Kudos to Parkersburg South High School and Tom Eschbacher for getting the ROTC marksmanship training started at PSHS. I predict that the boys and girls will learn not only marksmanship and firearm safety, but will also learn citizenship, sportsmanship and how to take responsibility for their own actions.
I attended PHS from grades nine through 12, graduating in 1947. That was when "gun control" didn't mean "people control," but meant being able to hit your target. During those four years, there was a small bore (.22 caliber) rifle range over in the trade school next to the airplane mechanics shop. Part of the extramural activities during the home room period was a junior high and a senior high Boys Rifle Club. I was in rifle club all four years of my time at PHS. One day of the week, during home room period we would go over to the range at the north end of the stadium and shoot the rifle club's Model 69 Winchester and Model 75 Winchester .22s in competition.
Also, if we wanted to do more target shooting, we could go to rifle club and shoot one night a week. During that four-year period, to my knowledge, there was not one safety-related accident, incident, or "uh-oh" of any kind.
Bill Rexroad
Parkersburg
