The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Week of silence — then ‘bang’
Gun group recruits sports shooters in era of mass killings
NEWTOWN — With tears still drying over mass shootings that killed 31 in Texas and Ohio, some feel it may be too soon to invite people who have never fired a gun to the shooting range for some fun.
But that’s what the Newtownbased firearms industry trade association is advocating as part of its third annual shooting sports month promotion.
The slaying of 22 people in El Paso on Aug. 3 and nine people in Dayton on Aug. 4 confronted the NSSF with the option of canceling a year’s worth of plans to boost the shooting sports market, or the option to push ahead with its August promotions as though the massacres never happened.
The NSSF did neither, choosing instead to delay the launch of National Shooting Sports Month for a week, and observe industry silence, in solidarity with a grieving nation.
But when the week of silence was over, the NSSF declared it was time to celebrate the nation’s proud heritage of gun ownership by inviting spouses, coworkers and other nonshooters to experience the joy of taking their first shot.
“This is a raw time, but there is an increased interest in people wanting to protect themselves and exercise their rights under the Second Amendment,” said Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “National Shooting Sports Month gives gun owners the ability to invite people to the range who have never shot before and take the
mystery out of it.”
At a time when Washington is debating about expanding background checks and Main Street is despairing about America’s mass shooting epidemic, the NSSF is trying to expand the market for its 13,000 manufacturers, retailers and ranges with 2,000 events that feature discounts and sweepstakes.
The sweepstakes include gearbox giveaways from top gun makers in Connecticut such as Colt, Mossberg and Ruger, and the discounts include free rounds at Danbury’s Wooster Mountain for those who bring a new trap shooter to the range.
“We don’t think we should be punishing lawful shooters who want to celebrate their Second Amendment heritage,” Oliva said. “We don’t think that lawabiding gun owners should hang their heads in shame for the crimes committed by individuals.”
A leading local gun violence prevention advocate disagrees.
“With so many mass shootings devastating so many communities, we know that more guns is definitely not the answer,” says Po Murray, chair of the Newtown Action Alliance. “It seems tone deaf for NSSF to be promoting an increase in gun ownership at this time.”
For gun owners who don’t know what to say to a nonshooter, the NSSF’s shootingsportsmonth.org website has articles, videos and talking points about topics ranging from overcoming the fear factor and breaking down barriers to conveying the experience that target shooting is fun.
The president of the state’s largest gun rights group, whose membership has increased 70 percent in the last four years, said the more mass shootings rob people of their sense of security, the more people consider guns to stay safe.
“Everybody knows that guns can kill if they are handled improperly or if someone has that intent, but every time there is a mass shooting and a politician talks about gun control, I see more people taking pistol safety courses,” said Scott Wilson, president of the 31,000member Connecticut Citizens Defense League. “These events push more people towards guns.”
It’s too soon to say whether the backtoback massacres in El Paso and Dayton will drive unusually high numbers of people to buy guns for the first time. That was the case after the Valentine’s Day massacre of 17 students and staff at a Florida high school in early 2018, and after the massacre of 26 firstgraders and educators at Sandy Hook School in 2012.
Celebrating shooting
What started on Aug. 1 with a message from President Trump calling shooting sports “one of our nation’s greatest traditions” is part of a larger NSSFled effort to introduce 100,000 new shooters to the industry by Christmas.
If that seems like a lot of new target shooters, it’s only a fraction of projected market, NSSF says.
“Industry research tells us that over 30 million people, if they were invited to target shooting, would say “yes,’” said Zach Snow, NSSF director of retail, range and business development.
The NSSF message is simple to the 100 million firearms owners in America — 35 million of whom hunt or target shoot: bring in someone new.
Although some literature on the NSSF website says the invitation doesn’t need to be more complicated than a friendly request, other literature notes there
are obstacles.
“The media and television have convinced (nonshooters) that all firearms are bad, and no one should touch them,” reads one article. “Of course, we who are familiar with firearms know these things aren’t true, but how do we convince others who haven’t experienced what we have?”
The NSSF’s Oliva says part of the obstacle is overcoming arguments that the lethality and availability of guns are part of the problem.
“There is no connection between people exercising their Second Amendment rights and criminals willing to commit heinous crimes,” Oliva said.
Newtown Action Alliance’s Murray disagrees.
“The NSSF has been a leader in promoting assault weapons and that has to stop,” said Murray, whose group is lobbying the House members to pass an assault weapons ban “Those weapons are made for war and do not belong in the hands of civilians.”
Where there has been common ground recently between the NSSF and some gun violence prevention advocates is on background checks.
In 2018, for example President Trump signed a bill championed by NSSF requiring states and federal agencies to fully report records of people barred from owning guns to the national background check system known as NICS.
It’s unclear where negotiations in Washington, D.C., will go over expanding NICS to more gun sales, except that Trump has indicated he is willing to consider stronger background checks.