Putnam: A different twist on the gun debate at MSU's Demmer Center

EAST LANSING – It’s been a tough time for shooting sports enthusiasts, what with the Parkland, Florida shootings and a national push to put more controls on guns in an important effort to make schools safer.

So, the success of two mid-Michigan teens — Sara Nevin, 17, of Holt, and Lillian Warren, 14, of Perry — who are competing in the National Junior Olympics Shooting Championships in Colorado is breeding excitement at Michigan State University’s Demmer Center. That’s where the young women train.

“It’s really a big, big deal. It really is,” said Michael Galella, manager of the shooting center.

Demmer is one of 16 Olympic Training Centers for shooting sports in the country and the only one in Michigan. It opened in 2010 at Michigan State University and is named after benefactor John Demmer, who started Lansing’s Demmer Corp. It was designated an Olympic training center in 2015.

Here’s my personal filter on this: I’m no stranger to guns since I’m married to a hunter and enjoy eating venison and other wild game. But I don’t shoot them myself. And I support the reforms the Parkland students demand.

So I didn’t know what to expect when I went into the shooting range, invited by Nevin’s father, John, to interview the young women to see a different view on guns.

Learning an Olympic sport

I found a safety-first approach at Demmer and mature and composed competitors. And also some defensiveness after the national debate erupted after Parkland. The accused shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was a member of a shooting team, JROTC.

Jim Stewart, an air rifle coach at Demmer, offered a support of the sport.

“We are not creating problems with firearms,” he said. “These kids aren’t learning to be junior gang members. They’re learning an Olympic sport.”

RELATED: Senator proposes reforms to gun ranges in wake of Lansing Township murder-suicide

Four years ago there were no participants in air pistol training, center officials said. Today, 11 kids are training along with more than 100 young archers and 32 junior rifle participants.

Sara Nevin is headed to the Colorado competition to compete in air pistol competition later this week. She’s the first person who trained at Demmer to compete in that category.

“This sport is about 90% mental," she said. "It’s about being mentally prepared. You have to focus and stay focused.”

She is a junior at Okemos High School where she also is on robotic and volleyball teams. She stayed behind when hundreds of students walked out of high school March 14 as part of a national protest of the Parkland shootings. Those students are calling for stricter background checks and a broader ban on weapons, such as the AR-15 used in Parkland.

Nevin said she doesn’t have strong feelings about the walkout but didn’t feel inclined to participate.

“I support anyone who wants to voice their opinion however they feel they should,” she said.

'Be kind to everyone'

Her approach to improved school safety is inclusiveness: “Be a good person. Just be kind to everyone.”

Nevin hopes to attend the U.S. Naval Academy after high school. She just took up the sport in September and was surprised and excited to be invited to the Junior Olympics.

Nevin and Warren are among 763 rifle and pistol athletes representing 49 states. They were selected based on their finishes at the state-level Junior Olympic matches. More than 2,400 kids competed nationwide.

Warren, the eighth-grader from Perry, just completed three days of competition where she qualified in two categories, a first for the Demmer Center.

Among the youngest of the competitors at the Junior Olympics, she finished near the bottom of the smallbore competition, where she shot a .22-caliber rifle from standing, siting and prone positions. She did better in the air rifle competition, ranking 172 out of 183 athletes.

She got involved at the Demmer Center when she had an archery-themed 11th birthday party there. She took a class and has been shooting for three years.

Warren still has years of competition ahead of her. She hopes to compete on a college team. 

She said her friends agree with her on her views opposing gun control and they don't think it’s odd that she’s competing in shooting sports.

“They’re all just happy that I’m happy,” she said.

Gary Smith, Nevin’s air pistol coach, said the youths are gaining skills that will translate to being disciplined.

“They’re setting their own goals.They’re measuring. They’re doing their self assessment of those goals,” he said. “They can apply all those things to other things in their life that will help them be very successful."

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Follow her on twitter @judyputnam.