Competitive shooting is a blast, if you’ll pardon the pun. The first time I ran a course with my AK back in the day–this is before I saw the light and embraced the beauty that is the AR-pattern rifle–I said it was the most fun I’d ever had with my clothes on.

Competitive shooters exist in all 50 states and it covers anything from trap shooting to three gun competitions.

Yet for younger shooting sports athletes, the anti-gun crowd’s successes have created significant issues for them.

When Gianni Giordano shot his first rifle at age three, he couldn’t have known that by age 15 he’d be a Grand Master in the Limited division of the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA). Now 19 years old, he also had no way of knowing that the Biden administration and officials in some of America’s most-populous states would move to take away his Second Amendment rights, at least until his 21^st birthday.

Giordano just wanted to shoot. And shoot he has. He has claimed the USPSA National Limited Junior Champion title six times. Outside of shooting, Gianni helps manage his family’s farm and is both a machinist and an entrepreneur.

Clearly, Gianni has proven himself to be a responsible, motivated and capable young man who is more skilled with a handgun than most people, yet he is currently unable to buy one from a licensed dealer even though he is a legal adult; in fact, until he turned 18, it was illegal for him to even possess the handgun and ammunition he used in competitions without his parents’ explicit permission.

“Some people don’t understand that shooting is a sport,” said Gianni. There are many different disciplines, several of which are conducted at the Olympic and college levels. “Being a sponsored competitive shooter has allowed me to educate many,” he said. “The responsibility that comes with this is huge. When people see me, at my age, having this responsibility and handling firearms with respect, it opens their eyes. It is possible, with education and familiarity, for people to be safe. We prove it daily when we compete.”

Go read the whole thing at America’s 1st Freedom.

And these young competitive shooters are legitimately facing serious challenges, including the fact that many are having to jump through hoops just to go to the range to train and do so lawfully.

But let’s also remember that there’s an effort underway that is working to prevent more of these athletes from coming up.

Somewhere along the way, people thought gun companies were marketing to young people. I have no idea how they figured that, but they did and because they’re statist jackwagons, they figured there needed to be a law in place.

That law, however, has directly impacted the marketing of shooting sports, not just the sale of firearms. Youth shooting events–which generally follow these young people learning how to handle firearms safely–are swiftly becoming a thing of the past in some states.

Competitive shooters, however, aren’t the issue. Take a look at the numbers of young people who have shot competitively over the years. Now, look at how many committed any form of violent crime.

I can’t say the rate is 0.0 because there are just too many to make that assumption safely, but the rate is far lower than you’d find among football or basketball players, that’s for damn sure.

For all the gun control crowd’s claims that they don’t want to inhibit the lawful use of firearms, these young competitive shooters’ experiences make it very clear that the policies they push do exactly that.

Meanwhile, young gang bangers are carrying firearms without jumping through any of those hoops.

Just something to think about.