Only about 2.6% of NRA members are competitive shooters.
Chip Lohman, Editor
Shooting Sports USA – NRA Competition Shooting News
ShootingSportsUSA.com
Shooting Sports USA is a great magazine. However, as the magazine’s editor Chip Lohman points out, around 98 in 100 card-carrying NRA membership has never attended a formal NRA marksmanship event.
How would the state of gun rights, the availability of ranges, and the marksmanship skill of gun owners improve if this increased to five or ten percent?
Consider that a ten percent participation rate of NRA shooting events among NRA members would be a fivefold increase and this would still mean 90 out of 100 card carrying NRA members aren’t participating.
This sort of thing doesn’t concern low-level marksmen or non-shooters but it would help all gun owners if more of them participated in some kind of organized events.
Firearm User Network 
Apr 29, 2014 @ 07:34:06
Chip, You did not say if this number has changed over the years or has remained constant. I have seen a decline in the number of people who participated in bullseye shooting yet I see a tremendous increase in shooting sports like Glock,IDPA,Three gun and other shooting sports. Also, I have seen a decline in number of clubs holding shooting events. Of the top dozen clubs where I used to compete regularly in the 70’s and 80’s none of them exist today. Anyone remember the Trail Glades Range in Miami or the Tampa Police Rifle and Pistol Club? These clubs have been replaced by commercial ranges and very few of them hold organized competitions. Sadly, the NRA is loosing shooters/members because of their politics. They give their A+ rating to putzes like Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Harry Reid and most shooters are smart enough to know that they are NOT the kind of people we want representing us in Congress. I have been a life member for fifty years and support them any time I can but they have got to stop playing both sides of the political game.
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Apr 29, 2014 @ 09:04:13
I shot NRA Highpower and smallbore for years including several trips to regional and the Nationals at Camp Perry. I’ve also competed in bullseye pistol. Let me start by stating that bullseye shooting isn’t and has never been for everyone and is even less popular with a generation raised on instant gratification. To attract new shooters to the game the game has to be interesting, fun, and not over regulated. Targets must be reactive providing instant feedback. Cowboy action provided that in its formative years and grew at an astounding rate. Then the safety folks decided that it needed to be regulated to prevent anything the might happen and its growth has tapered off. Basically we shot ourselves in the foot by passing a book full of rules to keep anyone from shooting themselves in the foot, or worse. If you want people to shoot the game has to be fun, they need to be able to shoot guns they already have, and they can’t be intimidated by a list of rules that will intimidate them. Currently, I have been shooting at a club that puts on “Zombie” shoots. Think of Cowboy action without the dress code and categories that are based on what you shoot. There are categories for .22 pistol, .22 rifle, centerfire pistol, centerfire rifle (pistol caliber), revolver, scoped and open sights in each class. The “zombie shoots” have become so popular at this one club they sell out twice a year and have waiting lists. The NRA would never sponsor an event like this because or the lack of fixed rules. The range officers follow each shooter through each stage timing them and stopping any dangerous situations immediately. There are entire families showing up at these. Moms that have never shot anything before down to 14 year olds. These folks have come up with a combination that is very successful. Why, you ask, because They provide a fun safe shoot with reactive targets for instant feedback that you can shoot with a gun you already own.
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May 03, 2014 @ 23:36:48
@ Larry Smith
>> You did not say if this number has changed over the years or has remained constant.
This number has sharply declined over the years. Since the early 1960s, and despite an increase in general membership, not only has the percentage of participating NRA members dropped from over 30% to 2%, the raw number of participants has declined as well.
>> I have seen a decline in the number of people who participated in bullseye shooting yet I see a tremendous increase in shooting sports like Glock,IDPA,Three gun and other shooting sports.
Depends on what your definition of “tremendous increase” is. Despite a low percentage of participation among the general NRA membership, NRA Competitions Division has more Classified shooters in NRA disciplines than USPSA, IDPA and GSSF combined.
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May 03, 2014 @ 23:42:59
@Paul Mazan
I’m certainly for any form of shooting that gets gun owners off their butts and participating in organized events. “Organized” doesn’t require an overly-long and restrictive rule book. The informal basketball game “Horse” is more organized than what most gun owners are currently doing.
Golf courses get built because golf club owners show up and participate in greater numbers than gun owners. It’s not political correctness.
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