The enthusiasm was up even though attendance was down at the NRA Day event held at the Baltimore County Game & Fish Protective Association grounds Saturday.
It?s a shame that attendance was down from 300 last year, since the Carney, Md., club was pumped, prepared, primed and prettied-up to show off the gun sports of target shooting and to preach firearms safety.
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The National Rifle Association event, in its second year for the club, was designed to help those unfamiliar with guns learn about shooting fun. The “pop” of handguns, the louder reports of rifles and the distinct sound of shotguns at another range punctuated the smiles of visitors learning shooting from certified NRA instructors. The instructors were professional, courteous, thorough and friendly as they helped all, including rank beginners, try to put their five shots in the bull?s-eye of each paper target.
John Sigler, first vice president of the NRA and de-facto president-elect, was there to peruse and schmooze the pilot event, one of 180 different programs run by the national organization. The idea of an NRA Day began in New Jersey, the brainstorm of current NRA president Sandra Froman. It is mostly in the East now but is also being tried in other states. If the pilot programs prove worthwhile, it will be kicked off nationally in 2007 throughout the country.
Many visitors came as families, such as Thomas Dailey and his son Morgan, 11, of Dundalk. Morgan had never shot before and was enthusiastically trying everything ? a revolver, semi-automatic pistol and rifle, all .22 caliber.
“I liked the handgun with the scope best,” said Morgan, taking a break from the shooting but still wearing the shooters? eyeglasses and ear protection required of anyone on the range. He also had his hand stamped, a notice to NRA range officers that he had watched the short-shooting safety film required before being allowed to pick up a gun.
Morgan wants to hunt and will return to the club to take a Maryland hunter education course that will allow him ? with parental signature ? to get a hunting license.
Kristi Fisher, 24, lives across the street from the club and was visiting it for the first time with her father, Gene Fisher. She had three comments about her shooting experience: “I?ve never shota gun before. I love it. I want to buy one.”
She knows that she has more to learn about guns (which one to buy, for example) and gun safety, but she is talking like a convert.
Whether her hunting father, Gene, buys her a gun or she buys it herself, it sounds like a sure bet that the day added another safe gun owner to the ranks. That?s what it is all about, and that?s good.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors, and he has more than 20 books to his credit. He can be reached at [email protected].
