New Shooters Are Young, Women and Living in Urban Areas

Katie Pavlich | August 30, 2013 2:40 PM

Shooting sports have become even more popular in recent years and according to a new study by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, new participants are younger, women and living in urban areas.

The demographics of new shooters show they are . . .

Younger: 66 percent of new shooters fall into the 18-to-34-year-old category compared to 31 percent in the same age category for established shooters.
Female: 37 percent of new target shooters are female compared to 22 percent of established target shooters.
Urban: 47 percent of new target shooters live in urban/suburban settings versus 34 percent of established target shooters.
The report shows that one-fifth of target shooters in America first started participating in the shooting sports between 2008 and 2012. That means 20 percent of all target shooters began participating in the past five years.

"The landscape of target shooters has shifted," NSSF's director of research and analysis Jim Curcuruto said in a statement. "This is data that everyone doing business in our industry should be aware of."

"While mentoring by family members in a generally rural setting is the traditional pathway for newcomers to participating in target shooting and hunting, the research shows that new shooters today include many who did not follow or have access to the traditional pathway," Executive Director of Response Management Mark Damian Duda added.

Earlier this year, MSNBC did a story on new female shooters featuring NRA News contributor and blogger Natalie Foster.

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