Quote Originally Posted by LowSpeed_HighDrag View Post
I read through these comments and see many posters who don't visit gun ranges. I don't blame them. But, they are losing their perspective on this issue. I occasionally shoot at a multi-million dollar facility (Liberty Firearms Institute) with a well controlled indoor range and large pro shop. I see shoppers and shooters of all ages, at all times. When I stroll by the gun counter at Scheels or Cabelas, it's generally swarmed by young men.

I started shooting because someone helped get me started. I started hunting because someone showed me the way. I'm 29, so it was the generation that most of you belonged to that helped me. Guns and hunting are largely generational. How many young men are you taking hunting or shooting? They don't have to be family, but they will look at you as a father figure for life if you help get them started on this journey.

The more you ostracize millennials for being millennials, the less you give them a chance to break free from that mold.

My dad owned two guns that stayed locked up and never got shot. He died in an accident when I was 13, and I had never shot a gun. My mom was left to raise me, and she and her new husband were rabidly anti-gun (years later, I stopped by her house in uniform as a Police Officer and was asked to leave my gun in the car or leave the house). My grandpa took me under his wing, taught me gun safety over a weekend by having me carry an unloaded rifle around the house for a weekend and critiquing my safety habits. He started taking me shooting, and secretly gave a 30-06. I bought an 870 and a Saiga AK, joined the Marine Corps, and from there the gun sickness was set in.

Having never been hunting, I started talking to some of the cops I worked with after leaving the Corps about how to get started. I got my hunter safety at 26 with a class packed full of 8 year olds, bought a Citori and SBE2, and accompanied those guys on many upland and waterfowl trips.

Had it not been for my grandpa, who knows if I would even own a gun today. I can tell you I would have never been able to get into hunting on my own, and I am so thankful for those that have shown me the way. Now, I am always eager to find people, of any age, that I can convert to this lifestyle. Whether that is showing them M4C, helping them buy their first gun, teaching them to shoot, or taking them hunting. Most young men you meet, liberal or conservative, would probably take you up on the opportunity to shoot an SBR or suppressor....

This generation is eager and willing. Show them the way. Once the next gun scare happens, they will buy out the gun stores just like we all did during the last gun scares.
Dude, your Grandpa was a boss!

And I agree about the millennial bashing, it drives me crazy. Every time I hear that, I ask the person "Excuse me, please tell who has been volunteering and dying in our country's wars for the past 17 years?"

....crickets chirping......

Almost all of my minions at work are millennials. They bust their ass, and are very loyal to me. All they ever asked for is a chance.

One of them did an incredible job for me this year. He's getting a very nice bonus, and a NIB Gen5 G19, with ammo and lessons from me.

So yeah, he's a millennial....