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1990s East LA JROTC

Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 6:17 pm
by conradin
Obviously I know nothing about rifle or youth shooting program, but I was talking with my misses, as usual, one of the topic being sexist attitude in the firearm community. She grew up in East LA.

She said that all the JROTC boys got to shoot rifles, while all the girls only received a replica rifle to march with, and was not trained to shoot. This is in the mid 1990s.

Was this normal? Is this kind of thing still happening? Anyone knows why these kind of things happened?

I will be very mad if I have a daughter who joins JROTC ended up being nothing more than a cheerleader using a fake rifle as a baton, like a glorified majorette.

She also said that the school archery team has similar mentality. Boys received brand new legitimate equipment and trained, competed nationally, while girls were given hand me downs, specifically painted in pink, and just let them fool around with minimal supervision on the opposite side of the field.

This is a major high school in East LA, which I rather not named. If you live in LA, you know which public school I am talking about.

Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 7:35 pm
by jhmartin
The answer is: "It depends"
Mostly on the instructors running the program
(I did not know that LA had any JROTC shooting programs anymore)

In many of the rifle shooting programs, if the instructor has any idea what they are doing they will KNOW that (for the most part) gals can outshoot the guys up until about their senior year ... more mature, more focused, less swagger .. the gals just do what you tell them and perform well.

JROTC shoots the CMP 3-Position Air Rifles ... sporter & precision.
With very few exceptions, the JROTC national records are held by the gals.
(Both sporter & precision)
http://www.odcmp.com/3P/CurrentNatlRcds.pdf

Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:33 pm
by conradin
For the record she was in JROTC for one year. This is not a case of sour grapes. Her step-father who a Korean vet so she grew up knowing firearms very well. Her step-father, however, did whatever it took to prevent her from joining the military.