Local youth gun safety club brings back national awards

When mule deer season opens later this fall, Weston Marr, 16, will be ready to bag his harvest.

Marr came home from a hunter and gun safety and education competition in Bentonville, Arkansas, this past weekend with a first in safety trail discipline and a second place in the shotgun competition. The event is called the National Youth Hunter Education Challenge Championship. Marr is a member of the 10X Youth Shooting Club, a group of close to 35 Las Cruces youth who learn about gun and hunting safety.

Even though the local club went up against some stiff competition with competitors from states such as Louisiana and Arkansas, Marr said he wasn’t nervous. He’s been handling guns since a young age and initially learned from his father and uncle.

“It was a good experience. It’s a different feeling than state (championship). There’s more pressure on the competition. It’s a higher level,” Marr said.

Marr wasn’t the only one to come home with prizes.

Jeremy Hash, a coach, said the junior team placed first in the shotgun competition.

Hash said the junior team shot 30 clay targets that a machine throws out. Some of those clay targets travel away from the students, some travel towards them and some travel across the sky.

“It’s a pretty challenging course,” Hash said.

Travis Brown, president of YHEC, said the junior team also came in second in loading a muzzle and third in the rifle contest.

The senior team took third place in the safety trail contest, Brown said. The senior team won first place for their age group at the state championship, which took place in Raton in June, Hash said.

Brown said the kids who get involved in the club generally have an interest in the outdoors.

He said the club doesn’t take the students out into the field to shoot. They work on education and practice at a local shooting range. But he said most of the youth members go out into the field to hunt and shoot with family members.

“There’s usually some general level of interest for the parents and siblings and that’s what draws them to join the club,” Brown said.

Brown said an integral aspect of what the youth members learn is gun and hunting safety.

“Everything we do revolves around the safe and responsible use of all those tools when it comes to learning how to use them properly, learning to improve marksmanship skills. Safety is the foundation and the basis of what the curriculum is geared around,” Brown said.

To be able to join the club, the youth, who range in age from 8 to 18, must first complete a hunter education course approved by the state of New Mexico. Hash said it is a minimum 16-hour course.

“Our 100% focus is firearm safety. Every time we go to the range, we go through safety controls, muzzle control,” Hash said.

He said the youth must memorize the types of animals they are legally able to shoot in the state and are tested on this knowledge using targets with only five seconds to determine the animal and if they have an open target with no people or homes nearby.

Hash said the youth practice from January to July for about 2 ½ to 3 ½ hours three times a week.

Hash said that if a youth who wants to participate can’t supply a firearm, the club can help with that.

Brown said the club’s concept is no different than other sporting activities, such as baseball or football.

“A part of the shooting activity is building confidence, just like any skill development. It has to do with repetition, commitment, life skills. We’re teaching good sportsmanship and being a good team member to other youth in the program,” Brown said. “At the end of the day, we’re developing well rounded youth. We’re just doing that through shooting and outdoorsmanship.”

For Marr, a junior who attends Mesilla Valley Christian School, shooting with a shotgun is a favorite sport.

He said he drew a permit for four mule deer this fall, which is his favorite game to harvest.

But even at 16, Marr can see the difference gun and hunter safety have on the youth younger than he is.

“It’s a great way to get a new hunter into knowing the proper techniques and how to be safe in the field. I see it in the younger kids. How to be more responsible with firearms,” he said.