Guntry clubs target a new breed of shooter: younger, more affluent and female

Riding a wave of increasing demand for fire arms, high-end gun clubs are popping up across the country to cater to a new generation of shooters. They're called "guntry clubs" and they are full of luxury. (Gabe Silverman/The Washington Post)

Blake Vaught and Alex Williamson, buddies in their late 20s, were having a cognitive dissonance moment.

This place is like a country club, Vaught said, looking at a concierge desk, granite countertops and sleek black couches.

Or like a really nice steakhouse, Williamson said.

They were not at a country club. They were not at a steakhouse. They were at Elite Shooting Sports, a new gun range in Manassas, Va., that, like a wave of other new ranges around the country, is targeting a new breed of shooter younger, more affluent, style-focused, increasingly female and even environmentally conscious.

The gun industrys term for these shooting retreats: Guntry Clubs.

In Miamis arts district, a new high-end club attracts celebrities such as LeBron James who shoot fully automatic machine guns, then chill in VIP lounges. A Texas range features gun valets. A Colorado club offers custom-fitted earplugs, apps to reserve shooting lanes and chess sets. Membership fees at these new ranges are sometimes hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Cigar lounges yes. WiFi of course. There is lots of leather.

The high-end ranges come as the $15billion gun industrys sales have more than doubled since 2005. Fears of regulations with a Democrat in the Oval Office have juiced much of that growth, which is now leveling out. But experts also say an industry shift away from hunting culture has helped spawn a new generation of firearms enthusiasts buying up sleekly designed handguns and AR-15 rifles for tactical shooting practice.

The average age of new target shooters is 33, while 47percent live in urban or suburban areas, and 37percent are female, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry. Shooters spend $10billion a year on target shooting, including the cost of firearms, ammunition and range fees.

Those demographics and economics are attracting investors without firearms industry backgrounds; they see ranges as a new place to employ their cash. Elite Shooting Sports, a nearly $14million project, has investors from the electronics industry. Real estate, finance, hotel and auto industry executives have backed other new ranges.

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Guntry clubs target a new breed of shooter: younger, more affluent and female