New study on first-time gun buyers released

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NEWTOWN, Conn. — A study commissioned by the National Shooting Sports Foundation® reveals that first-time gun buyers are largely active in one or more shooting activities and that women are motivated to purchase their first firearm predominantly for personal defense.

NSSF is the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry.

The study, “NSSF Report: First-Time Gun Buyer,” was done to help determine the motivations for the first firearm purchase and how these firearms are being used. The online research was conducted in March — April 2013 and involved consumers aged 22 to 65 who bought their first firearm during 2012. InfoManiacs Inc., conducted the research.

Key findings include :

  • The majority of first-time buyers (60.3 percent) tend to be active, using their gun once per month or more, with one in five reporting usage of once a week or more.
  • Target shooting is by far the most popular shooting activity among first-time gun owners, with 84.3 percent of respondents saying they used their firearms for this purpose, followed by hunting (37.7 percent) and plinking (27.4 percent). Practical pistol shooting (17.3 percent) and clay-target shooting (14.6 percent) were shooting sports also enjoyed by first-time buyers.
  • First-time gun owners who have participated in hunting (53.2 percent), practical pistol shooting (46.3 percent), clay-target sports (44.0 percent) and gun collecting (42.4 percent) said they want to increase their participation in these activities.

The top-ranking factors driving first-time gun purchases are home defense (87.3 percent), self-defense (76.5 percent) and the desire to share shooting activities with family and friends (73.2 percent). Women, in particular, are highly focused on personal defense and self-sufficiency.

Older first-time buyers–the 55 to 65 age group–indicated concern that firearms may no longer be available to them was one of many reasons for their purchase.

Most first-time buyers purchased their guns through local gun shops (43.6 percent) and mass retailers such as Walmart and Cabela’s (33.6 percent). First-time gun buyers spent an average of $515 for their first gun and nearly as much as for accessories ($504). Nearly a quarter of first-time buyers bought at least one more firearm within the first year after their first purchase spending more, on average, on the later purchase.

This report is exclusive to NSSF members and can accessed by logging in at www.nssf.org/members and selecting NSSF Industry Research. For additional information pertaining to NSSF industry research please visit www.nssf.org/research or contact NSSF Director Industry Research and Analysis Jim Curcuruto at jcucuruto@nssf.org.

About NSSF®

The National Shooting Sports Foundation® is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 8,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.

Time to teach our children how to safely use guns? (+ Video)

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[youtube]http://youtu.be/izleQntVaHo[/youtube]

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® has launched its annual nationwide offer to schools nationwide to receive–free of charge–educational videos that teach children about firearm safety and wildlife conservation.

NSSF, the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry, has been a leader in firearm safety and conservation education for decades.

The firearm safety videos teach students how to react if they should encounter a firearm in an unsupervised situation. The conservation titles educate students on how wildlife and wild lands are protected, and how hunters support this effort with contributions amounting to more than $1 billion annually.

WDW asked Florida Rep. Ray Pilon if he agrees that we should teach our children about gun safety in our schools. Pilon responded in an email, “No I do not approve. When I learned to shoot as a teenager it was a competition .22 rifle class conducted by a certified instructor who also taught gun safety for hunting, which my family was involved in as I was growing up. We have much better and more important things to teach in the classroom.” Pilon was a co-sponsor of the anti-Second Amendment legislation passed during the 2013 session. Pilon sits on the Judiciary Committee of the Florida House.

NSSF believes all teachers and their students, whether in public, private or home schools, can benefit from the important messages in the videos, which are contained on two DVDs. Both the Firearm Safety DVD and Conservation DVD can be ordered online. Each of the individual video titles can be previewed online.

The Firearm Safety DVD offers “McGruff the Crime Dog on Gun Safety” for students in kindergarten through grade 6, “It’s Your Call: Playing It Safe Around GunsSM” for students in grades 6 through 9 and “Firearms Safety Depends on YouSM,” which covers the ten rules of gun safety and is for audiences of all ages. The first two titles help teach students how to respond if should they encounter a firearm in an unsupervised situation at school, at home or at a friend’s home.

The Conservation DVD contains “Wildlife for Tomorrow®,” which is designed for students in grades 4 through 7, and two other videos, “The Unendangered Species®” and “What They Say About HuntingSM,” which are for students in grades 7 through 12. “Wildlife for Tomorrow” and “The Unendangered Species” tell the story of how game animals such as the wild turkey, white-tailed deer and Rocky Mountain elk were once endangered and have been restored to abundance. “What They Say About Hunting” takes a close look at hunting and its relevance today through a pro-and-con debate.

Teachers in more than 100,000 schools nationwide have shown these videos to students in their classrooms and praised them for handling the topics with sensitivity.

Preview the free videos online at by clicking here.