Welcome New Shooters! Tactics to Increase Participation within Under-Represented Communities

Previous research from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (Target Shooting Interests and Preferences Among Multi-Cultural Communities 2015) showed that women, Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans have high rates of interest in getting started target shooting. In fact, Hispanics and African Americans had higher levels of interest (26% and 27%, respectively) than Asians (15%) and Caucasians (13%), while women had the same interest levels as men.   State agencies and the outdoor industry have made some progress into diversifying target shooting since 2015, however, multiple sources show shooting sports participation remains overwhelmingly male and Caucasian. Considering that most of the U.S. population is expected to be non-Caucasian by the mid-century, this shows that significant growth potential exists for target shooting and its associated conservation revenues.   The 2015 NSSF effort, worked on by current grant team members Jim Curcuruto and Rob Southwick, touched on the concerns and barriers preventing many of these under-represented audiences from participating. Since then, public demand and participation patterns have changed considerably, especially since 2020. Also, the previous effort provided a limited understanding of the types of programs, services, advertisements, and communication tactics needed to recruit and serve these audiences effectively. Until these shortfalls are addressed, recruitment and retention programs for diverse communities will underperform. It is time for new and updated insights to be gained to help industry and agencies better connect with this important segment.  This project will communicate with each of the major audiences described above to quantify • Their interest in target shooting.

• The types of shooting activities of most interest.
• The types of ranges where they would be most comfortable. 
• The types of welcome, services, and amenities would increase their likelihood of visiting.
• How can you best reach them with information on where to shoot, requirements, and other information they currently lack but need to decide to visit a range? 

Identical information regarding white males will be produced for comparison purposes. The results will be shared with state agencies, the firearms industry, other public and private ranges, and organizations working on behalf of target shooting to help them understand how to be more welcoming and accommodating towards segments of the US population that currently hesitate from participating in target shooting.