“[T]he new generation of gun owners no longer fit the old-school sportsmen look of yesteryear. The new generation of gun owners are fiercely independent, yet socially active – especially in the online space. The new generation comes from urban centers as well as middle America. New gun owners are of all genders, colors, creeds and social strata.  They are not Elmer Fudd. Unlike the reserved approach to politics that the traditional firearms lobby has taken, the new generation is outspoken, unashamed and willing to fight for what they believe.  They are educated on the origins of the Second Amendment and the fundamental right to be free. They do not advocate for the Second Amendment as a right to hunt, rather they perceive it as a guaranteed ability to resist an oppressive government.” – Richard L. Johnson, The New Gun Culture [via humanevents.com]

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50 COMMENTS

  1. I would have to agree. I am in my late 20s, an army veteran, and hail from Texas. I have a wide berth of friends, most of whom like firearms. They (including me) just like to shoot to shoot or own something in the firearms world that is the latest or just plain cool. We are very adamant about protection that right. I really can’t think off the top of my head of any friend that wants to protect the 2nd Amendment just for hunting.

    • So true. Every time I go to the range, I see more women and a diversity of people there, just shootin’ and havin’ fun with things that go bang. That’s a good thing.

      • +1

        Also I see it done safely. I have noticed that people are more receptive to new gun people at the ranges than when I started out 10 years ago. The “Elmer Fudds” frankly treated me like a piece of S#&T, and I wasn’t even incompetent at handling or firing a firearm.

  3. I agree with it all…..except I do not believe for an instant that our government is oppressive. Inept, churlish, petty, and partisan. But not oppressive. Oppressive would not allow us to make statements about our government.
    Note : I would add self defense to a reason for owning firearms.

    • The Chinese government allows various degrees of criticism by its citizens. I find the American government (federal, state, and local) oppressive and intrusive and increasingly fascist politically, legally, financially, economically, socially, and otherwise. Allowing citizens their birthright to freedom of speech does not make the American government non-oppressive.

  4. “Some companies, like Advanced Armament Corporation (AAC), have fully embraced the new paradigm.”

    “Embraced?” I thought AAC epitomized the new paradigm. Did they have a more straight-laced beginning?

  5. I don’t see urban center youth being passionate about 2a. The statements may be true within gun friendly states, but I doubt there is a movement in MA, NY and NJ such that it will make a difference in those states when Gen X’s time to lead comes around.

    I would be very happy to be wrong for more than the future of 2a. Because those who believe in 2a and self defense also believe in self reliance and limits on gov’t. I am ok with social issues as long as its not nanny state type of implementations.

    • +1
      2a requires knowledge of and respect for the constitution. While many of the youth I’ve met agree that they have the right to shoot, that doesn’t extend to an understanding of the history and individual context of the second amendment.
      It’s one thing to like shooting. It’s something totally different to appreciate how the second amendment interacts with the tri-branch governmental democracy and why 2a represents more than just the right to use things that go bang.
      Another way of putting is that guns have become more culturally acceptable, but without a comparable level of civic education. Makes it harder to pigeonhole the gun culture as it now comprises a large cross section of society at all levels.

    • MA is changing. Dont get me wrong- it has a loooong way to go, but the attitude towards gun ownership is relaxing, little by little.

      • Yes, agreed, MA is changing a little, but only at the local level. At the state level, where everything is controlled by the Democratic machine in Boston, nothing has changed.

        FYI, did you know that MA is “shall issue” for the FOID covering traditional hunting rifles and shottys?

        • Yeah Boston dictates to MA the same way Chicago does to IL. Once outside RT495, folks do a lot of eye-rolling at what they have to put up with.

    • News for you 20-somethings are not Gen-Xers.

      Various breakdowns (for year born) from different sources.
      Note no full consistencies, but common generalities in years:

      1927-1945 – Silent Generation or Traditionalists
      1946-1964 – Baby Boomers
      1965-1983 – Gen X or the Busters
      1984- 2002 – Gen Y or the Millennials
      2003- Current Gen Z or the Digital Generation

      Depression: 1912 – 1921
      Pre World War 2: 1922 – 1927
      World War 2: 1928 – 1945
      Baby Boomer A: 1946 – 1954
      Baby Boomer B: 1955 – 1964
      Generation X: 1965 – 1979
      Generation Y: 1980 – 2001

      The Silent Generation: people born before 1945.
      Baby Boomers: 1945-1961
      Generation X: 1962-1976
      Generation Y: 1977-1989

      World War 2: – 1924
      World War 2: 1925-1942
      Baby Boomers: 1944-1955
      Baby Boomers: 1956-1965
      Generation X : 1965-1978
      Generation Y : 1977-1994

  6. Describes me to a tee. I don’t hunt, I have no interest but support the right to hunt. I fully understand our heritage and why we have second amendment. To resist tyranny, both foreign and domestic, from criminals and despots.
    Guns are liberty’s teeth and the citizens are the final line in the sand.

  7. My experience has been that the younger shooters I encounter are friendly and outgoing to older guys, like me. Some of the best fun I’ve had is when I take my 9mm Broomhandle Mauser to the Range. Invariably the younger folks are interested and ask about it. About half know what it is, but all recognize its similarity to the design used for the “Star Wars” pistols and are very interested. I often invite anyone who wants to shoot it to give it a go and they are impressed with its accuracy after getting used to the muzzle flip a C96 design inherently has. I usually forewarn the person(s) about that, which helps.

    I have not generally seen cases of unsafe handling or poor shooting skills. I have seen cases where older shooters are less than welcoming to the younger folks, but just a few. I have also seen more women than, say, ten years ago and a wider range of ages and ethnic groups. Usually talk mostly about guns and not so much about 2A. When I shoot semi-autos, I collect my cases to reload, so I usually say something about that to anyone where my cases might fly into the area they are in and that seems to break the ice pretty well. So, I’d say a little overt courtesy is a good thing.

    Personally, the wider variety of people shooting I encounter makes me feel more encouraged about the future of our gun rights.

    • I wish the older shooters I am around currently were more like you. I am in Maryland, and I joined the gun club closest to my house. Just about every time I have gone, some cranky old guy–hunter–has tried to start an argument with me or other young members about range rules or target height or “why would anyone need [non-hunting firearm model that I brought]?” Funny thing is, if they argue about range rules, and you show them in the range regs (for instance) where it is ok to load more than 2 shells when shooting clays, they retort, “that’s a typo” or “it doesn’t mean that” or some such–anything except admit that their opinions and range rules are not equivalent. I’m not renewing my membership.

      • Tell the Rangemaster, if there is one.

        If the Rangemaster doesn’t, then skip renewal. But give them a chance to straighten out the Fudd.

        …arguing that the printed rules have a typo? really?

      • Where are you shooting? MD has plenty of places with odd rules and more than its share of Fudds but I’ve never had the same experiences a you. And FWIW some range’s target height requirements are in place because of safety, no arbitrary.

        • The range is in Germantown; I won’t say more.

          I know the reasons for target height rules, and my target was properly placed–it still wasn’t good enough for the range safety officer. That’s the point. I have no problem with published rules; I agreed to them when I joined. My issue is with the non-rule arbitrary stuff that gets passed off as holy writ.

          One more anecdote: I have a young friend who is (was) a range safety officer there. He and I were on the handgun range, and the on-duty RSO started chewing out a couple other shooters for firing faster than once every 2 seconds. My buddy told me loudly (hearing protection in), “That’s not in the rules.” The RSO, hearing this, came over, argued with my buddy, who said, “show me.” After 5 minutes of poring through the range manual, the RSO scratched his head and said, “Huh. I could have sworn it was in here.”

  8. Well I’m an Elmer Fudd in your collective opinions and to me most of you are wannabe Rambos. That’s fine so long as you don’t pretend your guns are for hunting and justify their existence by using them for that purpose. An AR is not a hunting rifle no matter how often you say it is. It wasn’t designed to be such and it isn’t. There is something called ethics in hunting which most of you seem to be clueless about. You see it goes beyond what is legal but there is no point discussing it because you are not hunters and the few of you that hunt just want a live target to shoot, or so it seems reading this forum. Yeah, I know there are a few hunters but most are as you say, urbanites that came to guns through video games and movies.

    I would say 99% of you have never been in a civilian firefight. Probably 90% or more of you have never been in any firefight. I find that most of the people that are ex-military and have an extreme fascination with killing turn out to be REMFs. Killing isn’t glamorous, nor is dying.

    Oh, I love your gun gurus who are quoted like the word of God. What is their real expertise? Have they been in any gun fights? Maybe one or two at the most but probably none. They just read and quote each other and become “experts” at self defense. I read a book by The Great Ayoob but threw it out when I realized he didn’t know how to safely uncock a hammer double shotgun. Some expert.

    I may be an Elmer Fudd but at least what I do, hunt, is real. You people live in a fantasy world of where you like to make believe that you’re in constant danger where in truth the most dangerous thing you do is drive on the freeway. “Situational awareness”, where do you think you live? Beirut? Oh, I know a little bit about true danger. I am writing you from our Internet satellite system in the Bering Sea where it is now blowing 50 knots. fishing pot cod now and king crab starting Oct. 15th. My job is statistically the most dangerous in the country although we like to say we make our own stats. Most of you people have done nothing dangerous in your lives that Uncle Sam didn’t make you do. Maybe Walter Mitty is a better sobriquet for you that call us Elmer Fudds.

    I find it amusing that you tend to be anti-hunter on this site. Why anyone would want to divide the gun owning community is beyond me. I guess you think you’re just too cool.

    Yeah, I belong to a club that most of you would hate. There is no human shaped targets allowed. No rapid fire or quick draw. The club was started after WWII by hunters most of whom were vets. In fact one is still around and comes there although he doesn’t shoot much any longer. He was on Iwo Jima but never talks about it. He, and the others that started the club wanted it to be a hunting club not paramilitary club. You don’t like that? Well too bad. Go somewhere else with your fantasy. It’s our club and we’ll run it how we like, Walter.

    Well thanks for dividing gun owners with you name calling. I see this is not a site for me so you can unsubscribe me.

    Now make sure you remain situationally aware and practice that quick draw! The boogie man might get you and rape you!

    • So Jeff W out there on the bering sea. You don’t have a life vest, survival suit or eperb in case of trouble on the water. That’s what my guns are to me. A just in case and also for recreation. I don’t hunt but respect those that do. Sorry you have condemmed an entire site because of the opinions of some.

      • Jeff, you aren’t subscribed so you can’t be unsubscribed. Sounds like your fishing boat butt buddies are on the rag.

    • Jeff W.

      While the style and interests of some of the people interested in firearms seems non-traditional, the incredibly significant interests embodied in the right of all citizens to keep and bear arms is timeless.

      Maybe you are only interested in hunting firearms and have always believed that our government would never ban such firearms. The truth is that there are people and entities who do not want any citizens to own any firearms … and have been working hard to make their “dream” a reality.

      You have probably heard the saying, “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.” Every citizen who participates in firearm ownership and use is an enemy to gun control fanatics — even the citizens you don’t like who use firearms in “non-traditional” ways. No one is asking you to like the way those citizens use their firearms. What everyone is asking is that you encourage those citizens to use their firearms and strengthen the ranks of the armed citizenry rather than alienate them. In the end all armed citizens — even the ones you don’t like — are the only barrier to those who seek to control our firearms and our very lives.

    • From the movie ‘Stripes’: “Lighten up Francis”. I like hunters but am not crazy about ‘trophy hunting’ where the animal that impregnates the herd is the one that is shot rather than in the wild where the weak are the ones taken. Actually, I really cant stand trophy hunting…..morons. Are you a trophy hunter Francis?

    • Dressing up head to toe in mossy oak and playing make believe Teddy Roosevelt > Dressing up head to toe in multicam and playing make believe delta force. Ok.

    • Jeff, bolt action rifles were not originally designed for hunting, they were military rifles (Mauser). Lever action rifles were not designed for hunting, they were designed for use in the Civil War. I personally don’t own a “black” rifle, and honestly didn’t think of them as a hunting rifle either until I watched a TV show on hog hunting. I can’t think of a better suited rifle to use when trying to irradicate a huge herd of wild boars damaging crop lands.

      Living where you do, I don’t suppose you have much danger from drive by shootings, muggings, etc. I live in the semi-rural area of northeast PA, but such shootings are becoming common even in the smaller cities and towns near me like Easton, PA, Stroudsburg, PA, Dover, NJ, and Allentown, PA. There probably aren’t many meth labs in your neck of the woods either, a quickly spreading problem down here in the lower 48, and the drug addicts they spawn are out to steal, mug, car jack, etc to get the money for their drugs. I’m old enough to be a “Fudd”, I’m 56, and don’t consider myself a mall-ninja, but I do practice situational awareness, when I’m shopping in town. I’ve lost count after 5 of the number of times the bank where I do business has been robbed. It’s located in the middle of a field, not even in town, but the road offers a quick getaway to the interstate. The grocery store near my home has armed security guards, in the small village of Brodheadsville, PA because they have been robbed. Add to this the fact that PA has a large following of racist hate groups. My wife is asian, and that makes her and me a target of hate crimes. So you might think I’m not in any real danger from day to day, and the odds are good that I will never be involved as a victim of a criminal, but I’m doing whatever I can to improve those odds. I have never been at my bank when it was robbed or at the store when it was robbed, but I know people that were there for those events. I haven’t had a cross burned in my lawn, but I know people that have been victims of hate crimes. My point being that the world isn’t as peacefull as you might want to believe it is. I wish you well out there on the Bering sea, you are braver than me to be out there, but I imagine you take precautions for your own safety. That is what I am doing for my own family and for myself. Hopefully you will never need to use your survival suit, just as I hope I never have to shoot a bad guy.

  9. “No single material thing is likely to have had a greater impact on humanity than the internet…The internet, and more specifically, the world wide web, has allowed people to communicate around the country and all over the world with virtually no interference from the government.”

    — The Internet is the new Gutenberg Printing Press. More than any other tool, it has the potential to set us free. I don’t believe Americans are or have been truly free. I think we’ve been allowed certain liberties since the results (conquering the native americans, building up the economy, inventing, etc and free-enterprise capitalism now giving way to merchantalism and corporatism/fascism) served the greater desires of the elites. Increasingly, over the past several decades, most Americans have seen a decrease or reducing of most their liberties. Even such social moves such as the sexual revolution or women’s lib can be seen as having a larger longer term impact in weakening or destabilizing the people especially the American family unit making people more dependent on government and weaker to resist abuses of power. Two of the bright spots that are an exception to the decrease in liberties are the spread of gun rights and ownership, and the growth of the Internet. It’s good to know that the global elites are not as shrewd or all-powerful in manipulating society and nations. It needs to be stated that the Internet and cable TV etc also serve to pervert, indoctrinate, and dumb down the masses so it is a double-edged sword.

  10. One thing missing, across all generations, is the understanding that the Second Amendment is not just about guns. It is about “arms”. Weapons. When the Brits came looking for “arms” in the 1700’s, they came for swords, knives, powder and ball, and other explosives, axes and hatchets, pitch forks, bows and arrows, home-made-device deamed ‘dangerous’, and your guns.

    The Second Amendment IS about ALL ” ARMS” rights.

    NOUS DEFIONS

  11. I’m not sure this new generation is much different than older generations. We liberal godless heathens are just getting more attention (and are a bit more outspoken) due to the internet.

  12. +1 on the internet. I’m an old fart that has been into guns my whole life. But I’ve only really started with the computer since I retired. My lack of computer fu skills shows at times but I keep plugging at it.

    +100 on the younger more diverse group of shooters. I encourage as much as possible new shooters and I share as much as possible at the range to encourage newbies. I see more women shooting than ever before and I’m heartened by this because women tend to vote and they have numbers we need.

  13. There does seem to be great interest among the yoot of America concerning firearms. That’s a good thing. Those same young people are also among the most poorly educated and semi-literate American generations of the last 100 years and couldn’t recite 2A to win a bet. That’s the bad thing. In 1955, Rudolf Flesch published a book called “Why Johnny Can’t Read.” Well, Johnny was a reading machine compared to an average student today.

    This is not a criticism of Gex X or any other generation. They are the victims. The fact is that American students are being groomed by their “leaders” to push wheelbarrows.

    • Pushing wheelbarrows implies they are capable of physical labor, let alone work. They need useless idiots to keep them in power.

  14. My imagination is in overdrive wondering what the pictured woman looks like sans clothing with her body tattoos and piercings.

  16. If your saying I have to get a bunch of bad tats to not be a “Fudd” gun owner, F it i’m out. I don’t give a shit what you look like or what you believe as long as your not a menace to society welcome to the club. I have personally introduced a number of people to shooting over the years. A number of them came from non traditional shooter backgrounds. I am strictly a one issue guy. Guns, you like em and use your head your a-ok we can probably work out any other issues.

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