Last year was an incredible year for fishing and hunting license sales. New insights are now available detailing this unprecedented surge. The license-sales dashboard, developed over the past several years via a partnership of state fish and wildlife agencies, sportfishing and hunting trade associations and sportsman’s organizations, helps explain the types of anglers and hunters driving trends and more.
By 2016, 24 million Americans held interest in purchasing their first firearm to either go hunting, target shooting or to own for protection. With the demographics and attitudes of today’s and tomorrow’s firearm owner rapidly changing, NSSF partnered with Southwick Associates to understand who these potential customers are and how best to connect with them. A survey was conducted among the general U.S. population that identified those who do not currently own a firearm but are very likely to do so in the next five years. [Given the surge in new hunters and target shooters in 2020, we felt the time was right to share an NSSF grant-funded report released in late 2019 explaining the motivations new firearm owners have regarding hunting, target shooting and personal protection:]