By Larry Moore:

Trapshooters once again flocked to the Ohio State Trapshoot but their trek this year was not to the fabled home grounds of the ATA in Vandalia. Those grounds are history. It was to the new shooting facility more centrally located in Marengo Ohio at Exit 140 on I-71 just north of Columbus. Many area shooters made the trip to the new grounds, stayed despite the rather damp weather and some storms, and left happy with the prospect of this world-class shooting facility located in Ohio.

The Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) youth teams opened the trap shoot and broke the first targets at the new facility. Ohio State Trapshooting Association (OSTA) coordinator Sue Kaufman explains, "There were sixty-one squads competing in the SCTP program. This is about the same number as previous years. The program worked very well at our new location. It was really a great year with some good help from a variety of sponsors. The ODNR Division of Wildlife was also a partner in the program this year. A young shooter had the first 200 straight targets this year. That is a first for the SCTP and the first 200 straight targets at our new home grounds. We are excited about the potential to grow the youth shooting program." Several teams from the Greene County Fish and Game Club competed and qualified to go to the Grand American Trapshoot in August. The Rookie Division Team captured third place in their division.

Upon entering the Cardinal Center grounds where the shooting facilities, trap line, buildings and campground are located, I was immediately impressed. Certainly there is a lot of work and many finishing touches to be completed. My first impression was what a great layout of the facility. The long line of trap fields faces north for the best shooting. The open sky background is excellent for seeing the fast clay targets. Unlike the cramped space in Vandalia, here there is space. There is a long parking lot to enable shooters to park much closer to the traps where they will be competing. The west end of the lot does not yet have the gravel down. South of the parking lot is the campground facility neatly nestled among the trees. The campground provides an outstanding location for shooters and families to relax. Talking to many shooters, they echoed my observations and excitement about the facility.

Click on 'Read More' to continue reading and another article explaining how this facility came to be.

By John R. Lott, Jr.
Published July 6, 2006
The Washington Times

It seems simple enough to require that handguns sold in the United
States have gun locks. Yet, last week the House of Representatives
voted 230-191 to bar using federal funds to enforce the law that was
passed only last year as part of a law to shield gun makers from
reckless lawsuits. It is now up to the Senate.
Touting locks as a way to reduce accidental gun deaths among
children, Sarah Brady of the Brady Campaign, a gun-control
organization, immediately responded to the House vote by saying, "as
a mother, this makes me ill." But despite the obvious feel-good
appeal of these rules, gun locks and safe-storage laws are more
likely to cost lives than to save them. Possibly the worst thing
about mandating that handguns be sold with locks is that it
exaggerates the risks of guns in the home and scares some people into
not owning them.
Accidental gun deaths among children are, fortunately, much
rarer than most people believe. With 40 million children in the
United States under the age of 10, there were just 20 accidental gun
deaths in 2003, the latest year with data from the Centers for
Disease Control. While guns get most of the attention, children are
41 times more likely to die from accidental suffocations, 32 times
more likely to accidentally drown and 20 times more likely to die as
a result of accidental fires. Looking at all children under 15, there
were 56 accidental gun deaths in 2003-- still a fraction of the
deaths resulting from these other accidents for only the younger
children.
Given that there are over 90 million adults in America who own
at least one gun, the overwhelming majority of gun owners must have
been extremely careful, even before the 2005 law, or the figures
would be much higher.
Click on 'Read More' for the complete editorial.