Lacey students have free gun range training

Susanne Cervenka | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Lacey students learn gun safety Gun-rights advocates sponsored a firearms training and safety program for Lacey students after controversy over a photo of students posing with guns.

MONROE - All Ronald Stesney knew about guns was gleaned from playing video games and watching movies.

But after a Sunday morning of learning about and shooting various types of guns, the 15-year-old Lacey High School freshman walked away knowing the heft of a real gun, how much harder it is to aim in reality versus video games and just how important safety is when handling firearms.

"It's not the guns that are a danger, it's the people who wield them," he said. "If you have practice and training, it's just a self-defense item."

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Union Hill Gun Club in Monroe opened its doors Sunday to students like Stesney and their families to learn about firearms training and safety.

Rocco LaRocca, the chief training officer and range master Union Hill Gun Club, said the goal Sunday was to display what the gun culture is actually about: a diverse network of law-abiding gun owners whose first priorities are about safety and respect for firearms. You can hear LaRocca talk more about the purpose of the event in the video at the top of the page.

The free event was put on in conjunction with the New Jersey Second Amendment Society and Legend Firearms, the gun dealer that operates in the gun club, and comes weeks after controversy erupted in Lacey over two students who purportedly faced discipline after posing with firearms in a photo posted online.

Stesney said he came Sunday as a "mini-protest" to what happened to his fellow students. Another father said he brought his family — who all have experience handling and shooting firearms — in support of parents and the students' constitutional rights.

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Lacey Township School District has discussed the details surrounding the students' discipline, citing student privacy issues. But Superintendent Craig Wigley thanked the organizers for sponsoring the training opportunity.

"In my recent positive discussion with Mr. (Alexander) Roubian from NJ2AS, despite misinformation and the exploitation of a confidential student matter, we agree this is a time for more collaboration and less rhetoric. We wish everyone who attends the event a safe and enjoyable time," Wigley wrote in a statement about the event issued earlier this month.

The gun rights controversy in Lacey occurred amid a national debate on gun laws and school safety in the wake of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, where a shooter used an AR-style rifle in the attack.

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The training came two days after another school shooting outside Houston that killed 10 people and injured 10 more. But this time, the shooter used a shotgun and .38 revolver in the attack and also had several pipe bombs on school property.

Gun advocates want to have an open and honest national conversation about the causes behind school shootings, said Roubian, president of the New Jersey Second Amendment Society.

"The only way for us to have an honest conversation is to remove the stigma that all gun owners are bad," he said.

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Organizers said the calls to ban AR-style rifles that came in the wake of Parkland and other school shootings is the wrong approach.

"That's like saying it's OK to be a drunk driver in a Ford Taurus, but once you're in a truck it's not allowed because then it's an assault vehicle," Roubian said.

Roubian and other gun-rights advocates at Sunday's event said that greater emphasis nationally should be put on training people about gun safety as well as routing out underlying causes to school shootings.

John Barrow, 24, of Lacey brought his younger brother, Sebastian Mongeau, 14, a Lacey High School student, because he thought it was a good opportunity for both of them to learn gun safety.

"At least you know how to use it" should they encounter a gun, Barrow said. "If you have no knowledge of guns, how are you supposed to handle it?"

Susanne Cervenka: @scervenka; 732-643-4229; scervenka@gannettnj.com