2nd Annual National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day

A Girl & A Gun of Cumming Ga volunteer at National Take your Daughter to the range day with ArmedCandy Yesterday was Father’s Day, in case you forgot… Did you get anything good?
A notoriously bad day for gift giving, Father’s Day seems to have become more about spending a little quality time, rather than showing appreciation for the other 364 days of the year. I believe this to be true because I spent Saturday in Cumming, GA with the women of A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League. Saturday was the second annual “National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day” and the ladies were volunteering at Bulls Eye Marksman Gun Club, to run the day’s activities. It was the perfect event to honor paternity, because, while times may be changing, its still typical, for shooting to be a lesson that fathers teach and pass down through the generations.

“National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day” is a young not-for-profit organization that creates a packaged event for ranges around the country. The concept for the specially organized range day for young families, was inspired by an understanding that, often, sons are taught to shoot while daughters are not. On Friday night, I was a bit discouraged to see that only two ranges in the entire state of Georgia were participating in NTYDTTRD. (It was especially disappointing to note that my former workplace in Sandy Springs, GA, which is owned by two mothers, was not one of the gun ranges participating.) But on saturday afternoon my frown was turned upside down, by the steady flow of traffic at Bulls Eye. The volunteers, were also excited to see many more participants than they did last year.

Many fathers with daughters, and quiet a few complete families as well, were greeted by food, raffle drawings and door prizes, goodie bags and three different shooting activities, when they arrived at the range. Outside, water gun and BB gun challenges were offered. Inside, volunteer range safety officers, the members of AG&AG (and some of their men too), went over safe firearm handling rules. They then lead participants through activities involving a .22lr pistol in the indoor range. An equal number of male and female children (age seven and up) seemed to be out enjoying the festivities, and while there were plenty of experienced shooters, the glow of new shooters, showing off their little pink targets, was priceless.

4 Comments

  1. While I love the idea, I’m not surprised by the so-far lack of participation. I learned about it last year when a woman contacted my club to see if we were participating. Having never heard of it, I followed up with the organization and received…a little info and realized there was not enough time to get anything going. Then never heard anything from them again (and this from a club with a range asking how we could help). Their blog is updated once a year, and I’m not even sure HOW you found out about which ranges in Georgia were participating, because when I try to find where a range is, I get a little discussion board mostly with nothing on it. Any idea how many ranges participated this time around?

    I LOVE the idea, but they need some major know-how to make it more ‘national’.

    1. I’m so glad to hear that more ranges are interested in getting involved. I went to this site http://nationaltakeyourdaughtertotherangeday.com/map/ on Friday night and clicked on my state, Georgia to find out what ranges were participating in NTYDTTRD. That night the site gave me two range names and links and such. I just went back to copy this link for you, and that list is gone.

      As I said, this is a new organization and I can see that there are still some kinks to be worked out. What you might find helpful and what I saw on Saturday, is the technique that Bulls Eye Marksman used to coordinate the event. Bulls Eye is also the home range of the women’s shooting league, A Girl & A Gun.

      While the range was open and staffed with their regular employees, the women of the league were there as volunteers running most of the event including RSOs. I also think that they did most of the planning and set up for the event also. Having this sort of group already established at your range, may help get the ball rolling for you as we’ll.

      1. Ok, good to know that for whatever reason they pulled the range info after the day…maybe to not confuse next year’s list. Thanks for the update!

  2. Gabby, It was great to see you at the range and thank you for sharing news about NTYDTTR Day! It was wonderful to see families learning and shooting together. I’m surprised to hear only two ranges in Georgia participated. Hopeful we will see more next year!

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