, in Maine and New Hampshire I don’t know of a whole lot.
I’d imagine most of the regular shooters in rural America don’t have a club to go to either.
Of course, the obvious follow-up to that statistic is “How many rifle owners need a range membership to be able to shoot?”
Most farmers and many rural residents with enough land will set up a “range” somewhere out on their own property. Many people (like me) have access to a National Forest range that doesn’t require a membership. When I was young, my family would go to a nearby abandoned gravel pit to shoot.
I’m a little surprised the number of people with range memberships is so high, though that could be because I have a mostly rural perspective on the issue. I’ve always had an alternative to a paid range.
That’s why I added the “in the form of a shooting range membership.” Believe me, I’m well aware of rural shooting options. However, by their nature, they are extremely limited access for the overwhelming majority of gun owners.
I also put in the word “regularly” since there is also a culture of those who prefer to shoot sporadically at commercial ranges instead of maintaining a membership either at said commercial range or in a gun club. Here in PA, we also have a system of public ranges that, until recently, had no requirements to use. Now there’s a membership of sorts sold by way of the license. In MA, the culture is almost exclusively reliant upon club memberships. There aren’t even very many commercial ranges in the state since everyone can join a club.
Unless you’re one who has a large expanse of land or a buddy who will let you use his backyard range, most gun owners who want to shoot regularly will have to rely on some sort of membership.
This does remind me, the NRA Law Seminar had an interesting section on setting up shooting ranges on private land, I keep meaning to go through and read the supplemental materials on it for a possible post. There were some very interesting facts & cases mentioned.
Oh, I’m certainly not criticizing, I just think it would be an interesting question (or set of questions).
How many people have club memberships because they have to, how many have to use a club or commercial range but don’t need memberships (and how many of those buy a club membership anyway for convenience or other reasons), and how many have unpaid options? How many with unpaid options use commercial or club ranges anyway, and why?
And, of course, options will vary by state. I only know Virginia and Minnesota.
“FYI back in My Maine days I shot regularly at people’s houses out in the sticks,”
That’s some quality neighboring there Lou. =)
Here in Jersey there are a couple of public ranges, for archery, shotgun and muzzleloader. You need at least one person with a hunting license. It also makes sense to go to a commercial range or club because on the chance you are stopped with a gun in the car, the police will be checking records to ensure the timeline fits. You see, we can only transport our firearms under specific, and narrowly defined, exemptions to the general ban on firearms. Going to a range is one of them, but you must go directly to and from the range with no stops.
Finding a range that isnt run by a bunch of gun grabber sycophants (IE, Fudds) is somewhat hard in this corner of the state. for some reason tehy want to placate the media and the Brady types by not allowing “assault weapons” or anything that you couldnt use to hunt with.
Heck, I would love a transferable MG, but couldt think of a place to actually shoot it.
Jake: Nothing scientific, but somebody told me that only about half the paid members to my club even show up to use the range.
The reason is that many towns (illegally) require you to show club membership BEFORE you can get your permit to own a gun….and most clubs want you to have a permit on file BEFORE you pay your membership.
This means the clubs that DON’T require you to have a permit get a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise bother with our club to sign up just for the membership card.
I bought my first EBR, er, MSR after the 1994 Assault Rifle Ban (that wasn’t) went into effect. I bought my second the week that the Greatest Gun Salesman in History was elected to office, and my third came to me just a year ago, so I guess that makes me an overachiever!
I don’t shoot as much as I’d like due to 1) time, 2) cost of ammo, and 3) range location, which goes back to point 1). Both of the ranges I shoot at (somewhat) regularly are 45 minutes to an hour’s drive away. One I’m a member of, the other is a public range with no membership fees.
MSR? Guess I don’t follow the current cool-kid acronyms as well as I thought I did.
NSSF calls them modern sporting rifles.
Gotcha. Thanks.
2.6 doesn’t sound like enough for a whole family. Perhaps a hunting rifle has been commandeered to fill a dmr role and help fill out the gap in the squad. Either way, sounds like more purchases are required.
I bought my first one after Katrina, and have since spent a fair number of bucks (some on ammo).
And now CSGV is calling it “assault weapons stockpiling” on their Facebook page.
So, now we know: more than one is “stockpiling”.