Shooting Sports Retailer - July/August 2010

Chicago Mayor Continues
Anti-Gun Rants

At a gathering of international mayors held this past April, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley told the as-
sembled city leaders that they should approve a resolution
to “redress [grievances] against the gun industry through
the courts of the world” in The Hague. Some observers
have suggested that this may be a partial response to his
state’s Supreme Court decision years ago in which they
dismissed his $433 million lawsuit against the firearms in-
dustry. He went on further to express his “complete liability”
mindset, saying, “If we ship over poison to a country, don’t
you think we should be responsible for it?”
A few weeks later at a news conference, Chicago
Reader reporter Mike Dumke asked Daley if he thought that
the existing gun bans were effective in curbing criminal gun
violence. In response, Daley picked up a display rifle with
bayonet attached, and (as Dumke himself reports it) said,
“If I put this up your—ha!—your butt—ha ha!—you’ll find out
how effective this is!” Daley later expressed regret over his
choice of words, but insisted that he hoped the incident’s
shock value might help to spur more discussion on gun vio-
lence and his vendetta against firearms manufacturers.

AR Users Most Active
Among Sport Shooters, Survey Says

According to a recent survey sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, nearly 9 million Americans used AR-style rifles in 2009.
Moreover, this group represented the most active number of sport shooters.
“These findings underscore that modern sporting rifles are becoming common-
place in America and are among the most desired firearms by sport shooters,”
said NSSF president Steve Sanetti. “AR-style rifles are exceedingly popular with
millions of Americans. These rifles are our industry’s high-tech, cutting-edge
product—rugged, accurate, versatile, fun to shoot and easily accessorized—and
they’re here to stay.”
The study, conducted by Responsive Management, also found that
15 percent of all American citizens went target shooting in the study, rep-
resenting 34. 4 million people. Sanetti pointed out that firearm sales were
up that year, making it no surprise that people would take their new acquisi-
tions and try them out. Other findings included: (1) Most modern sport-
ing rifle users reside in small cities or towns ( 25 percent) and non-farm
rural areas ( 25 percent) compared with urban areas ( 19 percent), suburban areas
(16 percent) and farms/ranches ( 15 percent). (2) Modern sporting rifles appealed
to younger shooters, with 64 percent of users ranging in age from 18 to 44. ( 3)
Modern sporting rifle users were 86 percent white, with Hispanic/Latinos the next
largest ethnic group at 5 percent. ( 4) Men represented 84 percent of modern
sporting rifle shooters and women 16 percent. ( 5) 34 percent of modern sporting
rifle shooters had some college education or a trade school degree, 29 percent a
bachelor’s degree, and 27 percent a high school degree or equivalent.

During the aftermath of the Lake Dis- trict area shooting in early June that
killed a dozen people, Prime Minister David
Cameron at a news conference said that it
would be a mistake to rush into hasty legis-
lative action. “Of course we should look at
this issue, but we should not leap to knee-
jerk conclusions on what should be done on
the regulatory front,” he said. “We do have
some of the toughest legislation in the world.
You can’t legislate to stop a switch flicking in
someone’s head and this sort of dreadful ac-
tion taking place.”
Although he insisted that there isn’t an
“instant legislative or regulatory answer,”
he did indicate that legal aspects of firearm
ownership would be reviewed. The country
already has some of the toughest restrictions
on rifle, shotgun, and handgun ownership,
and current British private ownership (ac-
cording to a report in the New York Times)
includes 1.3 million shotguns and 435,000
rifles and air guns.

Issues like these are scheduled to take center stage in 2012, when the country hosts the Olympic games. Because of Great Britain’s firearms laws, all European shooters are required to file original certificates of firearms permits with United Kingdom officials well in advance. At the same time, competitors from

International:

non-European Union countries need only send copies of such documents, and in some cases a letter of permission from local police departments.

Peter Underhill, who is serving as manag-
er of the shooting tournament at the London
Olympics, said, “It would take the Metropolitan
Police a year to process the 2,000 people at
the Olympics. We want the Home Office to re-
lax arrangements, to tie in an athlete’s visitor’s
firearm permit with the accreditation so it acts
as an import license for the firearm.”
It appears that Scotland will not help to
provide the relief Underhill seeks, as the
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill
recently announced that new air rifles and
firearms would be subject to a new licensing
ordinance. “We will establish a Scottish Fire-
arms Consultative Panel,” MacAskill stated.
“One of the objectives of the panel will be to
look at establishing a pilot licensing scheme
for air weapons. This will enable us to test the
practicalities of air weapon licensing. It will
also test whether or not a licensing system
can operate effectively without wider reform
of the firearms legislation.

“While our primary concern is for public safety, we are clear that any licensing system must be workable for the police and all involved. This includes looking at the funding issues… We have a problem with air weapons in Scotland that needs to be tackled. The pilot will be for new sales of air weapons rather than those languishing in people’s lofts.”