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August 6, 2012
NSSF Responds to Time Editor
In its August 6 issue, Time magazine Managing Editor Richard Stengel demonstrated how misinformed he is about both firearms owners and modern sporting rifles (those rifles based on the AR platform) when he wrote, “And gun owners know better than anyone else that an AR-15 has little or no sporting purpose.”
That prompted this response from NSSF:
The Firearms Sportsmen Use
To the Editor:
It never ceases to amaze recreational shooters and hunters when persons who wouldn’t touch a firearm on a bet presume to tell us that certain firearms “have no sporting purpose” (Time Magazine: “Talking Common Sense About Guns,” August 6).
A 2012 report by Sports Marketing Surveys clearly demonstrated that owners of AR-15-type rifles have made them some of today’s most popular sporting firearms. In fact, owners of these rifles commonly spent more days at the target range and fired more ammunition than those engaged in skeet, trap or sporting clays shooting. Their equipment has changed, but millions of owners use them for target shooting and hunting.
People fear what they don’t know, and that’s perfectly understandable. But to presume to know what kind of equipment many millions of other law-abiding Americans use for legitimate recreational pursuits in the face of the facts is just wrong.
Respectfully,
Stephen L. Sanetti
National Shooting Sports Foundation
Newtown,Conn.
(The writer is president and CEO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry.)
Categories: Government Relations, Hunting, Industry News, Media Inaccuracies, Shooting
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