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Steve Sanetti, National Shooting Sports Foundation |
NSSF and NWTF — Preserving the future of hunting and shooting
For decades, it’s been a priority of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) to introduce youngsters to properly supervised hunting and target shooting. Doing so teaches important lessons about wildlife conservation and how to safely and responsibly enjoy these great pastimes.
Other organizations, including the NWTF, with whom NSSF shares much common ground, are hard at work doing the same thing. Why? Because we all recognize that the appeal of our traditional outdoor activities can sometimes be lost on younger generations if they don’t receive a positive early introduction to them.
A common goal
Two programs have been hugely successful in this effort: the Families Afield initiative, developed by NSSF, the NWTF and the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance; and the NSSF-developed Scholastic Clay Target Program.
Families Afield is a great example of three national organizations working together for a common goal — to preserve the future of hunting. It’s a model program if there ever was one.
In researching issues surrounding hunter retention and recruitment, the organizations found that in some states laws actually prohibit parents from introducing their young sons and daughters to big game hunting. Young hunters may be restricted until age 12 or 14 or even later, and subjected to stringent coursework requirements, before they can legally join an adult mentor for a hunt. These barriers cause many youth to lose interest in hunting, and they too often settle for other activities like video games.
Fieldwork
But that is changing — and in a big way — thanks to Families Afield. Since 2004, many states have passed legislation making it easier for youth to try hunting at a younger age. In August, Wisconsin became the 29th state to lower its hunting age, providing youth ages 10 and up the opportunity to experience hunting with a licensed adult mentor. To date, 283,000 new hunters have gone afield with a mentor, demonstrating the value of the apprentice hunting concept and illustrating one way we can replenish the ranks as older hunters hang up their boots.
A match made on the range
When hunting season is closed, young hunters can keep their shooting eye sharp in the Scholastic Clay Target Program. More than 30,000 young people from elementary through high school have competed on SCTP teams, supervised by adult coaches, in skeet, trap and sporting clays. Some have earned state and national championships, plus scholarships, and all have learned about sportsmanship, teamwork and firearms safety.
The program grew so quickly that it taxed NSSF’s administrative resources and is now under the direction of the non-profit Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, which operates the program with support from NSSF and others.
Your shooting range may already have SCTP teams, but if not, one is easy to start; all it takes is a willing coach and student athletes (just like other organized sports). Go to www.sssfonline.org to learn how.
An added benefit of the SCTP program has been the positive publicity it generates for the participants and for the shooting sports. Stories about responsible, skilled young target shooters — girls and boys — are side by side in the sports sections of local newspapers with accounts of other youth sports like baseball and softball.
With so many scholastic target shooters from the program moving on to college, it was a natural step for NSSF to assist the growth of collegiate shooting clubs and varsity teams. Earlier this year, NSSF launched the Collegiate Shooting Sports Initiative (www.nssf.org/cssi), making $75,000 in grants available to new and existing college shooting teams.
Looking forward
As you can see, the future of shooting rests on the shoulders of many hard-working groups. Only through this combined national effort will hunting, recreational shooting and conservation continue be left in healthy shape for future generations. — Steve Sanetti, president and CEO of the National Shooting Sport Foundation