Middle schoolers fired up about marksmanship program

PALMER — Whether for hunting, self-defense, or just because it’s fun, more and more middle school students want to use and learn about guns.

Because of this, teachers Steve and Brenda Montgomery began the Marksmanship Club at Palmer Junior Middle School in the fall of 2012. As certified NRA instructors and volunteers at the Matanuska Valley Sportsmen’s Range in Palmer, the couple had the qualifications and resources to bring their knowledge to students at the school.

The club meets twice weekly from mid-September to mid-November, and during a spring session. Though club members primarily use single-pump pneumatic pellet rifles at a makeshift range behind the school stage, they have the opportunity to use .22 rifles and more at the Sportsmen’s range once or twice a session.

This fall, 35 students signed up for the club — about twice as many as usual, Steve Montgomery said. Since neither the public range nor the school could accommodate so many in one session, the Montgomery’s took the first 20 this fall and have already filled the spring roster.

Steve Montgomery said they used to do just one session year-round, but with increasing demand and students’ desires to play winter sports like basketball and wrestling, the split seemed like a good idea.

“Kids were waiting in line to shoot,” he said.

Eighth-grader Kaylee Foley said she learned to shoot from her father and had gone hunting before, but learned “how to perfect” her shooting during club practices over the last couple years.

Foley’s father, Garth, said they also shoot bows together, but the increased time at the range has clearly done some good.

“I think what it’s done is it’s given her a little more self esteem,” he said. “She was so excited when she showed us her targets.”

Though improving one’s accuracy and precision in shooting is a large part of the club (and arguably the most fun for students), safety is the most important, Montgomery said. That’s why each of his students have memorized the first three rules of shooting, and were able to shout them out at the end-of-season meeting on Thursday: always point your gun in a safe direction, keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot, and keep the gun unloaded until you’re ready to use it.

“My passion is teaching firearm safety, and this Alaska — there are lots of guns here, most everybody hunts, so … let’s teach people how to be safe,” Montgomery said

While it’s called the Marksmanship Club, each session is really a course that walks students through the NRA’s FIRST Steps Rifle Orientation, which includes a written test.

Montgomery said the material is very similar to what is presented in hunter safety courses. He also compared it to lab safety instruction for science and industrial classes the students might take in school.

For sixth-grader Ruby Petrovich, the threat of people was perceived greater than that of misused chemicals, for example. She said her grandmother was the greatest force in convincing her to join the club, just to know how to protect herself.

“I had never shot a gun or known how to handle a gun,” she said.

And now, she’s one of the most improved marksmen in the club, Montgomery said.

Sixth-grader Levi Brink is another club member who had little experience, having never shot anything but a BB gun, but thought the learning curve rather gentle.

“It’s all pretty easy for me,” he said. “It’s really fun.”

Brink said he has enjoyed meeting new people through the club as well, and his classmate, Dylon Thiesing, said it “just makes school more interesting.”

Eighth-grader Aiden Butterfield agreed.

“I’ve never missed a marksmanship day,” he said.

As of yet, there is no competitive component to the club — which Butterfield said he’d be game for — but Montgomery said he hopes to see similar clubs crop up at other Valley schools to make that a possibility.

Foley, too, said he’d like to see more rifle teams crop up, as they inevitably start with safety.

“It’s always good to learn how to be safe with guns.”

For more information on marksmanship at Palmer Junior Middle School, contact Steve or Brenda Montgomery at steve.montgomery@matsuk12.us or brenda.montgomery@matsuk12.us.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.