Triggered by a push to ban HS shooting sports

JILLIAN ZAKRZESKI’S skills with an air rifle earned her three New York State high school shooting championships, a berth in the Junior Olympics and even recruitment to a college rifle team.

“It’s an amazing sport. It’s not popular like soccer or tennis. But it changed my life,” said Zakrzeski, a 19-year-old criminal justice major at the University of Mississippi. “I can’t see my life without it.”

But a proposal in New York’s Legislature would outlaw all high school shooting sports programs in the state — including air rifle teams and archery clubs — on the premise that they feed into a gun and shooting culture that could lead to violence.

The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), said she introduced her bill after reports that the suspect in the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Fla., Nikolas Cruz, honed his gun skills through a program in the same school where he killed 17 people. “Schools should not be supporting the spread of gun culture in society,” said Rosenthal (photo). “If parents want their children to have shooting instruction, there are opportunities that have nothing to do with the school.”