Love of guns led to college course
“Find your dream and ... don’t let anyone hold you back.”
Billy Hern
He first fired a gun when he was 5 years old, he spends every spare minute working with guns, shooting, hunting, but never considered that his passion for guns could become his career.
When Billy Hern walks across the stage Saturday night and re- ceives his high school diploma, it will be a milestone for him and his family, but will be only the beginning of him forging new trails. He will enter Murray State College in Tishomingo, Okla., this fall and major in gunsmithing. After three years there, he will have earned an associate’s degree in applied sciences and then head to Boulder, Colo., School of Trade to earn his bachelor’s degree. Billy said students there have to be 21, and he will turn 21 that June.
When Billy graduates from Pea Ridge High School, he will become the second of his five siblings to graduate from high school and the first of his family to ever go to college.
Born in Russellville, the youngest of Jimmy and Norma Hern’s five children, Billy has been in Pea Ridge since his first birthday, nearly 18 years ago. His family moved to northwest Arkansas because his father had a good job in the water well business, but both parents are now disabled.
“I grew up with a passion for guns since I can remember,” Billy said, but admitted he didn’t like sitting in a classroom. “I’m hands on, an outdoors kind of person.”
“My dad always said ‘It’s a tool, not a toy,’” Hern said about his father’s instruction on gun safety.
Billy said people talked about college majors, but none of them every appealed to him. But, this past fall when he was in the woods “sighting in” a gun, the gun jammed. He took it apart and un- jammed it and it dawned on him what he wanted to do with his life.
“You need to find your own dream,” Billy said. “College is an investment in yourself. You shouldn’t let someone hold you back.”
Billy said that although he could become a certified gunsmith this summer, he wants to be a licensed gunsmith, which requires a college degree.
The gunsmithing program at Murray State provides training in custom gunsmithing and gun repair, and develops the basic knowledge and skills needed to become a professional gunsmith. The program involves coursework in firearms design and function, stockmaking, bench metal work, machine metal work, gun blueing and metal finishing, advanced gunsmithing, and conversion and repair of firearms.
“He’s kind of a special kid to me,” Rick Neal, PRHS principal, said. “He’s been with me since ninth grade. He’s come miles as far as his maturity.”
Neal said Billy was a “regular customer” his first year but has become a “true leader in the agriculture world and FFA.”
“He knows I’m a relationship guy. I’m not only his principal, I’m his friend,” Neal said, adding that he plans to take Billy to Tishomingo, Okla., to see the college as soon as school is out.
As soon as he turns 18 this June, Billy plans to go to work at the chicken plant in Cassville, Mo., to earn and save money for school.
“My parents have backed me 100 percent,” Billy said, adding that Mr. Perry Mason, Mrs. Fisher, Mr. Neal and Mrs. Cooper were very supportive.
“I probably couldn’t write an essay still if Mrs. Cooper didn’t push me,” he laughed. “Every class I’ve taken, I’ve learned something I needed to know.”
As for other students who find book learning less than appealing, Billy had a piece of advice: “Find your dream and ... don’t let anyone hold you back.”