A missing reason for gun culture growth

[JoeG]

Michael,

Enjoy the podcasts and have finally caught up after starting at #1 early this year. I think you have missed one important reason that shooting sports are the new growth area for the gun culture and that is Video Games!

I have a teen age son and he and all his friends are obsessed with the first person shooter ( FPS) video games. All of these games are based around some sort of self defense/battle scenario. The hottest ones currently are fairly accurate historic or current war stories. The kids know all the various guns on sight and know what the +/- are for each, both in the games and often in real life.  They go through ammo on screen like you’ve never seen since it is free!  They are not “afraid” of guns in real life, just curious and very willing to be taught safe habits. The antigunners have been ripping on how bad these FPS games are for so long that the kids have developed a reflex for tuning  them out.

These games have been around for about 30 years and these days there are a lot of adults playing them in the online multiplayer versions. This is the way most folks are introduced to guns these days instead of the old inter-generational hunting rituals of my youth. While there are lots of unrealistic things in the games they definitely reinforce the sense of “Fun with Guns” that you see all over YouTube.

Before the 45 Long Colt/Colt police start up, my legal dept. would like to remind everyone that parents are still supposed to be in charge and I think it is a bad idea for 10 year olds (or younger!) to play Zombie shooting games or to watch half the stuff that is on TV these days!

Anyway, I am an RSO for our Boy Scout troop and love seeing the willingness of the new scouts to learn about and try REAL guns. Their disappointment that they are only .22s and are not full auto quickly turns to serious interest when they start putting holes in paper. Guns are still a rite of passage for those youngsters who have intelligent adults around who care.