The event featured speeches, a skeet clinic with Team USA Olympians, and time on the range.

HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College, in partnership with USA Shooting, hosted a Citizenship and Shooting event on campus Oct. 21-22. More than 200 people attended. Hillsdale has been the home of the USA Shooting National Team since 2019.

“Through our partnership with USA Shooting, Hillsdale College is becoming a national and international hub for the shooting sports,” said Rich Péwé, chief administrative officer at Hillsdale College. “Our collaboration provides Team USA athletes with world-class training facilities while allowing Hillsdale students to develop their shooting sports skills under some of the best and most disciplined athletes in the world.”

Monday afternoon featured five-stand shooting and campus tours, dinner, and a speech from Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn on the place of the Second Amendment in the Constitution.

“We’re in the education business here at Hillsdale College,” Dr. Arnn said. “We want them to grow up to be free. We want them to know. We want them to learn. We want them to build their character. And shooting is good for that.”

Tuesday morning featured an international skeet clinic with five-time Olympic medalist Vincent Hancock. At lunch McKenna Geer, a three-time Paralympian and Rio 2016 bronze medalist, spoke about her fight for First and Second Amendment rights against Meta censorship, and Hancock told his story about competition in five Olympic games. In the afternoon, Kelly Reisdorf, CEO of USA Shooting, spoke on the organization’s mission, and the program concluded with open shooting at Hillsdale’s John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Education Center.

“There’s a consistency in the medals that we have been delivering for the country,” Reisdorf said. “And there’s the Hillsdale partnership — that’s been the last five to six years — which has been absolutely terrific. I look forward to many, many more years together, and we’re so grateful for the support. It’s a force multiplier in terms of what we’re trying to do.”

USA Shooting is the national governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic shooting sports. Hillsdale is the official home of the USA Shooting National Team, which trains at the Halter Center for the Olympics and other national and international competitions. The Halter Center also hosts the Junior Nationals in rifle, Junior and Senior Nationals in International Skeet and Trap, International Paralympic Grand Prix events, Olympic training camps, Junior World training camps, and Junior Olympic Development Camps.

Four current Hillsdale College shotgun athletes — senior Josh Corbin, sophomore Madeline Corbin, sophomore Ava Downs, and junior Jordan Sapp — are members of the U.S. Junior National Team, and junior Sophia Bultema competes on the U.S. National Paralympic Team.

For photos from the event, click here.

For a high-resolution copy of the Hillsdale College clocktower logo, click here.

About the John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Education Center

The Halter Center is a state-of-the-art shooting facility located five miles from the Hillsdale College campus. Opened in 2008, the Center aims to introduce individuals to shooting sports and encourage interest across all levels of experience. The Halter Center also serves an educational purpose by promoting the principles of the Constitution and teaching beginner and experienced shooters in various classes. Home to Hillsdale College’s collegiate shooting teams and the USA national team, the Halter Center is also a resource for the public through camps, conferences, and other programming. For more information, visit shootingsports.hillsdale.edu.

Hillsdale College has been the home of the USA Shooting National Team since 2019 and has hosted USA Shooting Junior Olympic trap and skeet development camps and championships. The Center boasts 113 range acres, four international skeet fields, a 23-station sporting clays course, five international bunkers, a small arms range, an action shooting range, an enclosed and climate-controlled five-stand range, an international archery range, eight American trap fields, an AcuSport lodge and grill, and four cottages to accommodate overnight lodging. A 62,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor rifle and pistol building will be completed in May 2025.

About Hillsdale College

Hillsdale College is an independent, nonsectarian, Christian liberal arts college located in southern Michigan. Founded in 1844, the College has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans. It also conducts an outreach effort promoting civil and religious liberty, including a free monthly speech digest, Imprimis, with a circulation of more than 6.6 million. For more information, visit hillsdale.edu.