Everything has a period of celebration. There's a "National Pizza Day" (Feb. 9th) and a "National Sleep-In Day" (October 29th) and Lord only knows what else. It seems everyone wants or needs a time to feel special.
For many, a day is more than enough. Others need a month.
In some cases, they need a month because they're too insecure to deal with a day or a week. In other cases, celebrating such a thing simply can't be confined to just a handful of days. I leave it to you to decide which fall into which categories.
This brings me to National Shooting Sports Month, which I will tell you needs to be a month. That's this month, by the way.
We are already well into the first week of August, and while it seems everyone and everything has its own month, why should shooting be any different. So with that, August marks National Shooting Sports Month, which yes, it is a registered trademark unlike National Ice Cream Month (you guessed it, July) and our friends at the NSSF organized the designation. It is now the eighth year National Shooting Sports Month has been observed with the purpose of inviting millions of Americans to experience the fun, safety and camaraderie of the shooting sports. This year, NSSF is thrilled to spotlight the return of the #RangeChallenge and the Shooting Sports, all coinciding with the Olympic Games where the shooting events concluded just yesterday.
8 Ways to Celebrate
- #RangeChallenge: Take the Challenge!
The #RangeChallenge is back and better than ever! This series of target-shooting games tests your marksmanship skills and offers exciting incentives. Request an official #RangeChallenge target from participating ranges or download one from the shootingsportsmonth.org website. Shoot your target, share your experience with the hashtag #RangeChallenge and enter to win weekly prizes, including $500 gift cards. Don’t miss out on the fun!
- Experience Olympic Shooting Sports
The shooting events at the Summer Olympics just concluded, but you can still celebrate in the action by watching all of the shooting action on NBC Olympics Shooting Hub. Watch elite athletes compete in events like rifle, pistol and shotgun shooting. Team USA won five medals in the games and athletes from around the world set new records.
- Mentoring with the +ONE® Movement
Share your passion for shooting by mentoring a newcomer. The +ONE Movement encourages experienced shooters to introduce novices to the sport. Take the +ONE pledge this August and help someone develop their firearm safety and shooting skills.
These are just a few of the examples of ways you can celebrate, so go and read the rest.
And do as many of these things as you possibly can.
As we saw earlier today, there's an inverse correlation between gun ownership and gun control. Typically, the more gun owners in a state, the less likely it is for that state to have gun control. The best way to create new gun owners is to introduce them to firearms and shooting as an activity. It could be as simple as spending a bit of time wasting rounds at the range for no particular reason or it could be teaching them how to become an Olympic shooter. It doesn't matter. Put a gun in their hands, take them shooting, and watch what happens.
Time and time again, I've seen people who are vehemently anti-gun go shooting only to have an absolute blast. If you do that enough, I firmly believe they'll start to understand that guns aren't evil; that they're not the problem. A gun doesn't do anything on its own. It requires a person.
We should also emphasize safety with all of these new shooters and not just for the obvious reasons.
A lot of people have this vision of gun owners as a bunch of irresponsible rednecks who don't care what happens when they pull the trigger. We know that's not remotely true of the vast majority of us, but the perception persists because that's what they see in the media. We can fix that.
This month, make an effort to introduce someone new to shooting sports and make a difference.
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