JROTC j.r.o.t.c Junior ROTC Junior R.O.T.C
Members of the Clark High School JROTC armed drill team practice outside of the school in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

“The militarization of the kids, especially vulnerable kids, is what bothered me,” said Ms. [Deborah] Teal, who added that some students at her former school had started an unsuccessful petition to end the marksmanship program.

The program remains at nearby Santiago High School, in Garden Grove, where it has enjoyed support.

Michael H. Manney, a J.R.O.T.C. instructor at Santiago, wrote to the N.R.A. Foundation this year to say that the marksmanship program had helped draw more students into J.R.O.T.C. and made weapons training available to disadvantaged students who might otherwise have had no one to show them how to handle weapons safely.

“Ultimately, we wish to foster esprit de corps among cadets and the community by providing foundational training of firearms handling and use, which prepares young men and women for careers in law enforcement, department of corrections and military,” he wrote in an N.R.A funding application.

The issue of public schools’ receiving direct funding from the N.R.A. Foundation has at times left districts struggling to navigate the optics.

Emails show the J.R.O.T.C. program at East River High School in Orlando, Fla., dealing with headaches in 2020 over how to receive and process N.R.A. money through the school district without attracting controversy. The school’s J.R.O.T.C. instructor, Steven Celeste, proposed a solution to his colleagues that is often used in other districts: sending money through an entity that is not formally part of the school.

“We just have to ensure their grant money goes to the Booster Club Fund and not the School Fund … too much political backlash involved for us and the school,” he wrote.

Mr. Williams, the J.R.O.T.C. instructor in Cape Coral, said the school was more than willing to openly promote the N.R.A. at its competitions in exchange for the funding it received.

“The N.R.A. Foundation, specifically, is probably the most important resource we have in J.R.O.T.C. for our equipment,” he said.

The lack of objection from parents, students and educators over the program is a reflection of how many lessons students take away from marksmanship training that go far beyond shooting, Mr. Williams said.

“What we tell these kids all the time is, ‘Hey, it’s really great if you improved your score, but what we really want you to do is take away some values. We want you to take away some traits that you can apply to real life,’” he said. “Focus, concentration, self-discipline and self-control. That’s what a shooter takes away from marksmanship.”

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and  in In Public Schools, the N.R.A. Gets a Boost from Junior R.O.T.C.

53 COMMENTS

  1. When I was in High School in Long Beach CA 1962-1966 we had an NRA sponsored Rifle Team that took our .22 caliber rifles to school with us and used the rifle range on the High School Campus, next to the Football Field for practice and competition. We competed against other High Schools. We kept our rifles in our cars in the parking lot and in our lockers at school, along with the ammunition! NO ONE GOT SHOT OR HURT! There were no School Resource Officers on campus! There were no issues whatsoever. You had to take the NRA Safety Course before you could join the team.

    I was also a YMCA and Boy Scout member/counselor from Junior High through college. We had summer camps at Big Bear Lake CA and we brought our .22 rifles or the Camp provided rifles for our shooting. NO ONE GOT HURT AND NO ONE VIOLATED THE RULES. We shot our rifles on the range along with horseback riding, bow and arrow fun, hiking, camping and Christian celebrations.

    Not sure what happened to America, but if you teach kids gun safety from the time they can speak and teach them responsibility, there are no problems with having a gun anywhere you go – just part of life, being armed wherever you may be!

    I would suggest you carry insurance in case of any accident. But the Second Amendment lets us take our guns anywhere in the USA without any government interference, so long as we are law abiding and responsible! Take the classes, compete nationally and locally, be a responsible gun owning US Citizen and protect yourself, your family, your friends, your neighbors and be prepared!

    • Wow! That was even in Southern California.

      You mentioned the following phrase.
      “Not sure what happened to America”

      A lot of harmful things have happened to America since the early 60s.

      1. The government has subsidized and encouraged the destruction of the American family through the welfare system. This has harmed all Americans, but especially black Americans.
      2. No fault divorce (and our gynocentric family court system plus the sexual revolution) has encouraged the destruction of the American family. Children raised without their fathers face great difficulty in life.
      3. Many selfish boomers got divorced and many apathetic Gen X’ers checked out. Both groups (and the Millennials) largely believed the globalist liars and did not have enough children.
      4. Our schools taught the official state sponsored religion of atheism and violent nihilism is a poisonous fruit.
      5. We as a people abandoned the God of the Bible in search of a life of ease, and personal material affluence.
      6. The media, schools, and even the churches lied to us about a bunch of things.
      7. The oligarchs imported tens of millions of poor people from third world countries where crime and corruption are more common. Some of these people brought all the problems from the old country to the new.
      8. To a significant extent, the American people of 1960 have been replaced.

      The people living in Southern California today have almost nothing in common with those living there sixty years ago.

      Rough seas ahead

    • “NO ONE GOT HURT AND NO ONE VIOLATED THE RULES.”

      At a guess, I would say that your memory has faded over the years. Of course rules were violated. We’ve all violated rules at one time or another. What actually happened is, no one FLAGRANTLY broke the rules, and those who did violate a rule from time to time, were successfully counseled on their poor judgement. Such counseling might have ranged from a classmate shouting “Hey asshole, watch what you’re doing” all the way up to a teacher intervening in bad conduct.

      If you think hard, you will probably remember your own embarrassing moment, when someone took you to task.

    • Hah I was a year ahead of you and twenty ,miles away. Im sure my high schoolplayed yours in various sports. I attended a smaller private school we had no facility for a rifle range. But we still grew up much the same. I’d tie my rifle to the top tube of my bike and head up toward Saddleback. No one in town or up there ever took a second look. TBoy Scount camps at Big Bear.. likely our paths crossed during those years.

      To the dweebs warting over kids learning safety and marksmanship (the ONLY effective gun control availble) out there in Florida.. I sincerely doubt that had a certain misfit troubled youth had gone through some of those training and activity sessions he woud NEVER ave bought that rifle and shot up his Florida school. Not certain, but the odds are exrremely high.

  2. How do the neolibs think they’re going to enforce their world order without militarizing kids? Until robot soldiers can do the heavy lifting of causing civilian casualties we still need kids to die to cover up laudering schemes in endless wars.

  3. Our left wing politicians have neutered our country and our youth. Fighting age men in U.S are now drinking $15 Starbucks lattes and making tik tok videos of themselves prancing around in skinny jeans. Meanwhile 16 years old teen boys are wearing loin clothes in knee deep snow learning bayonet skills.

  4. I keep thinking of that video with the kids circling and chanting about their extended magazine “switchy “ equipped Glocks.
    Where did they get their values and safety training? Are they junior ROTC grads?

  5. “According to Herodotus, the ancient Persians felt that what was necessary in the background of a young man entering adulthood was his ability to ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth. Perhaps we should now grant our college degrees to young men who measure up to that standard.” Jeff Cooper

  6. J.R.O.T.C. is a lot better than the liberal J.R.G.D.C. (Junior Raw Grooming Drag Corp) the liberals prefer the kids be in.

    😄

  7. The militarization of our kids, by a military organization. Who’da fucking thunk?

    Even with a pair of pry bars the length of the twin towers, you still couldn’t exert enough leverage to pull their heads out.

  8. Believe it or not guns in schools used to be pretty common. About 20 years ago I bought out the gun inventory from a high school in Irving Texas. The same high school where that Muslim kid made a clock that looked like a bomb that got him arrested. The inventory was a few 1903s, several M1 Grands, and a whole bunch of model 54 22 match rifles. The ammo, spare parts, and extra gear that was thrown in for free far exceeded what I paid for the entire lot.

    • i am glad YOU scored, but the really sad part is that that property is no longer AT the school being used to better train and equip the students there. THAT is the travesty.

      Ill bet one of those Garands would fetch today more than you paid for the whole lot.

  9. I didn’t have the opportunity to participate in J.R.O.T.C., but I did have contact with the organization as an S.R.O. in a couple of high schools. The classes were taught by active duty N.C.O.s. Usually, an E-6 or E-7 originally from the area. I always enjoyed dropping in to visit. Especially if they were studying land nav. Those cadets were the most well behaved students on campus.

    • “Those cadets were the most well behaved students on campus.”

      Well, of course. Who wants Chief Mike the Troll to take a bite out of their asses? Or, Gunnery Sergeant Billy Gargoyle? Almost any NCO E-5 and above knows how to put the fear of God into a captive audience.

      HINT: recruits, cadets, midshipmen, and other junior personnel are NOT YOUR FRIENDS!

      • Paul, why aren’t recruits, cadets, midshipmen, and other junior personnel not our friends? Is it because they are patriots serving our country?
        What did you ever serve? McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell?

  10. ya know… our country, and every country in the world, is militarized and our country and every country send our kids off to actual war…but its a sin to teach them a few things about focus, concentration, self-discipline and self-control that not only aids them in life in general but also provides them the firearm skills needed to save their lives, lives of others, in life and and defend our country when we send them off to war. been going on for many years yet suddenly when the NRA is mentioned publicly in relation its not OK, but it was sure ok in the past for the country to be militarized, for example, 911.

    so goes the twisted sick logic of the left and liberal anti-gun

    • My son realized what he learned in shooting crossed over into his athletics and school work.

      Stamina, concentration, micro-motor skills, and repeatability. He’s already intensely self-disciplined.

    • That’d really suck, I’m dont think I could shoot no woman holding a baby. Maybe they should send in the BATFE instead of the National Guard.

      • possum, if you do not have compassion and empathy. you should not be in law enforcement. Of course, that has to mixed with a large dose of, “I’ve just about enough of your shit! Now we”re going to do it my way and you’re not going to like it.”

      • possum, Who says they are going to shoot anyone? Their purpose is to turnback the invaders.
        Gadsden, there is no way possum would be in law enforcement. He doesn’t have the survival instinct. He’s too busy being “compassionate”, and full of empathy. Never mind these illegals are crossing the border illegally and are lawbreakers.

  11. Fortunately, they SHOULD be under the direction of ” Stay over on your side” Gov Abbot, and not under ” Come on, lotsa free shit ” TheBiden.

    • Let “TheBiden” federalize them… they immediately become Title 10 troops without arrest powers and instead become regular troops to repel a foreign invasion. Sleepy joe’s hands would be tied, so bring it on.

  12. Yeppers them vulnerable kids.
    Google search reveals there is no Drag Queen shows in my local area, dang, me and my grandsons Christmas just got ruined.

    • But, but, but – aren’t those “migrants” just looking for a better life? Just like Attila the Hun, and Genghis Khan the Mongolian, the Vandals, and all the European colonists for the past ~500 years.

      • There is an argument that USA made Latin America the mess it is.
        Examples are the United Fruit Company horrors and later anti communist actions creating armies of CIA trained counter insurgency experts becoming enforcers for dictators then drug cartels. USA could still fix it for example by exterminating drug flow of cash to cartels, etc.
        Khan wasn’t immigrating, he exterminated males.

    • Well there is Andromeda.
      I should have my UniverseEndingPrepetualFusionNuetrinoBlomb up and running before that happens though.

    • Well, and they’d be correct.. just not in the time frame or for the reasons they hold forth. Delusion is strong with them.

  13. DO NOT LET THE LIMP WRIST, HAND WRINGING, WEAK DO NOTHINGS IN ANY SCHOOL DISTRICT DESTROY THE GOOD SOLID TRAINING AND BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY THESE PROGRAMS. The programs will help build America for the future and participants will be there to defend our great Nation from takeover, both foreign and DOMESTIC.

  14. The Left will call you a racist and a h0m0ph0be if necessary to get access to your children. Because you are afraid to be called names. And they will work to prevent your children from learning about their american civil rights. Given to them at birth.

    “[Tom] Ammiano was instrumental in getting rid of San Francisco’s High School competitive .22 cal rifle teams, and worked to put an end to the junior ROTC program in San Francisco’s High Schools. Ammiano supported the ban on allowing gun owners to carry an unloaded gun in public. “Whether a gun is loaded or not, it’s still an act of intimidation and bullying,” Ammiano said.”

    https://calwatchdog.com/2013/01/29/anti-gun-lawmakers-lead-hearing-today/

    Tom Ammiano is an anti-civil rights h0msexu@l. Who should never have been allowed to run for the San Francisco City School Board. People like him are as anti-civil rights as the Klu Klux Klan. He’s simply practice a different s3xu@l 0rient@ti0n.

    Or I could be wrong. Because I’m sure there were plenty of g@y Klansman back in the day. Being this was an all-male fraternal organization.

  15. I will say it because nobody else will. Thank you to the good members in leadership at the NRA. Who have managed to continue on with the NRA’s Stated mission to instruct young children. Despite the criminal leadership at the top of that organization.

    The dues money for Wayne’s suits, private air travel, and flying around his family and friends at the expense of the NRA, could have paid for the firearms training of thousands, or should I say, hundreds of thousands of children. All across the United States for the past 20 or 30 years.

      • Absolutely correct. I jave been an Instructor with that organisation for well above ten years now. There is NO better marksmanship training out there anywhere, and NO other programme is cheaper and thus more affordable and accessible than this one. In one day you will learn th skills to be accurate within 4 MOA (then you have to practice them) You will also learn the history of how and why our War for Independence fro England came about, and some very fascinating stories about how some individuals handled themselves on the day General Gage decided to disarm the Colonists at Lexington and Concord.
        I have worked with individuals on the firing line from six years old up to 96, so far.

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