The NRA awarded more than $7.3 million in grants to U.S. schools and youth programs from 2010 to 2016. While that number has shocked countless citizens, local residents were more surprised to find out Pleasant Valley High School accepted a portion of that total in 2015.

Before becoming the PVCSD Board President, Chris Cournoyer applied for the “Friends of the NRA” grant with the assistance of other parent volunteers. The grant provided the newly instated Pleasant Valley trap team with $14,851 worth of shooting sport supplies. The purpose of the General Grant is to “request funding to be used for equipment, supplies, and competition/marksmanship items for the program.” PV used this money to purchase three firearms, three range boxes, 10 shotgun cleaners, 10 shotgun cleaning kits, 40 shell pouches and 125 boxes of ammunition. The supplies helped to start-up the trap team and gave members in financial need the necessary supplies to participate.

“The grant benefited the program by allowing students who didn’t necessarily own their own equipment the opportunity to learn about the sport, as well as provide firearms, ammunition and cleaning supplies that were essential to practice and training,” commented D’Anne Kroemer, PVHS athletic director.

Aside from the acceptance of money from the NRA, the verbiage on the application itself has raised some eyebrows. The application process requires programs to answer numerous questions regarding the purpose of the group, its financial need, and the community’s benefit. Cournoyer, representing PV’s trap team, wrote of the benefits such a team would provide to the community and the school.

“It has been shown that kids that are involved in at least one extra-curricular activity are more likely to stay in school, have fewer absences and have better grades. This club reaches a group of students that wouldn’t necessarily be interested in sports like basketball and football.” That section concluded, however, with a statement that does carry political bias. She wrote, “We also help to advocate for the 2nd amendment through responsible gun ownership by law abiding citizens, thereby increasing the number of supporters for pro-gun legislation.”

Clearly stated in school district policy, “Pleasant Valley will not be an advocate for a political agenda.” The grant application, submitted under the Pleasant Valley School District, contradicts this policy. When revisiting the document, Mike Zimmer, principal, recalls learning from Cournoyer that the statement was included to help ensure the grant was received, as increasing supporters of pro-gun legislation is one of the NRA’s agendas. He acknowledged the statement’s wrongful placement in the application, saying “That is not even allowed.”  Cournoyer recently reviewed the application she submitted some three years ago and cannot recall why the statement was included. “We wrote it in [the application], but looking back at it now, that was not an appropriate place to put that. That shouldn’t have been in there,” she said.

The “Friends of the NRA” grant also requests that applicants list ways their program will recognize the NRA foundation. PV’s grant application promised to place the NRA logo on the team’s website and Facebook page, on their 2014-2015 team banner and team poster, through a press release to local media and through “continued support and membership in the NRA by our adult coaches and volunteers.”

Cournoyer believes the best reason to be a member of the NRA is for the education and training it provides. She said, “There’s a faction of the NRA that has gotten extremely political and that is disappointing to me.”

The focus of these grants, according to the NRA foundation, is to “educate individuals with respect to firearms, firearms history, participation in the shooting sports, hunting safety, and marksmanship.” Schools apply for said grants to fund programs that relate to shooting sports or guns. “It’s an easy sort of money for some of these programs that schools say are really underfunded. That is why a lot of these schools say they’ve been glad to accept the money in the past,” said Collin Brinkley, the AP reporter conducting the investigation into NRA public funding.

In response to the recent events in Parkland, Fla., businesses and schools across the country have been cutting ties with the NRA. Nevertheless, Cournoyer doesn’t see the need to cut such ties. She stated earlier in the week, “There is nothing at this point that would take [accepting another grant] off the table.”

Despite the application’s wording, both Cournoyer and Zimmer agree that the trap team and its coaches are non-political and focus solely on their sport.