How trapshooting is teaching Colorado high schoolers gun safety

He stands at the ready, shotgun in hands, cheek resting against the stock. 

His finger on the trigger, the 18-year-old yells “pull!” and a clay pigeon arcs across the sky in front of him. 

Blinding sunlight washes out texture and objects lose definition. 

But no matter how many clays cross his path, he always hits his target. 

Caleb Schneider loves football, heavy metal, his Bible and trapshooting. He’s soft spoken, polite and the pride of the Caliche High School trapshooting team.

And on May 31, he’s at the Logan County Shooting Sports Complex for an end-of-season fun day with his teammates from nine schools who compete under Sterling High School in the Colorado High School Clay Target League. Schneider was a top contender in every competition he entered this year, and high school championships — what kids call “states” — are right around the corner.

For months, Schneider has been chasing a lofty goal: Hit 50 of 50 clays launched from the trap house at the shooting complex near Sterling. Today will be his day. And some of his teammates will also nab their big goal — hitting 25 of 25 clays in a row. 

A “25 straight” is a major milestone for any trapshooter and it comes with a bang of its own. 

Tradition dictates that the shooter’s teammates shoot his or her hat as a rite of passage. So midmorning, several kids take their places on the firing line at the range. When someone throws junior Michael Liñam’s hat in the air,  they all blast it together. Later, Liñam might hang his newly ventilated hat on his bedroom wall, next to his first varsity letter — for trapshooting. 

If you’re one of the majority of Coloradans who live in metropolitan areas, you might not know about high school trapshooting, because most of the 37 schools participating in the sport are in rural counties. Many are in conservative communities. And some are lacking in extracurricular activities.

Trapshooting can be a place to belong, an activity outside of traditional sports and a path toward college.

But Schneider, Liñam and hundreds of other kids who trapshoot on high school or 4-H teams across Colorado are in the middle of a debate that hits on politics, mental health, personal freedom and conflicting ideologies surrounding parenting, gun ownership, gun safety and gun access.    

On one side are people who say the best way to teach a kid about guns is to give them a gun; on the other are people who say no matter how much gun training a kid gets, access increases their chances of them or someone else becoming a victim of gun violence.  

The kids have their own reasons for why they love shooting and why they think everyone should have a chance at annihilating their teammate’s hat. 

Schneider and Meroni High School senior Aloni Gress are headed to the USA High School Clay Target League nationals after states.

Both could qualify for an in-state shooting scholarship to Northeastern Junior College, Colorado State University, Colorado Mesa University, or Trinidad Community College (or an out-of-state one at several other universities and colleges). If they’re good enough they could go to the Olympics, or score a lucrative sponsorship deal or big bucks on the Amateur Trapshooting Association circuit.

Their coaches say trapshooting develops useful skills, concentration, dedication and team spirit in the sixth through 12th graders who train and compete. And their parents say shooting links them to a heritage that is uniquely American, teaches them the value of the Second Amendment and encourages self reliance.

Colorado’s gun violence dilemma  

People worried about kids and guns point to statistics that, when layered, present a troubling snapshot of Colorado. 

Six million people live in Colorado and approximately 7.8 million guns are in circulation. 

Household gun ownership decreased from 50% to 45% from 1990 to 2023. But in 2023, 320,000 residents reported carrying a firearm daily.


The average Colorado gun owner has four to five guns. And in 2023, 72% of the state’s 1,004 suicides involved guns. 

That troubles gun violence researcher Kelly Drane. She works for Giffords, the nonprofit and political action committee founded in 2013 by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head during a constituent meeting in 2011, and her husband, Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly. Giffords advocates for gun violence prevention through legislation such as universal background checks, extreme risk protection orders and safe storage requirements — all of which are required by law in Colorado.   

Rural Colorado has the highest rate of gun ownership in the state, and studies show rural residents are less supportive of universal background checks, more prone to leaving firearms unlocked in their homes, and more likely than urban residents to drive around with guns unlocked inside their cars, for work, ranching duties or hunting.  

“Broadly speaking, we know that when people have access to a gun, it increases the risk of gun violence,” Drane noted. “A gun in the home doubles the risk of homicide and triples the risk of suicide.” 

And for kids, “even living in a home with a gun increases the risk of gun violence, but particularly when they start to have direct access to firearms themselves. The reality is that gun violence is a leading cause of death for kids and teens in this country” Drane said. 

Education’s role in gun violence 

A chestnut of the firearms community is that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. But that’s not the whole story either, said Jake Farber, director of the Chaffee County Young Guns Shooting League and head coach of the Chaffee County Young Guns Trap Team.  

Farber knows about the alarming statistics on gun violence and kids. But he blames Hollywood’s portrayal of guns, virtue signaling by politicians and a general lack of education about guns.  

“All the do-gooders try to do is eliminate every threat,” he said. “Why are we not educating kids on (the reality of guns) instead?” 

What Farber alludes to when he says “trying to eliminate every threat” are the successful efforts of people like Democratic state Sen. Tom Sullivan, whose 27-year-old son was murdered while watching a movie in Aurora in 2012, to pass laws like Senate Bill 169 and House Bill 1106. 

Senate Bill 169 raised the minimum age to buy a firearm in Colorado to 21 from 18 in 2024, and House Bill 1106 requires gun owners to lock up firearms to prevent unauthorized access by juveniles or individuals legally prohibited from possessing them. 

Many argue that if a person is old enough to vote, they should be old enough to purchase a gun. And Farber says if you own a gun for self-defense then you should be able to have it at your fingertips. 

“I run a 2011 (pistol), hammer (cocked), safety on, next to my bed,” he said. “Now, have you ever heard the term ‘give a man a fish and you’re feeding him for a day, but teach him to fish and you’re feeding him for the rest of his life?’ It’s the very same scenario with a gun. If I can teach you the correct handling of a firearm instead of teaching you fear of the firearm, you’re going to be way better off.” 

Since Colorado passed a flurry of gun laws starting in 2021, homicides have decreased by 29.5% statewide, aggravated assaults by 11.7% and violent crime by 13.3%, according to the Colorado Department of Criminal Justice 2025 midyear Colorado Crime Trends report. 

But Farber and Adam Nelson, co-owner of Salida Gun Shop in Chaffee County, think these laws are politically motivated and out of touch. 

“The world we’re living in is urban versus rural,” said Nelson, whose gun shop supports the Chaffee County Young Guns. “And the thing you run into is everybody (in the urban world) wants to talk about safety and facts and data. But shooting sports are among the safest sports in the nation. …so taking away guns is not the answer. It’s (focusing) on mental health.”  

In fact, gun owners now pay for mental health services in Colorado after voters in 2024 passed Proposition KK, which placed a 6.5% excise tax on the sale of firearms, firearm parts, and ammunition to raise a projected $38 million annually for victim services and mental health. But where has the money gone? Nelson asked.  

Between April 2025 and May 2026, Prop KK has raised over $19 million in funds or an average of $1.4 million per month, said a spokesperson from Gov. Jared Polis’ office.

But the tax has been hotly contested: On April 1, 2025, several gun rights groups and the National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit arguing it is unconstitutional under a 2022 Supreme Court decision that said in order for a law regarding firearms to be constitutional, it must be supported by “tradition or historical precedent.”

The lawsuit is ongoing and the tax remains. But Farber said teaching kids to use guns is its own form of mental health care: “One thing I teach all shotgunners is that my gun safety is on for you, not for me,” he said. “(It shows kids) I respect you, I care about you, I love you enough to make sure I’m safe.” 

One good thing Gov. Jared Polis has done is approve legislation allowing hunters education classes in public schools for seventh graders if a qualified instructor is available to teach them, Farber added.

Safety paramount in trapshooting 

At the fun day, the shooters’ families squinted into the sun, sipped ice-cold sodas, cheered as Michael’s hat was peppered and competed as teams — families against families. 

“Good shot!” a voice called out. 

“Nice try!” shouted another. 

Meanwhile two of the team’s three coaches, Tammy Trahern and Kim Krier, collected scoresheets, refilled coolers, catalogued items for the end-of-day raffle and hovered over their athletes.   

“I do the organizing and the paperwork and that kind of stuff,” said Trahern, whose son is attending college on a trapshooting scholarship. 

“I (was asked to) keep this thing going,” said Krier, who started trapshooting as a girl (she’s 58).   

“We have kids that started with us in sixth grade and have gone all the way to graduation,” Trahern added. 

“It’s something they can do beyond high school,” Krier said. 

Safety is paramount in high school trapshooting, and all kids must learn the five rules of gun safety before shooting: treat every firearm as if it were loaded; ​​never point a firearm at anything you are not willing to destroy; keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire; be sure of your target and what lies beyond it; and never attempt to catch a dropped firearm. 

Krier and Trahern like to “brag on the teams and kids,” Krier said. “They are so disciplined, they know what they need to do when they get out there, and they’re so protective. They’re not just shooting away or anything like that. They actually are structured and very in tune with what they’re doing. And competitive. It’s kind of neat to see that it’s not just a fly by night.” 

But a few dads hit on something that makes some people uneasy. 

How young is too young to have a gun?  

Mike Tait listened as his son, Dominic, explained how he started learning firearms and firearm safety at age 5. He loved it, kept going and at 18, is a top scorer on the Sterling High School trapshooting team. And he’ll probably do pretty good at states, with a shooting average of 21.

But Tait likes to point out how Dominic was only 6 when he had him shoot his semi-automatic rifle.

Another dad pulled out his iPhone to show a video of his kid shooting his AR-15 rifle at age 5. 

And Aloni Gress was just 2 years old when her dad put a pint-size .22-caliber rifle in her arms and pulled the trigger. 

Nelson says when a family member gives a baby a gun (not to shoot right then, obviously, but for later) it’s symbolic: “We’re American. We grew up with the First Amendment and the Second Amendment. All this stuff was afforded to us, so for a lot of people it’s a rite of passage,” he said.

And Farber says letting a 5-year-old shoot a semi-automatic rifle under adult supervision is demystifying the belief that it’s “is just a launch pad for a projectile. If I can teach a 5-year-old to be responsible as early as possible, think about how much better off they’re going to be than society.” 

Yet Drane, the researcher from Giffords, says there is no evidence that children as young as 5 can retain gun safety information, let alone use it. 

Three studies back her up, including one from the American Academy of Pediatrics that examined how children behaved after instruction in one of two gun safety behavioral skills training programs, including the National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program for kids ages 3 to 11. 

The children were given 0 to 3 ratings based on their ability to articulate the safety measures in the programs back to researchers, and similar ratings based on observations of their ability to perform the skills in the classroom and when placed in a realistic simulation.

The results showed both programs were effective for teaching children to verbally restate the gun safety message. But only the behavioral skills training program was effective for teaching children to perform gun-safety skills during a supervised role play. The researchers concluded existing gun safety programs are insufficient for teaching gun-safety skills to children. 

A volunteer program for safe storage

Ashley Brooks-Russell is a professor and director of the Injury and Violence Prevention Center at University of Colorado’s Anschutz School of Medicine. 

She says teenagers, who are the most susceptible demographic to shooting deaths, are in “an in-between state” in the development of their prefrontal cortex, so life events as seemingly insignificant as a breakup or a parent taking away their cellphone can seem so bad that suicide seems to be a reasonable escape plan from their pain or discomfort. 

Studies show when a person is experiencing suicidal thoughts, a few minutes can make the difference between living or dying. 

So Brooks-Russell’s colleague, Emmy Betz, director of Anschutz Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative, has been developing a web-based program called Lock to Live to help people safeguard their homes during times of stress or crisis.

 Even small changes in how you store dangerous household items can make a big difference. Lock to Live identifies these as knives, scissors or razor blades; ropes, cords, bags or other ligatures; poisoning agents like bleach, drain cleaner or nail polish remover; prescribed or over-the-counter medications; and firearms. 

Of course, relocating a gun is harder than throwing away a bottle of drain declogger, so Betz has also been working on ways to make firearm storage more convenient. She created a gun-storage map showing 17 places in Colorado — such as 5013 Tactical, in Grand Junction — that will store firearms for customers. The hope is the preventive action will continue to curb youth suicides and other gun violence. 

Sterling High School headed to nationals 

Schneider and Gress are in the midst of training for high school trapshooting nationals, during which 3,000 of the best youth clay target student athletes will compete in Mason, Michigan, from July 8 – 12.

They should be in good hands when it comes to safety: The league says its priorities are safety, fun and marksmanship — “in that order.”

Gress said she didn’t feel like she was very good when she started shooting, but that’s not what people said when they watched her.

And Schneider said he’s as good as he is on account of how many clays he shoots during every practice (100; most people shoot 50).

“Trapshooting has helped me realize how important it is to focus on myself. Because how you do is all dependent on you.”