Harrison Leadslingers to Host Open House

Harrison School's trap shooting team wants to see their program grow.

*This story was amended on January 6th, 2022 to correct some misinformation regarding the trap shooting team providing all ammo and firearms. Please read details below for the correct information. 

Tammy Raney, Brett Gonzales and Wes Bradford with the Harrison Leadslingers joined KHOZ’s “Around the Table” program on Wednesday to bring awareness to the Harrison School District’s trap shooting team.

While the Leadslingers have been in Harrison for about 10 years awareness of this extra circular activity remains very low.

“We live in an area where hunting, shooting is a popular thing to do,” said Bradford, “and so it’s not hard to find a friend who gets you into it or relative and the next thing you know, you’re having a ball with it and want to keep doing it.”

The program is open to any Harrison student from sixth through the twelfth grade. Ammunition is provided by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission as well as grants applied for by the team. Harrison’s program has already applied for two of those grants, both of which are still pending.

All team members will need to provide their own gun.

Some of the Leadslinger team joined the program as well including Corey Gonzales, Samuel Raney, Matthew Bradford, Keegan Keener, and Lashayla Engle They all talked about what gravitated them towards the team. Bradford said he enjoys it because, “it’s not at the school building, I like how it’s out kind of in the middle of nowhere.”

Gonzales said he saw forms being passed out at the school and noticed that the ammo and everything involved in joining the team was free and said, “you’ve got to be a little bit messed up to not take that offer.”

Engle mentioned how much the program does to promote gun safety and education saying, “A lot of people say guns are dangerous, and yes they can be dangerous, but the gun is only as dangerous as you use it. And so, I think if more people are willing to see outside of their comfort zone, kind of. I think people would actually learn to use guns in a safe way.”

The Leadslingers are hosting an open house on Tuesday, January 11^th, at the Harrison Middle School cafeteria at 6:30 PM for any parents and students interested in learning more.

The full interview with the Harrison Leadslingers can be see here: