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Published: 08.05.2004
'Senior Militia' brooks no threat
Members keep gun skills sharp so they won't be targets
By Lynn Doan
LAS VEGAS SUN
LAS VEGAS - Some arrive at the indoor shooting range in wheelchairs. Others use walkers. A few are missing limbs lost in wars.
They call themselves the "Senior Militia," a group of about 20 gunslingers mostly in their 60s who meet twice weekly to shoot the breeze - and their guns.
They are vigilant about their standing date for target practice because they think that off the range they are the targets.
"Old people tell me they feel like sheep, because they're so helpless," said John McCormack, 80, unofficial president of the group.
McCormack and other members of the group are part of a growing population of Americans older than 65 who are the most likely of all age groups to own guns.
Until the 1990s, men 40 to 49 were the demographic group most likely to own guns, said Tim Smith of the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago. Now gun ownership is most prevalent among senior citizens, Smith said.
In 1982, 30 percent of Americans older than 65 reported they owned guns, compared with 38 percent of Americans ages 40 to 49, according to a survey by the National Opinion Research Center.
That reversed by 2002, with 37 percent of Americans older than 65 owning guns and 24 percent of Americans ages 40 to 49 reporting ownership.
Smith said the shift was partly because Americans who reported having guns two decades ago moved into the older age group and because younger generations have lost interest in hunting.
Eighty percent of gun owners own rifles and shotguns, the most popular hunting guns, and 60 percent own handguns, Smith said. Almost half of gun owners possess both.
"The oldest adults were, at least at one time, the most avid of hunters," he said.
Now they fear they're the hunted, according to The Gun Store manager Dave Vining, who heads the store's concealed-weapons instruction program.
"They're scared," Vining said. "They're afraid they won't be able to protect themselves against home invasions, muggings, robberies, carjackings."
It's not that older people are more likely to be crime victims.
Since January, 9 percent of robberies in Las Vegas were committed against citizens older than 60, according to police. Three percent of assault and battery victims were older than 60.
People 65 and older make up 10 percent of the population of Clark County, according to the state demographer's office.
Las Vegas police Sgt. Tom Johnson, who handles gun registration and concealed-firearms permits, said he thinks senior citizens buy guns to feel safer in crime-ridden areas.
Johnson said gun shops tend to exaggerate the number of senior citizens purchasing guns, but he said the department does not keep track of gun ownership according to age, sex or religion.
All the members of the Senior Militia have gone through the qualification and registration process that lets them carry their weapons concealed in public.
Vince Pillig, 58, one of the younger members of the group, said he has twice shown his gun to teens he thought were trying to rob him.
Once, Pillig said, he was home alone when he spotted some teenagers climbing over the wall of his back yard. Pillig went to his back screen door, showed them his gun and told them to leave.
Another time, Pillig said he flashed the butt of his gun at teenagers at his door who claimed to be selling magazine subscriptions. They could not provide identification, Pillig said, and they fled in a car with no license plate.
Gun ownership among senior citizens isn't risk-free, said Matt Bennett, a spokesman for Americans for Gun Safety. The national organization says law-abiding adults have the right to own guns but fears that some older adults are incapable of handling a gun responsibly.
Bennett said gun-related suicides among senior citizens also are a major concern. In 2002, the most recent year for which numbers are available, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that 16,882 Americans committed suicide with guns, 36 percent of whom were older than 55.
Published: 08.05.2004
'Senior Militia' brooks no threat
Members keep gun skills sharp so they won't be targets
By Lynn Doan
LAS VEGAS SUN
LAS VEGAS - Some arrive at the indoor shooting range in wheelchairs. Others use walkers. A few are missing limbs lost in wars.
They call themselves the "Senior Militia," a group of about 20 gunslingers mostly in their 60s who meet twice weekly to shoot the breeze - and their guns.
They are vigilant about their standing date for target practice because they think that off the range they are the targets.
"Old people tell me they feel like sheep, because they're so helpless," said John McCormack, 80, unofficial president of the group.
McCormack and other members of the group are part of a growing population of Americans older than 65 who are the most likely of all age groups to own guns.
Until the 1990s, men 40 to 49 were the demographic group most likely to own guns, said Tim Smith of the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago. Now gun ownership is most prevalent among senior citizens, Smith said.
In 1982, 30 percent of Americans older than 65 reported they owned guns, compared with 38 percent of Americans ages 40 to 49, according to a survey by the National Opinion Research Center.
That reversed by 2002, with 37 percent of Americans older than 65 owning guns and 24 percent of Americans ages 40 to 49 reporting ownership.
Smith said the shift was partly because Americans who reported having guns two decades ago moved into the older age group and because younger generations have lost interest in hunting.
Eighty percent of gun owners own rifles and shotguns, the most popular hunting guns, and 60 percent own handguns, Smith said. Almost half of gun owners possess both.
"The oldest adults were, at least at one time, the most avid of hunters," he said.
Now they fear they're the hunted, according to The Gun Store manager Dave Vining, who heads the store's concealed-weapons instruction program.
"They're scared," Vining said. "They're afraid they won't be able to protect themselves against home invasions, muggings, robberies, carjackings."
It's not that older people are more likely to be crime victims.
Since January, 9 percent of robberies in Las Vegas were committed against citizens older than 60, according to police. Three percent of assault and battery victims were older than 60.
People 65 and older make up 10 percent of the population of Clark County, according to the state demographer's office.
Las Vegas police Sgt. Tom Johnson, who handles gun registration and concealed-firearms permits, said he thinks senior citizens buy guns to feel safer in crime-ridden areas.
Johnson said gun shops tend to exaggerate the number of senior citizens purchasing guns, but he said the department does not keep track of gun ownership according to age, sex or religion.
All the members of the Senior Militia have gone through the qualification and registration process that lets them carry their weapons concealed in public.
Vince Pillig, 58, one of the younger members of the group, said he has twice shown his gun to teens he thought were trying to rob him.
Once, Pillig said, he was home alone when he spotted some teenagers climbing over the wall of his back yard. Pillig went to his back screen door, showed them his gun and told them to leave.
Another time, Pillig said he flashed the butt of his gun at teenagers at his door who claimed to be selling magazine subscriptions. They could not provide identification, Pillig said, and they fled in a car with no license plate.
Gun ownership among senior citizens isn't risk-free, said Matt Bennett, a spokesman for Americans for Gun Safety. The national organization says law-abiding adults have the right to own guns but fears that some older adults are incapable of handling a gun responsibly.
Bennett said gun-related suicides among senior citizens also are a major concern. In 2002, the most recent year for which numbers are available, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that 16,882 Americans committed suicide with guns, 36 percent of whom were older than 55.
