The Journal

Issue date: 4/7/05 Section: News

Media Credit: CHIHIRO JOGAKI / The Journal Campus Conservatives vice president Phil Eckelkamp prepares to shoot his Luger handgun April 1 at a local St. Louis shooting range.

Four Webster University students spent part of April 1 at a shooting range, firing guns and learning about weaponry in an instructional safety class. The event, as advertised on fliers, was billed as a way to encourage students to exercise their Second Amendment right.

Phil Eckelkamp, vice president of the Campus Conservatives, organized the event, the second to take place this academic year. Students spent the afternoon at the Bullseye Indoor Shooting Range in St. Louis.

"We did this last year when the conceal and carry law passed, to help people understand how to protect themselves," Eckelkamp said.

Those that went on the trip had different motives. Campus Democrats member A.J. Bryson, an active freshman Democrat, said he found the excursion interesting.

However, it did not change his opinion about guns.

"But going into it, I knew it wouldn't," Bryson said. "I just don't see the point in them."

Meanwhile, Mary Phelan, a resident assistant for the Webster Village Apartments, came on her own accord to find out what it was like to fire a gun.

"I thought I'd learn how to shoot a gun, because I've been afraid of them most of my life," Phelan said. "I could probably see myself going to the range again sometime, but it isn't something I would spend hours upon hours doing."

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