Think Progress has been busy trying to debunk the myth of NRA power, and the latest is really the icing on the cake, where they parrot the anti-gun leadership talking point that gun ownership is really on the decline, and fewer and fewer people are participating in the shooting sports. Reality just does not bear this out, so I am going to have to give Think Progress a Baghdad Bob reward for this article:
 
I gotta tell you, every shooting event I go to is getting more and more crowded. Even trap shoots that would usually field 4 or 5 squads are now going 9-11 squads deep.
I can only speak to this from an anecdotal point of view, but I’ve seen so much more interest in shooting from people who would never have shown interest before that it’s almost unbelievable. I got into the range and it’s half full of women. Young women, in their twenties, learning to shoot. Just two weeks ago I had to wait in line because a group of grandmas and their granddaughters (ten, altogether) had gone in to shoot.
I go into the gun shop, and it’s all people buying their first guns. The shopkeepers can’t keep up. And not the good old boys you’d expect–though they’re still there too. Gun shows are wives and daughters, fathers and sons, all chatting about the relative merits of 9mm over 40S&W. Girls wishing they could get their Glock 17s in custom colors. Seriously, I overheard that conversation. Holy cripes.
Stunning. I never would have imagined it. ThinkProgress can try to convince themselves of the opposite if they like, but they’re just deluding themselves.
“Girls wishing they could get their Glock 17s in custom colors. Seriously, I overheard that conversation. Holy cripes”
Glock should pay attention to this. The OD green models flew off the shelves, and everyone is sold out of the tan M&P
They just opened a pistol range above ours on the old skeet set-up, which is a bit worrisome because we can hear ricochets going by overhead when we’re downrange changing targets during our regular club Matches.
The Park Rangers (it’s a County-run/County-land range) just had to expand the available space, and it was FULL of guys and they bogarted all the good (and limited) parking – the range is getting more crowded and more use than ever.
I just linked to this post in the comments for an article about the ThinkProgress thing on the Daily Kos.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/02/1070297/-Another-dying-demographic-that-the-Republicans-totally-own?via=sidebytagfeed
You’d be surprised by how many of us liberals, even in the Daily Kos, support the Second Amendment. I may be the only one who’s actually expressed support for the NRA, but a decently-large number of people on the website are outspoken in support of the Second Amendment
If gun ownership is on the decline, that means more guns for the rest of us. If it’s really on the decline, then the shops and ranges I always go to shouldn’t be crowded all the dang time.
“Who’s Baghdad Bob?”, asks the Facebook Generation? Does he have a YouTube Channel?
But those of us who remember, LOL!
I’m 24, and you’re making me feel old.
I’m 29, and it took me a second to remember. :D Seriously awesome!
I want to start IDPA with the wife at our local range soon.
Well wouldn’t the size of the SHOT show and the NRA meeting, the cost of ammunition (reduced supply=higher cost), the NICS checks, the reports of manufacturers and their stock prices (thinking of Ruger here) and independent dealer reports all point in the other direction? Oh wait, they do…
Sure it is possible to have one or two metrics out of whack, but a whole bunch? They really are in full denial and delusional.
Perhaps it’s their attempt at rationalizing their own decline?
Their Anti-gun orgs are in decline because the gun industry and guns in general are in a decline?
Sounds possible, we already know reality isn’t their strong suit….
The funny thing is, I have the impression that certain Democrats are setting themselves up for disappointment. I’ve seen several articles saying things like “Did they fail to notice that around 9.5 more women than men voted in 2008*…and that Obama’s margin of victory was around 9.5 million votes**?†(taken from this article). They seem determined to believe that Obama is doing wonderful, and that the country just loves him!
That isn’t to say that the Republicans are going to win…but to imply that it’s a shoo-in for Obama is willful blindness, at best. (Republicans are pessimistic, and rightly so, but they are in a very good position politically, if they don’t spoil it!)