Our Youth Programs Department just announced the 2012 selection of the Brownell's/NRA National Youth Shooting Sports Ambassadors, a group of young people making a difference in the shooting sports and their community. These 6 young men and women are members of various NRA Youth Cooperative Organizations with shooting programs and were chosen for excellence in academics, involvement within their community, and participation in the shooting sports.

Here's a quick look at the 2012 Ambassadors who will represent their respective Youth Cooperative Organizations in 2012:

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Fairfax, Virginia - You never know what you're going to find when walking the halls here at the National Rifle Association. There's a polar bear in the lobby, trophies in the atrium, a row of deer heads over on the fourth floor and an Champion Easybird Auto-Feed Trap sitting outside the NRA's Education and Training Department.

Not only was there an Easybird, but also box after box filled with clay pigeons just waiting to be launched. As someone relatively new to the trap and skeet show, seeing that contraption in the hallway filled my head with all the possible locations where I could take it for the weekend. An open field or the perfect ridge. But before coming up with the just the right place, Education & Training Director Bill Poole stepped out to douse my inspiration.

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Bristow, Virginia - Yesterday we showed you photos from this weekend's Joe Gibbs Youth For Tomorrow Country Fair & Auctions where NRA's Youth Programs Department brought back the popular Air Gun Range. Stocked with Crosman air guns and loads of pellets, the range featured 16 firing points where shooters could take aim at a variety of targets including animal silhouettes, falling plates, and swinging targets.

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Irving, Texas - Jim Supica and Phil Schreier traveled south for the opening of the Marksman Exhibit at the National Boy Scouts Museum in Irving, Texas. In addition to the rifles the National Firearms Museum's, there were a number a nostalgic displays that took you back to the original days of Scouting ... here's a look at a portion of the exhibit.

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Bristow, Virginia - In less than a month, NRA's Youth Programs Department will be bringing an air gun range to the Joe Gibb's Youth for Tomorrow 26th Annual Country Fair & Auctions in Bristow, Virginia. On October 1st, Youth Programs Coordinator Claudia Olsen and her crew will set up an air gun range for attendees of the event so that they can try their hand at competitive shooting. 

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Below is part of a letter William Prutz of Kronenwetter, Wisconsin wrote to Winchester/NRA Marksmanship Qualification Program Coordinator Sheri Judd. After becming involved in shotgun shooting, Prutz’s son Ben earned a Distinguished Expert rating in Trap through the program. Below is the story of how Ben went from a BB gun shooting Boy Scout to an accomplished trap shooter, and how his family became involved in the shooting sports as well:

This journey began with a NRA BB gun Qualification patch about six years ago while shooting at the Akela’s World Cub Scout Camp, part of the Crystal Lake Scout Reservation in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Then in 2009, my son Ben came home from the Tesomas Boy Scout Camp (also part of the Crystal Lake Scout Reservation) with the shotgun and rifle merit badges earned. Last fall, he was invited with his Boy Scout Troop 451 from Kronenwetter, Wisconsin to shoot trap one night at the Weston Hit and Miss Trap Club near Weston, Wisconsin. He did well and they took his name and asked him to join the AIM team.

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National Firearms Museum Senior Curator Phil Schreier is in Irving, Texas right now to help put the final touches on the Boy Scouts of America's National Scouting Museum's new A Century of Marksmanship Exhibit. For Curator's Corner this week, Phil brings out a few of those firearms that will be there in Irving for all to see.

"One of the original Merit Badges, or Badges of Merit as they were originally know, was Marksman," explained Schreier. "Today they say that about 20,000 Rifle Shooting and Shotgun Shooting Merit Badges are earned every year. And the NRA has been there to help ensure the Scouts learn in a safe, fun environment."

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King, North Carolina - Summer brings about certain excursions for certain families. A visit to Grandma's house, a trip to the beach, or sending the kids to camp. There's one camp, YMCA's Camp Hanes in King, North Carolina, that added a particularly interesting course to their regular program ... shooting. Luckily, they were able to tap in to some local talent by way of NRA Board Member Richard Childress' grandson's Austin and Ty Dillon.

Taking a break from their busy racing careers (Austin sits in second place in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series while Ty is in first in the ARCA Racing Series,) the two stopped by ProShots Indoor Range to share their knowledge with the youths in that Camp.

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The Issaquah Press featured the Liberty High School NJROTC air gun team, who took top honors as the number one Military Scholastic Team at the 2011 NRA National Junior Air Gun Championship:

Patriots sharpshooters hit No. 1 spot in nation

After an incredible show of teamwork, Liberty High School’s National Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps placed first nationwide as scholastic military champions at the National Rifle Association Air Gun Competition on June 23-25.

“As a team, they scored better than any other team in the nation,” Liberty naval science instructor Al Torstenson said.

Five Liberty air rifle team students — including graduating seniors Tyler Snook, Jackie Chueng and Murphy Ransier, incoming senior John Lorenz and incoming junior Sean Denson — flew to Camp Perry, Ohio, for the championship.

The coaches, Art Weatherford and senior naval science instructor Cmdr. Dan Joslin, accompanied the team

Though the students won first place, “probably everything that could go wrong, went wrong,” such as equipment malfunctions, Weatherford said. But, “It wasn’t anything the kids weren’t able to rise to.”