Gun rights more popular than ever

After investing over $7 million in a new gun range and gun shop, you would hope it wouldn’t backfire.

“It’s trending up,” said Kim Schugart with Magnum Shooting Center. “More and more people are recognizing how fun it is.”

Magnum Shooting Center has opened in a unique time in American history. For the first time in more than 20 years of Pew Research Center surveys, there is more support for gun rights than gun control.

The poll found 52 percent say it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns, while 46 percent say it is more important to control gun ownership.

“I think that if I want to have a gun then I should be able to have a gun,” Austin Deardorf, a new gun owner, said.

Deardorf is one of an increasing number of women who are shifting their attitudes toward guns.

Fifty-one percent of women polled believe guns protect from being crime victims while 43 percent believe guns put people’s safety at risk.

“I think it’s important, especially for women and men both, to be able to defend themselves,” Deardorf said.

That’s another reason why Magnum Shooting Center is an “open range.”

“What that means is we don’t want to be a part of the good old boys club. We want the kids here, we want the women here,” Schugart said.