About the Junior Shooting Sports Program

The American Legion Junior Shooting Sports Program is a gun safety education and marksmanship program that encompasses the basic elements of safety, education, enjoyment and competition. Shooters use the .177 caliber air rifle. Both males and females can participate, through Legion sponsorship; disabled youth are encouraged to join, as competitive shooting is a sport that creates an equal playing field for all competitors. 

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Skills learned in shooting are valuable in other aspects of life. Learning to be safe a shooter teaches responsibility. Learning to hit a difficult target teaches self-discipline and self-control. Learning to hold a firearm steady and hit the target teaches concentration. Knowing that the shooter alone is ultimately responsible for His or Her performance teaches self-reliance and individual esteem.

Shooting tests how well one can control His or Her own body in using a firearm to hit a target. It's hard to imagine being able to control one-self so well as to almost hit a target the size of a typed period from 10 meters away, but in shooting that is what your child will learn to do.

 

Air Rifle Competition

The annual 3-Position Junior Air Rifle National Championship is a tournament that begins with postal matches. State and/or regional champions are determined and advance to a qualification round (also a postal match) to determine the athletes who will earn expense-paid trips to compete in the national championship. The national championship is a shoulder-to-shoulder match held each July at the USA Shooting range facilities at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

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Click here to ask for additional information about or program or to attend an upcoming class.