Monday, May 10, 2010

Wishful Thinking

From the Joyce puppet site 'Stop Gun Deaths' comes this little bit of fantasy:
#Gun lobby worried that #kids don't #hunt, see future collapse of agenda;
That's quite a claim coming from the linked article they use. Especially in contrast to evidence like this and this.

I guess it's easier to close your eyes, cover your ears and yell "WE'RE WINNING!!!" instead of looking at reality.

But it does bring up an interesting question. While keeping kids interested in outside activities (including the shooting sports) is, without a doubt, important, what age did most people get involved?

I've never hunted and have no real interest in starting. I only went shooting w/ my dad once when I was about 10 and didn't shoot recreationally again until my mid-20's, about 10 years ago. Now I'm not only involved in the political side of things, but I enjoy target shooting, plinking, and collecting even though I don't get involved in organized competitions.

So when did you get involved/interested in hunting and/or shooting? Take the poll. Tell your story.


Unorganized Militia Gear

Unorganized Militia Gear

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I was introduced to shooting in the Boy Scouts.I loved it...so much, later in life I bacame a instructor of shooting in the Boy Scouts.My wife & I both enjoy shooting sports enough that we bought our 3 boys 22 rifles last year for Christmas ages 11, 12 & 17.

Bob S. said...

LOL! Yep, because kids don't hunt we can't get them interested in the shooting sports.

Yeah, that is why we had nearly 200 kids at our 2010 Youth Day event.

I shot a couple of times as a kid; mostly Scouting at summer camp but it wasn't until I was in my 40's that I started getting interested in shooting.

But I've tried to make up for it with a son in the Marines and loving to shoot and a 17 year old wanting to shoot Archery and Silhouettes.

Scott McCray said...

Teen years for me - aside from BB guns as a kid. Dad was our resident "groundhog getter" - those guys wreak havoc on a farm and a landing strip.
So far haven't had the urge to hunt - I have many friends that do, so there's never a shortage of venison being shared. I only hunt the wild target - improving marksmanship is the name of the game for me.

Hat Trick said...

I started pest control detail on the farm at the age of seven, first with a BB gun then an air rifle. Was given my first shotgun at ten when I began hunting pheasants with my Dad.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

My big sister and her Marine husband got stuck with me on his first day back from boot camp. We were at his parents farm and the family was gone for the day. My Marine brother-in-law spent 5 minutes teaching me to load and shoot his brother's 22 rifle, told me to not "look down the barrel" and to not point the gun at living things. Last he said, "don't come in the house". I was given a full box of .22 ammo and was left alone for the afternoon to plink at tin cans with the rifle. I was 8 years old and I was hooked on shooting for life.

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a family that had a .22 pump action and a black powder that I was prohibited from touching or even seeing very often. I did not get into firearms until I joined the military, and realized that "qualifying" on the M9 pretty much amounted to being able to point the handgun in generally the right direction - I decided that was insufficient to defend myself, my watch crew, and my ship, should the situation call for it, and embarked on training myself.

From there, doing the research online, I got more and more interested, to the point where here I am, owning a small arsenal (at least by most holophobes' standards), and being politically active. Works for me.

Anonymous said...

Been shooting most of my life, but just plinking mostly, some actual target work. In my early 30s I began hunting, & fell in love with it (it helps that harvesting & processing your own meat saves a lot of money, especially when you can hunt on your own land). I'm 45 now, and a recent injury may mean I won't do much more large-game hunting, but there are still squirrels & rabbits out there.

Dixie said...

BB gun at 8, BB pistol at 10, 12 ga pump shotgun at 13. By the time I was 15, I was hunting small game and getting rid of pests around the farm.

I didn't take up self-defense guns until I was 23, though. I've brought a few people into the gun world... and none of them hunters.