The Mind of the Marksman

Reflections

2006-08-14T10:15:00.000-04:00

Over these past few weeks of this economics class, I have learned through new ways. One of which is this blog. It has given me a chance to incorporate something I love (competitive shooting) with economics. I've enjoyed this experience in this class very much. Not only have I been enjoying this because I'm with friends and one of my favorite teachers but the fact that I have been given a voice to speak on a subject that most people wouldn't really incorporate with economics. While giving my opinion on current events with competitive shooting, and my passion for it.

I've liked this experience because it's made a class that most people would think of very boring into a very exciting and interesting adventure. Exploring new ideas and ways of thinking with today's technology has always intrigued me so this experience has been more fun than work and has made it easier for me to learn some of the more difficult theories in economics.

The only thing I would have changed would have been the way the blogs would be setup. I would've made it so that one day everyone worked on their own blog and the next that they would engage in sharing their thoughts of everyone else's. Everyone was more worried about their own blog in this class that no one really commented or bloged about this and share their thoughts with each other like this assignment was setup to do. I think given more time this idea would've worked. This idea has the potential to make classes such as economics more comprehensible for those students who have a hard time with formal teaching techniques. This idea in my opinion will make it easier for most students to understand harder subjects and increase the passing rate of students in the next few years.

Wages in competitive shooting

2006-08-09T10:17:00.000-04:00

Wage Price is the price of labor. Say that you are a gun smith, you are paid $200 to repair a persons rifle, part of the price you are paid is your wage price or the amount of money your labor costs, and the other is the price of the parts.

Derived Demand is a demand that is the result of some other demand. A great example of this would be the demand for ammo after there is a great demand for rifles.

Minimum wage law is a federal law that specifies the lowest hourly wage rate that can be paid to workers. So let say your just out of high school and you want to buy your own rifle so you get a new job. When you start your job this law prevents your employer from paying you a salary less than the minimum wage.

Labor union is an organization that seeks to increase the wages and improve the working conditions of its members. Many people who work for rifle manufacturing corporations are in labor unions to protect their rights and wages.

Closed shop is an organization that hires only union members. Another example would be that most major matches are closed shops because they only allow NRA members to shoot in these matches.

Taft-Hartley Act is an act passed which made the closed shop illegal and gave states the right to pass right-to-work laws. The right-to-work laws prohibit employers from establishing union membership as a condition of employment. This means that if you went to work at a place like Anshutz were majority of the employees were unionized and you aren't, they are not allowed to turn you away because you are part of that union.

Union shop is an organization that requires employees to join the union within a certain period after being hired. Many manufacturing companies of rifle equipment are union shops.

Strike is a work stoppage called by union members to put pressure on an employer. Many strikes occur in ammunition factories, because people believe that they aren't being paid enough for the risks that they are taking working with the substances they use.

Competitive market in Competitive shooting.

2006-08-07T11:12:00.001-04:00

Market structure is the setting in which a seller finds itself. Market structures are defined by their characteristics, such as the number of sellers in the market, the product that sellers produce and sell, and how easy or difficult it is for new firms to enter the market. The market structure of competitive shooting can be defined as how easy it is for new marksmen to get into the market and stick with it.

Perfectly competitive market, now many people would definitely link the perfectly competitive market with competitive shooting. Which is true this market is very competitive in both the point of view from the eyes of the marksmen and the corporations manufacturing the rifles.

Price takers, now marksmen are price takers. Price takers are sellers that can sell all its output at the equilibrium price but can sell none of its output at any other price. This would be more mental and physical than it would be price and cost wise for a marksmen. A marksmen can't be rewarded for doing the bare minimum of his or hers ability and if they give more the maximum they aren't getting the enough reward for their effort.

monopolistic markets are found in competitive rifle too. These can be found at the high school level where one team has the equipment and the talent for the sport and dominates the league in which they are in. Which discourages other teams from excelling thus pushing the lower teams into the abyss. This higher standard brought by this team is called a barrier to entry because it prohibits smaller and less talented teams the chance to excel in the league.

Anshutz is a price searcher, which means they can sell some of it's outputs at various prices. They are able to sell rifles at equilibrium or above and bellow equilibrium.

Public Franchise is a right granted to a firm by the government that permits the firms to provide a particular good or service and excludes all others from doing so. A great example would be the National Rifle association. They are granted certain rights by the government that no other shooting organization has. The NRA is also a natural monopoly because every major rifle competition is funded or hosted by the NRA.

An antitrust law is a legislation passed for the stated purpose of controlling monopoly power and preserving and promoting competition. There is an antitrust law in effect to keep companies such as Anshutz from taking over the rifle industry.

Monopolistic competitive market is a market structure characterized by many buyers and many sellers, the preduction and sale of slightly differentiated products, and easy entry into and easy exit from the market. Show up all the time in the world of competition rifle. An example of this would be the equipment market in competition rifle.

Oligopolistic market is a market structure characterized by few sellers,the production and sale of either identical or slightly differentiated products, and significant barriers to entry. This would be the market of rifle manufacturing in competitive rifle.

Cartel agreement is an agreement that specifies how the firms that entered into the agreement will act in a coordinated way to reduce the competition among them. Such things would be used in once again the world of equipment manufacturing, which might give certain companies rights to certain products.

Price discrimination has appeared a couple of times in competitive shooting were a local rifle salesman will sell a rifle to one person for one price and then sell the same rifle to another person for a different price without the cost for the seller to change at all.

Business in competitive shooting

2006-08-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

This is how business plays a role in the market of competitive shooting. Including all the main aspects of businesses.

Business firms are organizations that use resources to produce goods and services that are sold to consumers, other business, or the government. Some business firms in competitive shooting are Anshutz, Champion's Choice, and Remington. These are some of the more popular business firms in the sport of competitive shooting, but there are many others who have the idea that this sport could be a great profit.

A sole proprietorship is a business that is own by one individual, who makes all the business decisions, receives all the profits or takes the losses of the firm, and is legally responsible for the debts of the firm. An example of this goes back to the earlier one of my friend who owns the competitive rifle shop. His business is an example of a sole proprietorship because my friend owns his shop, makes all business decisions and receives al the profits or takes all the losses from his shop. On the other hand a partnership is a business that is owned by two or more co-owners, called partners, who share any profits, this would be like the big firms like another competitive shop in Perry, Ohio were it's owned by two brothers instead of one person owning it.

Anshutz and Champion's Choice are corporations which are legal entity that can conduct business in its own name in the same way that an individual does, and is owned by its stockholders. Stockholders buy shares of stock in a corporation. A share of stock represents a claim on the assets (any value of which the firm has a legal claim)of the corporation, and gives the purchaser a share of ownership.

Stockholders have limited liability meaning that they cannot be sued for the corporation's failure to pay it's debts. So I hold shares of Anshutz stock and they have problems paying their debts this year, I can't get sued for their inability to pay their debts.

A board of directors is an important decision-making body in a corporation that determines corporate policies and goals. Without a board of directors, corporations like Anshutz wouldn't be able to function properly.

A franchise in competitive shooting would be Champion's Choices. A franchise is a contract by which a firm lets a person or group use its name and sell its goods or services. The franchiser of this franchise would be the main Champion's Choice and the franchisee would be the person who buys the franchise.

Shirking is when someone on a team of people puts forth less than the agreed-to effort. A good example of this in competitive shooting would be, that you and your team agree with your coach to shoot a total score from everyone of 1300 points with a reward of a bounce house. Everyone on the team knows that this goal is reachable, but one person on the team decides that it was more important to fool around than come that day for the big match, and instead of getting that bounce house the whole team has to buy the coach dinner. This effected the rest of the team because they put in their full share and that one person didn't, which that night left the remaining people in the team to pay for that one person's laziness.

Fixed cost is a cost, or expense, that is the same no matter how many units of a good are produced. An example of this in competitive shooting would be range fees for the year for the range that you go to.

Variable cost is a cost, or expense, that changes with the number of units of a good is produced. A good example of this would be the rifles used for the sport, the more that are produced often the lower the price or sometimes the price will go up.

Total cost is the sum of fixed costs plus variable costs. This would be your total cost of the supplies you've bought over the year like a new rifle, ammo and your total range fees. This total cost would be much higher your first year of shooting than the next because the next year you may only need to buy ammo and pay range fees.

Average total cost is the total cost divided by the quantity output. This in competitive rifle would be linked to the effort put in and the ranking you get at the end of the match. You can only get back what you put in.

Marginal cost is the cost of producing an additional unit of a good; the change in total cost that results from producing an additional unit of output. Would be connected with the production of rifles and not the shooting of them so we won't go into too much detail.

Marginal revenue is the revenue from selling an additional unit of a good: the change in total revenue that results from selling an additional unit of output. This goes back to my friend who sells rifles in his shop. For every additional rifle sold there is a change and this is looked at in the marginal revenue.

Law of diminishing marginal returns is a law that states that if additional units of resource are added to another resource in fixed supply, eventually the additional out put will decrease. This is shown in my friends shop as well because the additional units that are added will eventually become part of the fixed supply.

The supply and demand of competitive shooting.

2006-07-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

In competitive shooting, supply and demand comes in both mental and physical aspects. For the marksmen they have to be able to deal with the mental and physical demands that the sport requests of their own body. As a marksmen their is a great mental demand from this sport, it requires you to develop discipline and patience towards both the shooting aspect and the cooperation with other marksmen on the firing line. For some people this is the hardest part of this sport. For others the hardest part may be the physical demand of the sport. Competitive shooting requires a person to get into specific positions and hold them for a very long amount of time. These are the two greatest demands from this sport on a person's actual being. I was told once by one of my favorite mentors, that once the mind and body supply what the sport demands of them, then the body will become and well tuned machine. Once this level has been reached, you then have only one way to become better and that is to improve not yourself, but your equipment.

Good equipment isn't necessary when you first start out but as you grow in your skills and reach the highest point you can on skill alone, then the only way to keep excelling is to improve your equipment. Equipment for this sport has become very expensive in the resent years because of the sudden demand for it to be better more efficient. After a person upgrades to a new rifle it is most likely that they sell their older one for a lower price than it was sold bran new, but this case isn't always true depending on how much work is done on the rifle tends to tell the price.

If you were given a choice at first would you buy a used competition rifle for about $600 or would you go out and buy a brand new one for roughly $2,000 without knowing weather you like the sport or not? The answer is no, most people tend to start this sport in high school if that school they go to supplies a team(most don't). If a person starts in high school their equipment is supplied to them, therefore there is no money spent on equipment. This means the cost of seeing if this sport is for you is nothing, but if you start much later even used equipment costs a pretty penny.

So for a bran new marksmen whose out of high school the quantity demand for a used rifle would be much greater than that of a bran new rifle. This is simple to understand, the quantity demand of a good is the number of units of that good that is purchased at a specific rate. Ok here's and example, a friend of mine helps other marksmen to sell their used rifles, but he also carries bran new ones in his shop. He only carries at the maximum 5 different new rifles and maybe 2 of each, but he carries anywhere from 10 to 30 used rifles that are in very good shape. He does this because there's a greater demand for used rifles than new ones. This is because in the area he works there's more new marksmen than older ones. Plus the quantity demand for used rifles is much greater because they tend to range from $300 to $800 and some come in a package with all the rest of the equipment if the previous owner has decided to quit the sport. My friend sells about 200 used rifles a year and only about 50 new rifles.

We're now going look at two new rifles and we're going to figure out which one has a greater quantity demand. The first one is an Anshutz 2013500RSS which includes sights and aluminum stock, this rifle sells for a price of $2995.00. Lets say that Anshutz sells 50 of them this year. The second one is also an Anshutz but different model, model number 2010926 which includes sights and wooden stock, this one sells for $1325.00. Anshutz sells 150 of them this year. Ok then this year the second one has the great quantity demand because more of the 2010926 was sold at is given price than the 2013500RSS. Then lets say that the price of the wood to make the stock on the 2010926 goes up so much that the price jumps to $3850.00. This price change now makes it cheaper to buy the 2013500RSS. Do you think that the 2010926 would still have the greater quantity demand? The answers no because the 2013500RSS is now cheaper and people are more willing to buy it at the resent price than they are willing to buy the 2010926 at it's current price.

The Anshutz 2013500RSS and 2010926 are called substitutes, which are similar goods that if the price of one increases or decreases the demand of the other will move in the same direction. Because the price of the 2010926 increased to the point the 2013500RSS was cheaper the demand for the 2013500RSS increased aswell.

A demand curve (a graph showing the law of demand) or a demand schedule (a chart showing the law of demand) will show you why the demand for the 2010926 decreased. But first I'll explain the law of demand. The law of demand says that as price of a product increases, the demand for the product decreases and vice versa. So as the price for the 2010926 increases, the demand for it decreased.

With competitive shooting there are many complements which are goods that are consumed jointly with another good and with complements the price of one and that demand for the other go in opposite directions. For example as the price of competition rifles go down the demand for ammunition goes up mainly because more people are able to afford rifles and thus need ammunition to shoot.

Bran new competition rifles are considered to be normal goods because the demand for it rises and falls as income rises and falls. This is simple to explains, if people's income rises they have more money to spend on high priced stuff like competition rifles. Thus causing the demand for competition rifles to increase with peoples incomes, because now it's easier for people to afford such things. While on the other hand used competition rifles are considered to be inferior goods because as income increases people are able to buy more new rifles instead of buying used ones. Therefore the demand for used rifles decreases as income increases, and the opposite true for this too. As people's incomes decrease the demand for such things like used rifles increases.

For marksmen a neutral good would be ear plugs, eye protection and other small items necessary to shoot under the rules. For example if people's income increases the $5 ear plugs are still going to be in the same demand as they were when people's income was lower and will stay the same because they are something needed to shoot by regulations.

Elastic Demand is a type of demand that exists when the percentage changes in the quantity demand is greater than the percentage change in price. This happens a lot when a new rifle is released at a low price and then the price goes up may 10% as the quantity demand increases, but the quantity demand increases by 50% sense this new rifle has a better design and makes it easier to stay in position longer. On the other hand the price starts to jump and gets about 50% increase which gets to the point where other rifles are looking better. So the quantity demand doesn't increase much only 10%. Then the quantity demand becomes less than the price change, this is known as inelastic demand.

Now we're going to switch keys and go look at it from the suppliers point of view. I'm going to use the more popular supplier Anshutz for our examples. Ok earlier we talked mostly about demand now I'm talking about supply. First we need to understand the law of supply. The law of supply states that as the price of a good increases the quantity supplied increase and vice versa. Two ways to show the law of supply are a supply curve(a graph showing the law of supply) and supply schedule( a chart showing the law of supply).

Quantity supplied is the number of units of a good produced and offered for sale at a specific price. For example Anshutz produces a rifle called the Anshutz 2013500RSS (I talked about it earlier) and the starting price for it is $2995.00. Lets say that Anshutz produces 1000 of the them at its current price this year. But next year they're going to offer the same rifle for $2000.00 and they only produce 600 of them. This is the number of rifles that are produced at these prices.

Elastic supply is when the quantity supplied is greater than the percentage of the change in price. For example Anshutz produces 40% more 2013500RSSs this year but the price only went up by 10%. Inelastic supply is just the opposite, the quantity supplied is less than the percentage of the change in price. Instead of the price only going up 10% it jumps to 50% this would cause the supply to change from elastic to inelastic.

Equilibrium is the point at which the quantity of a good that buyers are willing and able to buy is equal to the quantity that the sellers are willing to and able to produce and offer for sale. For example Anshutz comes out with a bran new rifle called the 2010922 and it's perfect. But before the product can reach equilibrium their has to be a fifty-fifty even compromise, thus the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied. Which ends up being 10,000 of these rifles a year this is known as the equilibrium quantity. Then these rifles are sold at a price of $1670.00 this is called the equilibrium price.

With equilibrium comes other aspect's such as shortages and surplus. A shortage occurs when the quantity demand of a good is greater than the quantity supplied. This tends to happen when prices are below equilibrium price. For example Anshutz 2010922 is put on sale for $1490.00 and Anshutz still supplies the same amount of rifles, they're going to run into a shortage because the quantity demanded will increase while the quantity supplied will stay the same. The opposite happens when the next year Anshutz increases the price to $2005.00 and the quantity demand stays the same, this is called a surplus.

This is the supply and demand of the market of competitive shooting. But now in days this market is decreasing because there are less and less young people joining the sport. Over the years high schools have stopped offering their students a rifle team. This main reason is that PTOs and mothers of the students don't think its a good idea to promote guns in schools. This is sad because this sport teaches lessons that most students could never learn in a classroom or at home. There's a bond created between people on a team, that is much like the bond found in a family. The trust needed between people on a team in order for no one to get hurt and for the team to work as one, is only found in one other place and that's in the military. What I think the saddest part is that many people except hunting and some schools even count the first day of any season as an excused absence. So in society we can except hunting but not competitive shooting where nothing and nobody gets hurt. There are very few injuries associated with competitive shooting but tons linked to hunting. So really, why is this sport so badly looked upon?

Intro

2006-07-26T19:16:00.000-04:00

Hello,
I would like to spread the word on competitive shooting, both High School and NRA sanctioned competitions, also I'm hoping to take this subject I love more than anything and tie it into economics for a class I'm taking.
First of all I would like to start by saying that I am a young marksmen currently ranked through the NRA. I think that in today's society trust and discipline are missing, but are in great demand. One thing I've learned through shooting with others, is that you have to learn to trust the person shooting next to you and everyone else on the firing line. Before you can trust your fellow marksmen you must first develop and show great discipline for the sport. Without discipline this sport would fall apart because trust would be lost between both the coach (if your on a team) and your fellow marksmen, or just between you and the other marksmen.
But there are many truly wonderful things about this sport. Wherever you may go to shoot the people you meet are some of the nicest you will ever meet. Most competitive marksmen are willing to give you advice and even share equipment if something happens and you forget something. Also this sport is open to both men and women on the same teams or as individuals. This is something you can do for the rest of your life, there is no age limit. But the key to this sport is to have a great time, if you can't enjoy shooting, joke with other marksmen or take a joke well then my advice is that this sport isn't for you.
Yes this is a competition, but the winning and loosing doesn't mean much in the end, what does are the skills and friends you make after each and every match. This sport isn't all "ok lets pull the trigger and hit the target on the paper," this sport is a mental and physical game, that will play on both your weaknesses and strengths.
Ok I think I've explained my views on this sport and would like to hear your own opinion if you are a fellow marksmen or questions if you think this sport's interesting and want to know more about it. For those of you asking questions I would like to ask that you go to my guestbook found under related pages on the side bar. This is just so we don't end up with repeated questions. Please note that your questions may be written on my other page, but will be answered daily on this main page.