Here are 21 things to know about firearm ownership and recreational shooting in the United States based on decades of Responsive Management research for the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NSSF, CAHSS, the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation, the Hunters’ Leadership Forum, and other clients:
1. Just under half of all Americans live in a household with a firearm. Responsive Management’s latest trend survey for NSSF found that 42% of Americans live in a household with a firearm, while 32% personally own a firearm. These numbers are consistent with the rates from other high-quality surveys conducted by Gallup and the Pew Research Center.
2. Firearm sales have increased dramatically over the past 20 years. National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) data maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (a widely used industry proxy for gun sales) show that checks have steadily risen over the past two decades, topping out in 2020 but remaining high in subsequent years. Since 2009 alone, as many as 228 million more firearms have entered U.S. circulation.
3. More than three quarters of Pittman-Robertson wildlife conservation funding from firearm and ammunition sales is supplied by non-hunting recreational shooters and firearm owners. Growth in handgun sales for personal and home protection purposes has helped drive this trend, not to mention the fact that recreational target and sport shooters typically use more rounds of ammunition than do hunters during their outings.
4. There is low knowledge of the Pittman-Robertson federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition among non-hunting recreational shooters and firearm owners. However, once they learn about the program, they overwhelmingly support it. Asked in a recent survey whether they had ever heard of the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Program or the Pittman-Robertson Act, only a quarter of non-hunting shooters and firearm owners said that they had. However, after receiving an overview of the program and its purpose, 86% of non-hunting shooters and firearm owners indicated that they support the program.
5. The overwhelming majority of non-hunting shooters and firearm owners say they are proud to help support wildlife conservation through their purchases of taxable equipment. Similarly, three quarters of these individuals feel connected to wildlife conservation and ethically obligated to contribute to wildlife conservation.
6. While firearm ownership is common in the United States, many people who own guns do not regularly use them. In a given year, up to 45% of firearm owners do not participate in any target or sport shooting activities.
7. The best ways to generate interest in target shooting among non-shooting firearm owners include offering free firearms training at ranges and reinforcing the knowledge that effective self-defense requires regular practice. Other important ways include an invitation to the range from an experienced shooter, and the ability for non-shooters to feel more confident about their skills and knowledge levels (ironically, such confidence is only possible through regular practice and training with a firearm).
8. About three quarters of Americans (76%) approve of legal recreational shooting. This includes more than half of Americans who strongly approve of it.
9. Although Americans’ approval of recreational shooting remains high, about a fifth of the public are negative or becoming more negative in their opinion of the activity. Concern about gun violence influences attitudes toward recreational shooting: about a quarter of U.S. residents say that concern about gun violence affects their opinion of target or sport shooting; additionally, a third of Americans say that mass shootings in the U.S. have negatively affected their opinion of recreational activities that involve the use of firearms.
10. The term “sport shooting” is sometimes misinterpreted by Americans to mean “sport hunting.” Because of this confusion, “target shooting” may be a more widely understood way to refer to recreational shooting activities.
11. The large majority of Americans believe that most recreational shooters know how to safely handle firearms and are careful. By contrast, 16% of the public believe that most recreational shooters do not know how to properly handle firearms.
12. Americans’ participation in target and sport shooting has risen over the past decade and a half. Responsive Management’s trend surveys for NSSF, conducted since 2009, show a fairly steady increase in the number of recreational shooters in the United States, going from 34.0 million in 2009 to 63.5 million in 2022. (The 2022 number was extrapolated based on U.S. Census data for the population in 2020, while previous iterations of the trend study used 2010 Census data.) Responsive Management’s participation number for 2022 is higher than the number of target shooters estimated by NORC for the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation: 46.2 million target shooters nationwide. This is likely due to the fact that Responsive Management’s definition of target/sport shooting includes “any informal target shooting on your own property,” which may account for the larger estimate of participants.
13. The most popular types of recreational shooting in the U.S. include target shooting with a handgun, target shooting with a rifle, and target shooting at an outdoor range. These activities have much higher participation rates than more specialized activities like trap shooting, skeet shooting, and sporting clays.
14. AR-Platform/modern sporting rifles, often associated with recreational shooting activities and home protection, are increasingly being used for hunting purposes. In 2014, about a quarter of hunters (27%) said they had hunted at some point with an AR-Platform/modern sporting rifle, compared to 41% who said the same in 2023.
15. The demographic characteristics of recreational shooters are changing. Traditionally, rural white males have owned and used firearms at the highest rates. In recent years, however, the groups taking up recreational shooting for the first time at the highest rates include Black residents, Democrats, Hispanic/Latino residents, younger people, females, and residents of large cities or urban areas.
16. The longer it takes recreational shooters to travel to a range, the more likely they are to stop participating altogether. Responsive Management research examining the effect of travel times on recreational shooting participation indicates that more distant access is correlated with a higher drop-out rate. Specifically, the mean travel time of actively participating target shooters was 29 minutes, while the mean travel time of intermittent target shooters was 34 minutes. Finally, the mean travel time for ex-target shooters, meaning those who had left the activity altogether, was 43 minutes, when they had traveled to go shooting. This underscores the importance of accessible ranges and other places to go shooting.
From new Responsive Management research on Black Americans’ recreational shooting participation conducted in partnership with NSSF and the National African American Gun Association:
17. As with firearm owners in general, not every Black firearm owner goes shooting. Two thirds of Black firearm owners have been shooting in the past three years, compared to almost a fifth who have never done any formal target or sport shooting. In other words, while these individuals may have fired a gun at some point, they have not participated in what they would consider an actual target or sport shooting activity.
18. Black firearm owners’ top constraints to sport shooting are access-related. Not having a shooting range nearby and not having a place to go sport shooting are the most important major constraints to shooting participation among Black firearm owners.
From recent Responsive Management research on women’s R3 issues conducted in partnership with Pheasants Forever:
19. Among female recreational shooters, the top motivation for participating is to become more comfortable with firearms. Secondarily, female target and sport shooters most often participate for the sport or recreation.
20. The top ways to encourage more sport shooting participation among females include an invitation from a friend and emphasis on programs that are conducted in a safe and controlled manner. Other important encouragements include better access to shooting areas or ranges and the ability for programs and instructors to help women feel comfortable and welcome while shooting.
From recent Responsive Management research on R3 strategies for U.S. military personnel conducted in partnership with the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation:
21. Members of the armed forces are an important market for target and sport shooting R3 outreach, as many are already trained in the use of firearms. Among active-duty military personnel who have never gone sport shooting, the groups most interested in going are Marines and National Guard members (as opposed to Army, Navy, Air Force, or Coast Guard personnel). Speaking about the importance of sport shooting opportunities (along with hunting and fishing opportunities) as a form of recreation and relaxation, Major General Lonnie G. Hibbard, Senior Mission Commander of Fort Eustis as part of Joint Base Langley Eustis, offered the following: “I’m advocating on post and across all military installations for access and opportunities for soldiers and families to hunt, shoot, and fish as a method of team building and resiliency to combat suicides, assaults, and other behavior, health, and marriage/family challenges.”