LAKEWOOD, NJ (SBN) — If you think all gun ranges and firearms training programs are for middle-aged white guys wearing red baseball caps, you’ll have to check your expectations at the doors of WeShoot in Lakewood, Ocean County, NJ.
The gun range welcomes people from all persuasions including physically disabled individuals at this ADA-compliant facility, and hosts a regular firearms orientation program called the “Diversity Shoot,” hosted by licensed firearms instructor Tony Simon.
Interest in firearms training has been growing among non-traditional groups that typically don’t have experience with firearms, says Simon. And members of communities of color have expressed strong interest in the wake of recent research by Rise Against Hate, a public policy group whose recent analysis of New Jersey firearms carry permits revealed that Black applicants are denied carry permits at a rate ten times higher than white applicants. In some counties, like Ocean County, the rejection rate for Black applicants is more than 50 times higher than for whites.
SBN News Director Steve Lubetkin attended a recent Diversity Shoot in Lakewood and filed this report.
You can see Steve’s complete conversation with Benjamin Shore, principal author of the Rise Against Hate carry permit study, in the player below.
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Steve Lubetkin is the news director for StateBroadcastNews.com. Steve’s journalism background includes print and broadcast reporting for NJ news organizations. He refocused on multimedia journalism and podcast production after a long career in corporate branded journalism and public relations.
He has won numerous awards for his audio and video news reporting from the Garden State Journalists Association, and he has also been recognized for video by the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has produced a wide range of audio and video podcasts in his other role as managing partner of State Broadcast News’s parent, The Lubetkin Media Companies.
Steve is co-author, with Toronto-based podcasting pioneer Donna Papacosta, of the book, The Business of Podcasting: How to Take Your Podcasting Passion from the Personal to the Professional.
In March 2021, he was elected to the board of directors of the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and in July 2021 he was named secretary of the chapter. In August 2021, he was honored by SPJ with one of the organization’s 2021 Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Awards, given to regular members of an SPJ chapter who go above and beyond in serving their chapter.
Steve has been the computer columnist for the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey, since 1996.
Steve also has reported on-camera and produces virtual conferences for NJSpotlightNews.org, a public policy news coverage website focused on New Jersey government and industry; and for clients of StateBroadcastNews.com, a division of The Lubetkin Media Companies LLC.
From May-November 2019, he produced and reported a weekly podcast, The CRE News Hour, a news and features program focusing on the commercial real estate industry.
From 2014 to 2019 he was New Jersey and Philadelphia editor for GlobeSt.com and filled in covering Chicago/Midwest and Atlanta.
Steve has also served (from August 2017 to March 2018) as national broadcast news correspondent for CEOReport.com, a news website focused on practical advice for senior executives in small- and medium-sized companies.
Earlier in his career, Steve reported on rock music at the Jersey Shore for the Asbury Park Press, and was a broadcast news anchor and production engineer for WJLK-AM & FM, then owned by the Press. He also worked as a general assignment reporter for the Red Bank Register, Shrewsbury, NJ.
You can email Steve at steve@statebroadcastnews.com.
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