[ThirdOfFive]

Originally Posted by LeRoySmith

Can you imagine if someone even suggested this today, heads would spin till they fell off.

Lol! that they would.

Interestingly enough though, one of the fastest-growing sports in high school is.....skeet shooting! As in kids with 12-gauge shotguns pulverizing clay targets on the fly. I think it is THE fastest H.S. sport in the state I used to call home (Minnesota). But it is not just Minnesota, but nationwide.

This, from sports events media group dot com:

As one of the fastest-growing sports among young people, disciplines such as skeet and trap shooting are finding a whole new generation of advocates.

Need an example? Take the 2023 Minnesota Trapshooting Championships in Alexandria, Minn., last summer, which hosted more than 8,500 teens representing 240 high school teams from across the state.

That’s a huge leap from the 30 participants who made up three Minnesota high school teams during the 2007-08 school year. Since then, the sport has seen a dramatic increase in the number of schools at the high school and college levels adding it as an extra-curricular activity.

Fast forward to 2021-22, there were 49,337 participants on 1,647 high school, college, and homeschool teams, says the USA High School Clay Target League. The league’s annual impact report shows an addition of 13,815 new student-athletes participating in league activities in 2023, along with 198 new teams added.

Next year, the USA Clay Target League anticipates 53,000 student-athletes on its rolls as part of its goal to reach 100,000 registered student-athletes by the end of 2025.

Lots of good things happen when people aren't fearful of guns.

[LeRoySmith]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

Lol! that they would.

Interestingly enough though, one of the fastest-growing sports in high school is.....skeet shooting! As in kids with 12-gauge shotguns pulverizing clay targets on the fly. I think it is THE fastest H.S. sport in the state I used to call home (Minnesota). But it is not just Minnesota, but nationwide.

This, from sports events media group dot com:

As one of the fastest-growing sports among young people, disciplines such as skeet and trap shooting are finding a whole new generation of advocates.

Need an example? Take the 2023 Minnesota Trapshooting Championships in Alexandria, Minn., last summer, which hosted more than 8,500 teens representing 240 high school teams from across the state.

That’s a huge leap from the 30 participants who made up three Minnesota high school teams during the 2007-08 school year. Since then, the sport has seen a dramatic increase in the number of schools at the high school and college levels adding it as an extra-curricular activity.

Fast forward to 2021-22, there were 49,337 participants on 1,647 high school, college, and homeschool teams, says the USA High School Clay Target League. The league’s annual impact report shows an addition of 13,815 new student-athletes participating in league activities in 2023, along with 198 new teams added.

Next year, the USA Clay Target League anticipates 53,000 student-athletes on its rolls as part of its goal to reach 100,000 registered student-athletes by the end of 2025.

Lots of good things happen when people aren't fearful of guns.

That's great, I had no idea. I really enjoyed skeet and sporting clays some years ago.

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by dougjb

Most guns that are in a house wind up being used on the homeowner!

Why is this?

If its a confrontation with an intruder, a fumbling homeowner might miss or otherwise poorly handle the gun. In that case, the gun is simply taken by the intruder (who may not have otherwise had a weapon) and perhaps used on the homeowner.

But, statistically, guns in a household are used on a homeowner or the spouse either in a domestic argument situation or for suicide. The numbers are startling. Very few homeowners with guys ever use them on an intruder. A huge percentage is used on the homeowner or spouse...many times in a drunken rage or despondency.

Moreover, many homeowners with guns find that their guns are used by their children or grandchildren who find them and play with them. The number one cause of death for an infant is not fever, contagion, SIDS or any other health reason. The number one killer of infants is death by the discharge of a gun.

I have a neighbor who is very conversant with the use of guns. He practices, he knows about guns, he practices good guy safety (meaning his bullets are not in the same location as his gun). But, he readliy admits, in the case of an intruder, he would have to take some time to arm the weapon for use (discharge or threat) to the intruder.

Please use some good sense before you arm your household...for the benefit or your spouse, your neighbor, your children or grandchildren. The loss of some property is simply not worth the risk.

For those of you who think the law is on your side. Perhaps....but do you really want to get caught up in the system...which may or may not find you guilty of a crime and if not a crime perhaps liable for damages. Its fine to cite the statute. But, how much is it going to cost you to prove you were right?

You make decent points, but also spout some nonsense...

A simple Google search:

"What is the number one baby killer?
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)Mar 28, 2024"

Having "bullets" separate from your gun means you have a hammer, not a gun.

Firearms can be safely stored when loaded, especially when there are no children in the house (as in the case of the vast majority of homes in TV...

According to the FBI, guns are used (not necessarily fired) in self defense over 2 MILLION times/year...

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

Florida does. I live here.

Carrying firearms in public has already been deemed a state rights issue, so I have no control or interest in how other states manage firearms carry and regulation. I have no plans for living in any other state at this time. However, if and when I do, I will make it a point to learn their laws before I'd carry in public.

The point about the the NRA is a good one. Many people have been so conditioned by media that just the word "NRA" strikes fear. In actuality the NRA does offer a lot of educational opportunities and has for decades. We had firearms training in high school (optional class--just about everybody took it). Additionally the NRA offers the "Eddie Eagle" program, which is the only program I can think of that actually trains young children (preschool and elementary) just what do do if they find a gun. Far better that, than fear of the educator.

Good for you. But FL doe not deem it necessary in order to carry a weapon.

And of course you should leanr the locals laws wherever you live (or intend to carry)...

I'd love to see gun safety taught in schools. But it'll never happen in many states, due to their irrational fear of anything that goes "BANG"...

[ThirdOfFive]

Originally Posted by JMintzer

Good for you. But FL doe not deem it necessary in order to carry a weapon.

And of course you should leanr the locals laws wherever you live (or intend to carry)...

I'd love to see gun safety taught in schools. But it'll never happen in many states, due to their irrational fear of anything that goes "BANG"...

Agree with gun safety in schools. We had it back in the day. Of course, that "day" was over 60 years ago now. We'd take our guns to school on the bus. Once at the school the guns were stored in the principal's office, but the ammo was just carried loose in our pockets--usually next to the trusty Barlow or Case pocket knife that no self-respecting lad in the Minnesota north woods was ever caught without. But the mindset was different. Guns (and knives for that matter) were seen as tools, and like any other tool it was best to learn how to use it properly. We didn't fear guns. But we did respect them, just as we respected any other dangerous tool. In all my years as an adolescent and young man up there I know of only two instances where people I knew were injured by guns; one idiot who was practicing a "quick draw" with a .22 magnum revolver and shot himself in the bladder, and another guy who was grazed by a bullet along the side of his head while hunting deer. Both lived. I knew plenty more that were hurt or killed by tools like chain saws, hydraulic loaders, farm and heavy logging equipment, even axes.

I often think that the fear of guns engendered by the hysteria in some parts of society is as responsible as anything else for many of the gun incidents we hear about.

[xcaligirl]

Originally Posted by Normal

It doesn’t hurt to have an alarm system and defensive weapon available in your home in The Villages.

“A husband and wife in The Villages were terrified when they were awakened in the wee hours and the husband found an intruder in their home.

The couple had been asleep in their home in the Village of Pine Ridge at about 4 a.m. Monday when they were awakened by the sound of the garage door opening, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department. The husband got of a bed to investigate the situation.

He entered the laundry room and found 37-year-old Barry Ray Wilbanks of Wildwood…”

https://www.**************.com/2024/...in-their-home/

Agree with you. We need to protect ourselves as much as we can!! We have some good police forces around the Villages.. however it may take them longer to get there (it will seem like forever) when there is an intruder in the house!