I have been going to Coal Creek Armory for the past three+ years we have lived in the Knoxville area, and I have learned that there are definitely some times you do not want to try to get a range lane – after church on Sunday, afternoons towards the end of the week, and definitely Saturday afternoon. This past Saturday, I swung by CCA to check on something around 1100, and I knew parking was going to be trouble when their actual lot and their grass lawn were full; I ended up sharing space with their dumpsters in the back.
And inside… holy crap. There were at least 40 people milling about the sales floor, not counting employees, and all ten lanes were active and blazing away. When my father visited about six months ago, we went to CCA bright and early when they opened on Saturday morning (1000) for a little shooty goodness, and by the time we left, there were about seven lanes occupied. From a totally unscientific finger-counting exercise, the folks this past weekend skewed male, but only about 60/40, with a pretty even distribution of ages, and neither the womenfolk, nor the kids, nor the old fogies were just “along for the ride” – they all had hearing protection and targets and/or range bags of some type.
Obviously, I am not the only one to notice similar phenomena.
And this is all without touching on the 14.4% increase in NICS checks from last year, and 54.1% increase from ten years ago (as a reminder, each of those checks can cover the transfer of one-to-many (is there an upper cap?) firearms, and those numbers have been adjusted for states employing the NICS system to background-check their handgun carry permit holders), or the record numbers of attendees at the recent SHOT Show.
So remind me again how recreational shooting / hunting / target shooting / etc. are all “dying sports”? And remind me again how it would matter if they were?
The numbers would be even higher if I could find time to go.
Every gun shop I go in is packed.
Had the same problem yesterday.
Busy in range, the busy in the shop.
Saw two different groups renting multiple guns.
Talked to one guy afterwards who was smiling ear to ear…first time ever shooting and he enjoyed it !
A lot…And was not a young man either…
Dying, yeah, sure it is..
Range here is only open 12 hours a week. Half the time Chris and I have to share a spot and alternate after waiting half an hour to get in.
@ Brick: Or the money, in my case.
@ SGB: Oddly enough, Knoxville only has a few…
@ maddmedic: Shooting is fun. There is no way around it. And the more the “gun control” groups fight that simple truth, and the more publicity the fight gets, the more interested and inquisitive people will get.
And once folks try out a range, the majority of them will be hooked
.
@ Heather: Sounds like he needs to expand his hours!
How can shooting be anything but a dying sport, what with 25,000 accidental gunshot deaths annually?
(H/T and link to Days of our Trailers)
I never cease to be amazed at how numerically illiterate “gun control” extremists can be…
Could it be because “numbers” and “logic” and that silly thing called “data” blows their falsehoods and lies into the weeds?
Just maybe?
They refuse to accept the sun rises in the east, cause that means they are wrong and misleading?
Got it in one.
Anything that proves them wrong must be, itself, wrong, because “gun control” extremists are always right.
And people wonder why I call them “cultists”…
Here in the Peoples Democratic Republic of Illinois I see the same thing. I drive by the local range everyday and it has been packed. Years ago there were always lanes open and at most a half full parking lot.
And to think that Illinois remains one of the last bastions of “gun control”, though predominantly through the efforts of your ruling city…
I only hope that the continually rising costs of the hobby do not drive people out of it!