Colton Gun Club gets to shootin'

COLTON - For many small towns, there is often one building, business or establishment that serves as an epicenter of sorts for the community. Fundraisers, events, reunions or weekend gatherings between friends (new or old) or even weddings are not uncommon to these epicenters.

For Colton, that place is the local Gun Club.

On Sundays, the building located on Church Street (the first left from U.S. Route 195 after entering the city limits), one can see dozens of people outside, often aiming down sights of their firearms trying to ground a clay pigeon, hoping to add it to a small field scattered with the debris of hundreds that had the misfortune of being the victims of good aim.

But inside the building is where the community is seen. Volunteers in the kitchen serving a variety of foods for people waiting their slots, marksmen coming in to report their scores, people eating in the lobby catching up with old friends while watching the NFL's AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals, Club workers manning the microphone to announce the names of people who have been waiting minutes-to-hours to get a chance to add more to the ever-growing clay pigeon graveyard and local volunteers ranging from high schoolers to adults who are just trying to help where they can.

The memories are not just exchanged inside the building between the catching-up of old friends and neighbors, it's also shown in the decor. Trophies from marksmen involved in competition at the club are locked behind a (surprisingly clean) glass case, and the portraits of local veterans are lined up next to each other in pristine linear fashion.

The universally-recognizable static of everyone in the building talking and having a conversation is a welcome audio, considering how even just a year ago, any voices from inside the building were muffled from masks that became all-too-familiar during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's awesome. Especially after the last couple of years," Colton Gun Club board member Erin Bauer said. "We rebounded from COVID. Up until about five years ago we had about 100 shooters every Sunday, then kind of a slow decline, then COVID hit and it was 40-50 shooters and now we're back to around 80. So it's really good to see people back up shooting and more availability for ammunition for people, so that's good."

Colton's Gun Club not only serves as an epicenter for the town's community, it also serves as a gathering spot for out-of-towners. Shooters from Lewiston often come up on Sundays to participate, as well as others from neighboring communities such as Pullman and Clarkston and the Gun Club itself is one of 25 clubs associated with the Camas Prairie Trapshooting Association.

"I think it's across the board, too," Bauer said. "Colton is a part of the Camas Prairie Trapshooting Association, which is 25 gun clubs in the area. And last weekend (Jan. 21-22) it was reported that over 800 people had participated on Sunday, which is awesome. That's a big number for us. So it seems everyone's numbers is on the increase."

In addition to being a part of an association that spans across eastern Washington and northwestern Idaho, Colton has actively hosted other gun clubs wishing to participate in trapshooting competitions, namely the Tekoa FFA Gun Club which participated in an event on Jan. 14 at Colton.

"That was kind of a special occasion," Bauer said. "That was the Pullman FFA shoot and what I heard is that they had 19 teams come from all over eastern Washington and that was a huge shoot for them. I don't think they were expecting that number of people. So it was good for us to see, too, that there are more kids involved."

The number of new people involved in the shoots is a good sign for local gun clubs, who spend a large amount of money on ammunition every single year. According to Bauer, people participating in 10-week shoots burn through four-five boxes of ammunition every single Sunday, ranging from $8-12 a box, coming out to a total of $320-600 for ammunition over the course of the 10 weeks, just for one person.

The outside interaction and participation with the gun club helps, but the Colton club often relies on the support of its hometown-community of around 400 people to keep the doors open. Weddings, funerals and parties are hosted at the club as well as community events, and local church volunteers often cook food on Sundays.

"A lot of gun clubs are strictly a gun club and that's all they do, is shooting, and that's all their income," Bauer said. "For us, it's a little bit different where we could be here for the community."

Colton's Gun Club hosts its trapshooting events on Sundays and can be reached out via its Facebook page or via email at coltonboosterclub@live.com.