Grant Rodgers

grodgers@dmreg.com

Growing up near Decorah, Ia., Catalina Vorwald learned to shoot handguns and rifles under the watchful supervision of her father and uncle.

She chose Simpson College in Indianola for her higher education, partly because of the school's shooting sports club founded in 2011 by students and a chemistry professor who share a love of hunting and the outdoors.

Vorwald became the club's secretary her freshman year and learned to pulverize orange clay pigeons with a 12-gauge shotgun during practices at the Izaak Walton League's Indianola chapter. It was a good place for Vorwald to develop the quick, focused response needed to hit a moving target.

"When you're new at something you feel kind of insecure about it," she said. "After you shoot, you're always kind of looking around like, 'Oh, are people making fun of me? I just totally missed that.' And it's not like that at all. Nobody's judging you as long as you're smart. It's really a family."

But Simpson College is getting pushback for its plan to hire a full-time coach for the club, with some alumni arguing that guns have no place on the small liberal arts campus.

A "petition for a weapons-free Simpson" that calls on the college's board of trustees to reverse the decision to hire a coach and stop letting students store firearms in a locked safe on campus had garnered more than 120 signatures by noon Tuesday. The board is expected to review the petition at a meeting Friday.

The debate over the club's future at the Indianola college echoes America's larger ideological battle over firearms — mixed with some disagreement over Methodist social doctrine. Petition supporters argue that the college should spend its money on academic programs instead of boosting a firearms club in an era of mass shootings that have left students dead and campuses broken.

Enthusiasts and club supporters such as Vorwald contend that misinformation being spread about guns is breeding fear over a safe, responsible sport.

Opposition both spiritual, political

Since it was formed, Simpson's shooting sports club has grown to around 35 members who hold weekly practices through much of the school year, said Jill Johnson, the vice president of marketing and public relations for the college.

Last year, the college's board of trustees approved a proposal by campus administrators to hire a full-time coach for the group, a move that was partly aimed at boosting enrollment, she said.

In 2015, more than 3,000 Iowa high school students participated in shotgun shooting competitions through the state-administered Iowa Scholastic Clay Target program. It's an attractive pool Simpson could recruit from by taking the shooting club to a more competitive level, Johnson said.

There are also more than 12 Iowa collegiate shooting teams, including at community colleges, she said.

"It's kind of a growing activity that more and more people are interested in," she said. "We saw it as an opportunity to offer something at Simpson."

However, Rebecca Bentzinger, a 1977 graduate and United Methodist minister who lives in Washington, D.C., is concerned. She launched the online petition Jan. 27 after learning about Simposon's proposal to hire a coach at a directors meeting for the school's alumni relations board.

In a phone interview Monday, Bentzinger acknowledges that the issue of gun violence is personal for her. She worked as the director of a spiritual care center at the Washington Hospital Center, the city's largest private hospital.

"I've seen a lot of the gun violence and horrible and tragic situations," she said. "Looking at the interests of the college, that's what this petition and this movement is about."

Bentzinger's motivations are both spiritual and political.

Her petition faults the college for letting the club accept a $10,000 grant from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association representing more than 12,000 manufacturers, retailers and distributors. The money helped pay for clay pigeons and other equipment shortly after the club was founded, Johnson said.

But Bentzinger points to the money the National Shooting Sports Foundation has spent to elect pro-gun politicians. According to OpenSecrets.org, the foundation spent $3.5 million lobbying lawmakers in 2015.

"The underlying agenda is to get as many of their products into the hands of folks," she said. "They're targeting college campuses, and Simpson is one of many who are receiving grants to support these kinds of clubs."

Where the church stands

The petition also argues that the college — which remains affiliated with the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church — should follow the denomination's guiding authority on social issues.

The church's Book of Resolutions recognizes gun violence as a "disturbing" trend and calls on its members to "advocate for the eventual reduction of the availability of guns in society" — particularly handguns and automatic weapons.

The Iowa Conference did not take a stance on the issue in a statement given to a reporter, noting that the college is free to set its policies. But Bentzinger said she's received support from clergy members.

"Guns are used to kill," said the Rev. Hugh Stone, a pastor at Polk City United Methodist Church and former adjunct instructor at Simpson who'd signed the petition. "They're not manufactured for sport, they're manufactured to kill either animals or human beings. That's why guns were thought of in the first place and that's what they've been used for throughout the course of history."

'It'd be a shame to see it go'

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Brustkern has also looked at Methodist teaching on the issue, pointing to a section of the Book of Resolutions that calls for more teaching on responsibility and safety around guns. That's the first priority of the shootings sports club, which he advises, he said in an interview.

"There's a big difference between gun violence and gun ownership," Brustkern said. "There's a lot of things that shouldn't be lumped together, but unfortunately are being put into one category."

First and foremost, any guns owned by the club members are kept in a locked safe that no students can access, Brustkern said.

He or a member of the college's public safety department has to be present for a student to check a firearm out of the safe. The issue of storing guns on campus was an initial concern when the group was started, but this procedure has seemed to satisfy most people across the campus, he said.

Brustkern said he's confident the club is supported on campus, even as the issue goes in front of trustees. A response petition in support of the club had more than 760 signatures Tuesday.

Madison Boswell, a 2013 graduate who served as a club officer for two semesters, said she believes opposition to the club comes from people who make assumptions that paint all gun owners with a broad brush. For instance, Boswell grew up shooting but also supports several gun control actions that President Barack Obama recently announced such as increased background checks.

The club's value, Boswell said, is in things like the safety classes the club periodically held when she was at Simpson.

"Some people who had never shot in a recreational setting had an opportunity to do so," she said. "It really just gave them the opportunity to be educated. I just think it's be a real shame to see it go."