Alphecca

Target Shooting Most Popular Sport

Well, that's what I said a few posts ago. One of my valued readers emailed me to verify that -- not as a challenge, just for his peace of mind. I can't remember exactly where I had read that but I did a casual search this morning and came up with two sources that certainly indicate that the shooting sports are VERY popular indeed. From the NSSF:

1. How many individuals participate in target shooting each year?

* There are 17.8 million active target shooters in the United States. Active target shooters are defined as having participated at least once in the past year. (Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, 2001 ñ a nationwide survey of persons 6 years old and older).

* The most popular shooting sport among the general population is target shooting. Target shooting is defined as the net number of rifle and pistol target shooters.

* Over the last 10 years, there has been a 13.8% increase in overall participation levels in sporting clays. 3.3 million persons participated in sporting clays at least once in the past year. (Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, 2001 ñ a nationwide survey of persons 6 years old and older).

* According to the SGMA, slightly older adults participate in pistol target shooting than participate in rifle target shooting. Most pistol target shooters are between the ages of 25 and 44 years old (SGMA, 2002).

Further confirmation, though, comes from a statement from the official site of the 2004 Olympics in Athens HERE:

Shooting is considered one of the most popular sports internationally. It requires good physical and psychological condition, as well as technical perfection. It is open to men, women and children of all ages for recreation. On the championship level, it is the only sport where you will see a great difference in age between competitors. For instance, Konstantin Lukashyk, a 17 year old competitor representing the Commonwealth of Independent States, won the gold medal in the Men’s 50m Pistol event at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. The runner-up was the 58 year old Swedish competitor, Ragnar Skanaker, who had won the gold at the 1972 Munich Games and silver medals at the Los Angeles and Seoul Games (1984, 1988).

And I'll tell you something else, I'm sure such statistics about the number of folks who enjoy target shooting don't include all the "plinkers" like me. (Granted, most statistics also don't include every "pick-up" game of basketball...)