This won’t make me any friends, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ll defer to George Patton’s wisdom and have at it.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody is not thinking.

– GEN George Patton

Based on the National Rifle Association’s own published numbers, 98% of NRA members choose to ignore NRA shooting events. Out of some five million members just over two percent are classified, and you earn a classification simply by showing up!

Claims that organized shooting aren’t tactical enough to attract participants are wrong. Since opening in the mid 1970’s, Gunsite, the oldest private and best established shooting school has seen about 75,000 students total. Consider there are an estimated 80 million gun owners in the United States.

The majority of gun owning non-participants aren’t going to pitch in and maintain a range, host or attend events, take a shooting class or write a letter to the editor or their elected representatives. This is the real reason why the media doesn’t cover pro gun stories. Most gun owners don’t care (and won’t attract sponsors) so why should anyone else? The concept of an “anti-gun media” is an invention of lobbyists designed to scare gun owners into donating money.

High schools once had the largest number of indoor ranges but now almost none have a shooting team. Why bother? Nobody cares about attendance at shooting events, so we’ll have a ball team instead.

Ranges get shut down because an encroaching community doesn’t see value in shooting. Why would they? According to the NRA’s own numbers, 98% of NRA members don’t value it either as demonstrated by their lack of attendance. They might plink but this is less organized than a group of kids playing the informal basketball game  “Horse.” Hell, kids playing Horse bother to keep score at least, making it more organized and a better display of skill than the what the majority of gun owners call shooting.

Decades pass and perceptions change. Violent games like football are supported because they become popular. Safe events like organized shooting are ignored and shunned because the populace perceives guns as dangerous. There are few venues to educate or promote anything different.

Where are the public examples of skilled gun owners that can counter this trend? NRA members have lives outside of shooting and can’t be bothered to show up so I guess not them.

Maybe we should all just play golf instead.