[SDDL-UP]

It used to be gun owners were hunters, but that has changed in the last 25 years. Gun owners are increasingly not hunters, or perhaps just casual hunters. More and more people are concerned about personal protection and individual liberty than putting meat on the table. More and more gun owners are young, educated professionals.

I'm not saying that most gun owners are not still hunters, I do believe this to still be the case, but we are seeing more and more young to middle age people carry and own guns that are not interested in hunting. Firearms are more than a necessary tool for hunting. They are security, liberty, sport, and hobby. They are tool and collectible, curio and relic, history and technology.

The changing demographic of the gun owner is a good thing. A broad base of firearms owners is good for America. The more people realize their rights and responsibilities with firearms the better it is for all of us.

[domin8ss]

Very well said.

[carbuncle]

This has been my demographic for the last 20 years, one shared by all the folks I knew who owned guns in the Western Washington area. Dozens of people who were relatively urban and interested in paper punching and self defense and have little or no desire to hunt. This is what rankles me about the argument that sportsmen and hunters agree with more gun control, waived about like that demographic is representative of me and most modern gun owners. Maybe in the eighties, but not any more.