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SI05191.1 m PARTICIPATED IN HUNTING IN 2016 INCREASE IN TARGET SHOOTING (2001–2016) 80% 104% INCREASE IN HUNTING (2001–2016) 6m WENT TARGET SHOOTING IN 2016 BY NANCY BACON THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF THE SHOOTING SPORTS Female Gun Ownership, Participation On The Rise I t’s no secret the shooting sports have long had a reputation for being a boy’s club. Hunting and target shooting have historically been dominated by male participants more speciﬁcally, white, middle-aged men. Until recently, the community of hunters and recreational shooters in this country largely resembled this historic norm. But things have begun to change over the past few decades, and new faces are emerging at shooting ranges and in the ﬁeld across our country. Many of these new participants are women, and their impact on today’s shooting sports industry can hardly be understated. Just how many women are active in today’s hunting and recreational shooting sports? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates 1.1 million women participated in hunting in , representing percent of the national hunting population.1 According to the National Sporting Goods Association on behalf of the F, female participation in hunting increased by 104 percent between 2001 and 2016.2 This same research indicates over 6 million women went target shooting in 2016. Mirroring this trend, female participation in target shooting has increased dramatically as well — by more than 80 percent between 2001 and 2016. Findings from Southwick Associates’ ShooterSurvey.com and HunterSurvey. com, which collect information from a national online panel of hunters and shooters on a bi-monthly basis, suggest female participation in both hunting and shooting may be highest among younger women. Between and , more than 10 percent of - to -year-old respondents who hunted were female while less than 3 percent of all hunter responses in other age groups came from women. An even stronger trend emerges when examining young target shooters within this panel. Female respondents made up 16 percent of responses from - to -year-old target shooters, while the overall female representation among respondents in other age groups was again under 3 percent. If younger participants maintain their participation rates, both of these ﬁgures provide evidence future generations of hunters and shooters will contain more women than ever before. A CALL TO ACTION Research conducted by Southwick Associates for the NSSF to better understand new shooters showed a key barrier to participation for women was not having anyone to shoot with. Women were more drawn to participate than men by feeling empowered, learning how to protect themselves, better understanding ﬁrearms and spending time with family and friends. Additionally, women were more likely than men to want safety and personal instruction as ﬁrst-time shooters. Several women’s shooting organizations have been established within the last decade, which have lifted the barriers and addressed the needs of women. hoot ike A irl, The Well Armed Woman, A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League and DIVA Women Outdoors Worldwide are just a few examples of active, female-led recreational shooting or hunting groups that have shown signiﬁcant growth in recent years. These organizations serve an important role in empowering women to shoot and offering opportunities to women who are new to the shooting sports to gain training, experience and product education 36 MAY 2019 Subscribe to SI DIGITAL www.shootingindustry.comPage 35Page 37

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