h/t: PA Gun Blog

In the report recently released by the ATF addressing (and summarily dismissing) the public comments from last year, the ATF regards that Three-Gun competitions aren’t enough of a sport because of the wide difference between the number of hunters and three-gunners (disregarding the high likelihood of overlap between the two groups). Since 19,000 people is such a small number.

…[S]tatistics suggest that the United States Practical Shooting Association has
approximately 19,000 members who participate in “three gun” or similar competitions.
Conversely, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that in 2006, 10.7 million licensed
individuals participated in hunting within the U.S. Using this data, those participating in tactical
shooting comprised approximately .18% of those participating in hunting.

I mean, no activity should ever be considered a sport with such a small number of participants, especially when dwarfed by another sport; like, say, curling vs basketball. Only 16,000* people in the US actively participate in curling compared to nearly everyone in the US that ever attended a PE class.

*according to the US Curling Association (PDF warning, statistic on page 12)