Belo- You of all people should be aware of what kinds of negative things can happen when people are in the minority or refuse to support the organizations and activities that they supposedly feel passionate about. Support means numbers. Numbers mean power. Power means control over how you want your activities conducted, regulated, and maintained When you lose that control, there are plenty of other people waiting on the sidelines to take advantage of weaknesses. You've seen it happen.
Of course I don't believe that crossbows will even register a blip on the over-all hunting numbers. They may serve as a conduit that shifts hunters from gun season to bow season, but in terms of adding over-all hunter numbers ..... I doubt it. But I will say that we cannot and should not under-estimate how serious this problem of shrinking hunters is. Don't belittle the problem. We can't afford that kind of apathy. As we continue to lose hunters, we continue to become politically irrelevant. With animal rights people gaining in numbers, resources and influence in government, hunter declines are the dreams of these people and they certainly know what to do with any advantages that we hand them.