State of the Union: Recruitment is Key
Painter offers a vision of hope for the outdoor industry
ORLANDO, Fla. — The number of U.S. hunters has been on the decline since the 1940s. But there are increasingly stronger programs in place to reverse that trend, according to Doug Painter, the president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Painter's message of hope and mission of recruitment was best illustrated by his opening remark to the firearms and hunting industry representatives gathered Thursday night for the 2007 SHOT Show in the Orange County Convention Center. This marked the 29th year of the show.
"We've come a long way since our inaugural show in St. Louis in 1979," Painter told the banquet hall crowd during a dinner sponsored by Realtree, Ducks Unlimited and ESPN. "We could have fit that entire first show, exhibits and all, in this room and still had a good bit of room left over."
This year's show broke records with more than 1,870 exhibitors and 656,000 square feet of exhibit space.
"I believe the biggest reason for our success has been the many leaders in our industry who have depended on the National Shooting Sports Foundation for their company's success," Painter said.
The importance of that unity within the industry cannot be overemphasized, according to Painter. And it will be the key to recruiting the next decade of participants in the hunting and shooting sports, which will define the industry's path into the future.
"The products we sell, I believe, do more than just help our customers enjoy the great outdoors," Painter said. "They also reinforce the strong connection between our sport's connections to the traditions we hold dearly — self-reliance, an independent spirit, a conservation ethic and, of course, family bonds and the personal freedoms we enjoy. What's good about our traditions is also what's good about America."
It was a star-studded event that included Atlanta Braves All-Star baseball player Chipper Jones and NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick in the audience and entertainment by rising country music stars Mirada Lambert and Blake Shelton. Those four illustrated a love for hunting that encompasses the major entertainment industries in the U.S. and a partnership that will also be important for the future of hunting.
But it wasn't the stars that Painter wanted to emphasize. It was the grassroots organizations in the sport and their growing numbers. Painter's message was a version of the real estate success theme — location, location, location. Only in this case, it's recruitment, recruitment, recruitment, particularly of today's youth.
With a video presentation, Painter then detailed a track record of success in many areas, including a Scholarship Clay Target program that has expanded to 40 states in only four years.
That was further enhanced in a presentation by John Kvasnicka, executive director of the National 4-H Shooting Sports Foundation, at the conclusion of Painter's remarks.
In 1980, when the program started, it represented only three states and had 150 members. The NSSF joined as one of the supporting partners two years later. In recognizing those 25 years of service, Kvasnicka noted that the National 4-H Shooting Sports program now includes more than 300,000 members in 46 states.
It's those numbers, more than the increasing numbers of vendors and square footage at the SHOT Show, that will insure the future of the industry. And the "state of the union" is better than it has been in the SHOT Show's previous 28 years.
