Staff photo / Emily Scott Sam Swoger of Austintown shows Mary Lou Kosco from the Austintown Senior Center how to load the revolver she is about to shoot at the American Shooting Range in North Jackson.

AUSTINTOWN — Three seniors from the Austintown Senior Center had a chance to go to the shooting range on Monday after completing a gun safety course.

The program started a few years ago when a handful of women went to Jim Henshaw, the senior center director, and said they wanted to know how to handle firearms. Several of them were widows, whose husbands had guns before they died. Instead of getting rid of them, the women wanted to keep them, but also wanted to make sure they could properly handle them.

Detective Sgt. Ryan Reese from the Austintown Police Department came to the center a couple of times to teach about gun safely and did a self-defense class.

Then, the seniors practiced at the center with airsoft guns before making their way to the American Shooting Range in North Jackson on Monday. This was the first time members of the senior center were at the range since the pandemic.

There, Sam Swoger of Austintown showed Mary Lou Kosco, Shirley Durkin and Kathleen Asteri, all of Austintown, several types of handguns, the parts of a gun and bullet, and how to properly aim the gun before each of the women stepped into the range. Each took turns shooting a revolver, then a semi-automatic handgun.

escott@tribtoday.com