| Barry Hufker wrote on Wed, 02 July 2008 12:24 |
Nathan, either in Canada or the U.S. (more preferably as that is my point of reference), what is the percentage of target shooters out of all those who own guns?
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In Canada, I'd say right up near 99%. In the USA, while I'm less familiar, by logic I'd put it up in the >90% range.
ALL hunters go to the target range at the very least to practice their marksmanship so they have adequate skill to put food on the table for the family.
But all the hunters I know and have met also go to the target range not only to sight in rifles and to tune up their own hand made ammunition, but because they enjoy the challenge of the sport, even if doing it informally with friends a/o family.
No matter what the end focus of the skills are (target sports, hunting, or even defense), all shooters participate in some sort of target sport.
In Canada, you're only allowed a defensive firearm in 3 specific circumstances:
1) living / working in a remote area where wildlife predators are a serious danger
2) working as a commissioned law enforcement or military personnel
3) working as a trained and licensed specialized security personnel
So finding people who train for defensive up here is rare.
But if you're asking for a percentage of people who do target sports
only, then that I don't know for certain.
In Canada, I do know for certain that aside from the above cases, one can ONLY legally own a handgun for target sports.
I know in the USA, that is very different.
Among rifle shooters, I'd say well over half (most likely nearing 75%) are hunters (all of whom are target shooters). A suspiring number are interested in the historical value and experience of certain designs and their relation to history (in my experience about ~10-20% of owners own some sort of historical style gun). But probably 25% or more are folks who are purely target shooters.
Bear in mind these are my estimations based on my experience, so the numbers could indeed be wrong.
| Barry Hufker wrote on Wed, 02 July 2008 12:24 |
BTW, while looking up that answer, I didn't say gun owners are out for blood. I said hand guns really only have one purpose, that is to kill people. Some owners look for trouble, some don't and for some trouble finds them. But the purpose in all cases is to shoot at someone (I know not target shooters).
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Well, if "you know not target shooters," than you must concede that handguns do have more than one purpose.
And maybe I should mention that there are a large number of handguns that are specifically designed and manufactured for target sports.
I do however concede to the fact that many the handguns do follow some sort of police / military design. But even those designs can create some interesting variations in target sports.
