Shooting sports remain a popular pastime for Arkansas' young people. This summer, the National Rifle Association held the Youth Hunter Education Challenge National Championships in Benton County. Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis visited the event and spoke with a researcher on youth gun violence about how programs like this one affect outcomes. He offers this report.
(This story contains discussion about suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat via 988lifeline.org. Help is free, confidential and available 24/7.)
Shots crack across the grassland. Families huddle under the shade of pop-up tents as children wearing cowboy hats, boots and Oakley sunglasses move from shooting ranges into the bordering forests. This is the NRA'sYouth Hunter Education Challenge National Championship, and this year it's in Centerton.
Gary Jobe serves as the national director for the NRA's Youth Hunter Education Challenge.
"This is our 41st year of operation. We're a teaching training education program. And then what we're doing here today is kind of like the Super Bowl of youth shooting sports. We've got youth from 14 different states, over 180 youth here competing. They compete in nine different events."
Naturally, there are classic shooting competitions using a .22 rifle, a .22 pistol, a shotgun, a muzzleloader and bow and arrow. The championship also includes compass and orienteering, trail challenges, a shoot/don't shoot safety trail, a firearm responsibility exam and a wildlife ID course.
"So it's not just how well you can shoot. There's a lot of studying and bookwork that's involved and learning the difference between two ducks. Or they have to know, they have to have knowledge of game laws and things of that nature."
Jobe takes us to the shoot/don't shoot trail.
"They walk up to a station and there'll be a situation there and they have to make a snap decision. They have about five seconds to decide if they would shoot or don't shoot. They have to determine if it's a safe situation. They have to decide if it's illegal.
"So there could be a dove, a fake dove sitting out there on a tree limb. And it's got a good, safe background. It's dove season, but we teach that using a shotgun, shooting a bird sitting on a limb or ground is not ethical, right? Not giving them a sporting chance. They get a good indoctrination on that."
Jobe says the purpose of the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, or YHEC program, is to create holistic hunters out of today's younger enthusiasts. The program's main goal is safe, ethical and responsible enjoyment of the outdoors.
“And in today's environment, people my age, that's 50, 60, 70 and older, we grew up in more or less an agricultural rural farm area, and hunting was nature. But many of our young people are urban, suburban. They're not exposed to these outdoor activities. So not every young boy or girl is set up for softball or baseball or soccer. So this is an alternative."
This is a top-level competition. All kids who make it this far have already competed and scored well in local and state competitions. So everyone here is not only a good shot, but also well-versed in firearm safety, which according to researchers, can be a lifesaving skill when combined with other tactics.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, firearm-related injury is the leading cause of death for people 1 to 19 years old when you combine homicide, suicide and unintentional injuries.
Cindy Ewell Foster is a clinical professor in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry and a researcher at the university'sInstitute for Firearm Injury Prevention.
"I've been a trainer for other clinicians. I do research in the area of youth suicide prevention. So that's really my calling and my passion. And I got interested in firearm injury prevention because of the role of firearms in youth suicide and, of course, all suicides across the life span in the United States.
"Over half of all suicides actually in the United States are completed with a firearm. So it became pretty clear to me as a researcher that if we want to move the needle around suicide prevention in the United States, we have to have some prevention strategies that involve firearms."
Jobe says he disputes the CDC's characterization of gun deaths as the leading cause of death for people ages 1 to 19 entirely.
"I respectfully disagree with your response. It is not the leading cause. Shooting sports is one of the safest sports or activities of young people. So it is not at all. It don't even rank close to other activities for youth accidents and deaths."
He's not wrong about shooting sports' strong safety record. However, when you combine unintentional injuries in organized shooting sports with other accidents and gun use and homicide and suicide, firearms are the leading cause of death for that age group.
Ewell Foster says there isn't a one-size-fits-all response for addressing problems like suicide or firearm injuries.
"And I think what we're learning is the things that are most effective and most impactful are comprehensive solutions where we are all working together in lots of different ways to try to address a societal problem."
The institute has a program focused on implementing best practices in communities where guns are a permanent fixture. Ewell Foster says they've been working in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in a town of about 20,000 called Marquette. The Marquette County Health Department has been a helpful partner.
"That's an area in Michigan that's very rural. Hunting is a huge part of the culture there. And so being able to elevate the voices and perspectives of so many responsible firearm owners and have them teach us about different kinds of safety strategies, I think is really amazing."
Back in Benton County, Jobe says that the NRA's YHEC program is the solution to youth gun safety.
"We are the total answer. And not just the YHEC program. There's many other youth shooting programs starting with BB going to Olympic-style air rifle to shotgun to archery. Teaching how to hit a bull's-eye is one thing. That's that skill and training to do that. But the other part of the training is the mentality of it, is in developing the right attitude."
However, the data from the CDC and Michigan's research institute shows that hunter education programs are only part of the solution. They must work in tandem with other initiatives. For example, teaching parents how to safely store their firearms so kids don't have unrestricted access.
The Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention has a CDC-funded program calledStore Safely that promotes this approach. Ewell Foster says a great comparison is a driver's license.
"All of our kids, before we get driver's licenses in the U.S., we all got to take driver's training, right? My kids took it. You took it. We put them in class, and we teach them about what they need to do to be a safe driver. But that's not all we do as a society, right? It can't just be that, because we all know that sometimes you learn in driver's ed that speeding is dangerous, except also kids still speed.
"And so we as a society put different structures in place to keep our kids safe. We use seat belts and we make using your seat belt the law. We put air bags in cars. We've redesigned highways to make sure they're a little safer. And sometimes we pull kids over because they're speeding.
"And so I think that analogy works here too, that hunter safety is fantastic. My kids took hunter safety. But I also think there's other pieces that are a really important part of the solution to reduce the numbers of people that we're losing in the U.S. to firearm-related injury."
So what are some of those solutions? Well, safely storing firearms when not in use is a huge mitigator. That means in a safe behind a combination lock and away from ammunition. Ewell Foster says if parents don't practice safe storage, firearm education may not be as effective as it could be. These two elements must be combined with other efforts.
"We're actually seeing in rural communities some really concerning elevated risk for suicide and firearm suicide among young people in rural communities. So again, knowing that a firearm is a tool to take seriously and having that education and that respect for the weapon that you would get in hunter safety, that's not necessarily going to keep you safe.
"So you go to hunter safety when you're 8, 9, 10, it's not necessarily going to keep you safe if you're in the middle of a mental health crisis when you're 15 or 16, right? And in fact, you might make the argument that knowing how to use that weapon is a risk factor for you, right?
"And so then as parents, as communities, what we need to do is be sure that we have those structures in place, right? We've got our weapons locked up in our home and our kids need to go through us to get a key or get a combination. We've got that ammunition separated and stored separately from that firearm."
About 45 Marquette families participated in the first pilot program, and Ewell Foster says that the program was well-received. These parents made promising changes. They increased the number of guns they had locked up and actually began to form community around the program. Her team also learned that gun safety messages are more impactful when they come from a source that people trust.
"I think in a lot of communities you have to ask, who do you want to hear firearm safety education from? So I think programs like the one you're talking about, hunter safety, those folks are speaking with credibility. They're firearm experts. That's who we should be listening to. A lot of folks in rural areas don't want to listen to me, right? I'm a psychologist.
"So credible messenger, make it easy for people to access. Make sure you're really elevating the values and the strengths in a community. And then we try to get them, hit the message home in a lot of different ways.
"So there's some videos and there's some information, and then there's some individualized solutions where folks can have some help making decisions. What kind of firearms do you own? How many do you own? Why do you own them? And what are some options for you in the house that you're living in with the amount of funds that you have available? Because secure storage can be expensive."
At the YHEC competition in Benton County, people traveled from as far as Pennsylvania to compete. Young people like eighth grader Aaron Lawton were happy to be there and proud of the work they had done. Lawton says he's learned from the program and the competitions.
"Just how to treat guns safely and how to be a responsible hunter, and how to do the right things when something goes on, something happens."
And back in Michigan, Ewell Foster says gun safety doesn't have to be a divisive issue.
"I'm a parent. Many of us are parents. We just want our kids to be safe and in our homes and in our schools and in our communities. And the best way to do that is to bring people together who have all different kinds of skill sets and all different kinds of perspectives.
"And when we can do that, so somebody like me who's an academic working with folks who are hunters, who are firearm owners, who have the kind of expertise that I don't have, when we can join together like that, that's how we're going to really make a difference in the United States. It's that collaboration and cooperation around something that we all care about."
Learn more about the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, Ewell Foster's work at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and how you can keep your family safe when handling firearms in Arkansas.
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