[Adam Helmer]

Johnny Reb, Gil and Jack,

ALL those 166 kids will vote someday and when a gun ban is on the ballot, they will recall the fun they had shooting balloons. Also, the parents/guardians were made more gun rights oriented.

We used flintlocks about 10 years ago and had five in use. We had many failures to fire due to dull flints. Then we used caplock Hawkens which were fine by my reckoning. About 5 years ago, T/C donated 5 inline Black Diamonds (BDs) and gave us a bushel of cleaning gear, tools, projectiles, etc. I lobbied hard for closed breech arms bolt guns and got nowhere. The BDs are a "Slam Fire" like the zip guns of our youth and spray cap debris back to the shooters. Eye and ear protection is mandatory at our event. Several shooters got a black soot stain on their arms. At our after-event meeting, I will again lobby for safer guns.

Our Youth Field Day is very well supported by local banks and businesses. We collected about $11,000 and spent about $9,500 for the shirts, hats, targets, ammo and lunch provided free to all participants. There is never a fee for participants. Our event is one of the best in PA and Tioga County is the second most rural of all 67 PA counties. Our YFD began in 1995 and gets bigger each year. We set up at the Army Corps of Engineers facility at Ives Run. That is a camp ground and recreation site that is gun-friendly.

There were three workers on the BP Station. After the event we took down the canopies and two folks cleaned the 5 guns. We fired about 1,200 rounds through 5 guns and they needed a good scrubbing.

One more thing: When someone says, "He was knee-high" that is literally the truth with the little guy at YFD. He was the smallest and youngest shooter I ever had the honor of instructing. Sarah Brady would be SO Impressed!

Adam