Gun stocks are down, but our opportunities are sky high

So Hillary didn’t win. She will not appoint the next four, three, two, or even one Supreme Court Justice. She will not sign more executive orders aimed at stripping us of our God-given rights. We will continue to be able to buy guns and ammunition. Thank God!

But many of us don’t need to buy ammo. We have years of it stored in our houses in case we lost the ability to buy more. We may have bought guns we don’t really need. What to do with all the excess now that we successfully held disaster at bay?

Use it to secure our future. Not by saving it, but by shooting it.

The price and availability of guns and ammo have given us the opportunity of a lifetime. Each month, or at least a couple times per year, each of us needs to take a non-shooter to the range. The goal is NOT to overwhelm them with some huge caliber - the goal is to desensitize them and show them how they can enjoy shooting.

Even by conservative estimates, about 1/3 of the population is gun owners. So if each of us took just two non-gun owners, showed them a good time and got them interested in shooting, and if they then became gun owners themselves, then everyone would be a gun owner.

Let these new shooters use up that stored ammo you have. Maybe even sell them a gun you don’t need, or help them pick out a new gun of their own – something that is right for them, not just one some guy behind the counter can sell an unsuspecting novice. Get them started on the road to being a shooter, not just a “gun owner.”

We have before us an incredible opportunity. If we collectively work at it, we can bring enough new people into the shooting community that we will never again need to debate the issue. Imagine taking the gun issue off the table so that we voted on jobs/taxes/trade/infrastructure improvements and the many other issues that are important.

In other countries, the gun issue is off the table because gun owners believed that gun ban extremists only wanted to ban “bad” guns and people. They surrendered to an enemy and gave their children’s rights away for life. We have the opportunity to ensure the rights of our children.

This is possible within the next decade, and maybe even the next few years. But it is not something President Trump can accomplish. It’s not something Buckeye Firearms Association or the Second Amendment Foundation or the National Rifle Association or any other group can accomplish. It is not the job of Congress or the Senate to pass laws making it so. No, the job of winning this war lies with each of us individually, and our commitment to reach out to our neighbors and co-workers who have never shot a gun, who are afraid of guns and show them how they too can enjoy shooting responsibly.

Yes, it’s a dream. But it is an achievable dream. I have several friends in mind that I am going to introduce to shooting. I hope you do too.

Jim Irvine is Chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association Political Action Committee (BFA-PAC). He is also Board President of Buckeye Firearms Association, and recipient of the NRA-ILA's 2011 "Jay M. Littlefield Volunteer of the Year Award," the CCRKBA's 2012 "Gun Rights Defender of the Year Award," and the SAF's 2015 "Defender of Freedom Award."