By Dean Rieck

An enduring myth of the anti-gun left is that the shooting sports are not really all that popular. They think the only people who are interested in shooting are criminals and the deranged. They assume the “gun guys” are some tiny group of oddballs out of touch with mainstream America.

Well, guess what? They’re wrong. Shooting is popular. VERY popular. In fact, shooting has always been and remains one of the most popular activities of all time. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has waited for an hour or more to get into a shooting range or who has ever been to a shooting competition where hundreds of men, women, and children show up. But it may come as a real shocker to the anti-gun crowd.

Just how popular is shooting? Let’s look at the 2005 “Superstudy of Sports Participation,” a publication of the Sporting Good Manufacturers Association. This wide-ranging survey asks Americans about their sporting activity and includes both men and women from the age of six and up. If you engage in any given activity at least one time per year, you are counted as a participant in that activity.

According to the study, 15,196,000 people went hunting with a gun in 2005. That’s more people than played baseball (9,694,000). That’s right. Hunting is more popular than America’s so-called “favorite pastime.”

Even more people went target shooting, a total of 18,037,000. So target shooting is more popular than playing football (16,436,000). Who would have thunk it? There are more plinkers on the range than players on the field.

By Larry S. Moore

Two stories in the national press about Florida and Governor Jeb Bush
this week caught my attention. The first appeared in the Weekly
Standard, and the second in the Orlando Sentinel.

The Weekly Standard story proclaims that if his name was anything but
Bush he'd be the next President of the US. The article expresses the opinion that Gov. Jeb Bush is the best
governor in the nation. The story
goes on to explain all the reasons for this might declaration, citing, among
other things, leadership, reaction to a number of hurricanes in Florida
and the thriving growth economy.

Following that story was the Orlando Sentinel's article, sporting the headline "Gun backers had good year. Gov. Jeb Bush signed 6 bills this session,
but one contentious measure failed."

WOW! The best Governor in the
United States AND he signed six, count them SIX, gun bills in one year. As opposed to Ohio's Governor Taft that more likely signed 1 very weak
gun bill in 6 years!

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