Cruz Was on School Rifle Team

So? What is your discussion point?
Both of my sons were on the JROTC rifle team.  They were both interested in a military career (one became a Marine, the other joined the National Guard then worked as security with a contracting company in Iraq after we pulled all the military out) The marksman ship he first learned in JROTC was a major part of him doing well in his job.  He has a pretty long list of politicians that visited Iraq and he had a key role in their safety while they were there.

Tens of thousands of kids go through the JROTC marksmanship program. They've not been involved in school shootings

Um only ‘rifle’ Team we have is the better participants of colorguard who can handle a ‘rifle’ which is just a rifle shaped piece of wood.

We do not have a marksmanship team at school.

But if we did I’d expect them to go thru the same physical required for every other extra curricular activity that everyone else has to turn in prior to participating. Which now includes a mental health questionnaire, while not much it’s a start. And they didn’t start including it because of shootings but because of the high rate of suicide. And I know a kid who was referred to a physchologist because of it.

ETA: don’t think we have jrotc

I think you're confusing the rifle teams that march with marching bands and JROTC.

We have a local jr and high school shooting team which is run independently from the school. I am not sure how that works because they do sign ups at the school but shoot at a gun club. The people running it are not affiliated with the school system. The funding comes from the club fees and sponsorships which are 200 per kid which allows for a buy one box of required shells get one free. The shooters have to use their own guns but the shells are supplied by the gun club.. They only shoot at clay pigeons and are taught gun safety which is either followed or the child is asked to leave and not come back. The parents are heavily involved in the program. There is no NRA funding for this shooting program.

JROTC and ROTC are normally funded mostly through the military, portion by school funds like other athletics. I have no idea on the NRA.

I’m not confusing the two, I’m just pointing out that that’s the ‘closest’ thing we have to a ‘rifle’ Team. Which isn’t very close at all. We do not have Jrotc at our high school

When I was in HS we had a marksmanship team and JROTC and ROTC but they didn’t have anything to do with each other. All of the kids I knew on the team were not part of ROTC.
Not sure when the marksmanship team fell out of favor, my guess is kids just didn’t want to join. We have to have a minimum number of students to commit to a club or sport to be approved or continued.

we have nothing in our school system that is gun-related, as far as i am aware. i am okay with that. kids are there for an education so that is not an addition that is necessary, imho.

my son does scouts, also nothing gun-related. i think maybe archery has been an option??

guns/military really are not part of our culture.

it is not surprising that a young man with issues may be attracted to learning about guns. however, i think it would be stretch to even begin to assume all kids interested in guns have issues like his.