Student’s Gunshot Project Allowed to Enter Science Fair

Overturning a screening committee recommendation, the managers of the San Diego County science fair decided Wednesday that 12-year-old Russ Grisbeck will be allowed to enter his project involving the use of a hunting rifle.

The screening committee ruled last month that Grisbeck’s project might encourage other youths to take up firearms, but the full management committee decided that Grisbeck’s project had been done under safe and scientifically valid conditions.

“I’m not going to Disneyland, but I am going to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” said the buoyant seventh-grader after the decision. “I’m pretty excited. I thought we might have to keep fighting.” In addition to his invitation to JPL, Grisbeck received a super-scope for his rifle by the scope manufacturer.

After the screening committee had said the project was not suitable, Russ’s plight had evoked support from the National Rifle Assn. and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon). The NRA urged its members to flood the offices of the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair with calls of protest.

The fair, scheduled April 13-17 in Balboa Park, is sponsored by the San Diego Union-Tribune, with support from businesses and science educators. Now in its 40th year, the fair is expected to draw 600 entries from junior and senior high school students.

Russ, a student at Olive Peirce Middle School in rural Ramona, had used his prize Remington hunting rifle to test bullets with five differing amounts of gunpowder. His goal was to decide which bullet provided the greatest velocity and accuracy.

Russ and his father, Irv, who runs a sportfishing business in San Diego, are avid hunters and members of the NRA. Russ began firing a .22 when he was 8 years old and obtained his hunter’s safety certificate at age 10.

The story of the boy and his rifle caused a media sensation, starting first with a radio talk show, then local television news programs and newspapers, then the Associated Press, and then national newspapers and television news shows.

In a statement announcing that the project would be allowed, the science fair management committee reiterated the screening committee’s concern about students being tempted to duplicate Russ’s experiment without proper concern for safety.

The project was given a grade of A by Russ’s science teacher, who then nominated it for the science fair. The project display will include charts and graphs to show the boy’s calculations and conclusions, but not the rifle.