Lynn Alexander Gipson started in trapshooting the way most kids did in 1972. He set traps. He was 14 years old at Elliott’s Shooting Park in Raytown, Missouri, picking up busted clays and learning how the machines worked. Within five years he was running the place, and within five decades he was running the sport.
Gipson, the executive director of the Amateur Trapshooting Association and a newly elected director of the National Rifle Association of America, died Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Memorial Hospital in Belleville, Illinois. He was 67.
His passing leaves a sizable hole in two of the largest organizations in American shooting sports. Gipson had served as ATA executive director and Grand American tournament director since 2012, a 14-year run during which he turned American-style trapshooting’s marquee event into a true international affair. Brazil’s addition to the Grand American competitor field was, by his own account, one of his proudest moments. New sponsors followed. So did new countries. The 127th edition of the Grand American opens July 29 in Sparta, Illinois, and the match program carries his fingerprints on every page.
A longtime NRA member who also served on the organization’s Shotgun Committee, Gipson was elected in the most recent NRA Board of Directors election to a one-year term. He had been preparing for a trip to the 2026 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Houston to be formally seated before he died in April.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 24, 1958, Gipson graduated from the University of Missouri and built a parallel career in construction. He worked for a string of Kansas City-area mechanical contracting firms, sharpening the business administration and project management skills that would later define his shoot management. Through all of it, the gun club work never stopped. He spent 35 years on the Board of Directors of the Kansas City Trapshooters Association—serving as president in 1986 and as manager from 1997—and 32 years on the Missouri Trapshooters Association Board, including a presidency in 1988 and 26 years as state secretary. He partnered with Steve Ricketts to launch Gipson-Ricketts Lead Reclamation, drawing on the hands-on education he had received as a teenager at Elliott’s Shooting Park. He provided the computer services for the Missouri State Shoot and Fall Handicap Tournaments from 1991 through 1999, including the largest Missouri Fall Handicap on record at the time.
By the time Gipson took the reins at ATA as executive director in 2012, there was almost no part of the sport’s machinery he had not touched.
What he said about that career was simple enough. Surround yourself with good people. Trust them. Get a little lucky. The shooters, sponsors and staff who passed through his orbit over the years tended to describe the experience the same way.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which co-stewards the World Shooting and Recreational Complex with the ATA, called Gipson a partner and an advocate in a statement posted to social media following his death. The 2026 Grand American match program features a full-page memorial tribute.
Beyond the firing line, Gipson sat on the ATA Trapshooting Hall of Fame Board and was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He played golf and doted on his three dachshunds—Auggie, Heidi and Gunther. Additionally, he sang in the Chancel Choir at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Freeburg, Illinois, and served as a lector there.
In lieu of flowers, the Gipson family has requested memorials be directed to the ATA for the “For Those We Lost Memorial” displayed annually at the Grand American or to the Chancel Choir at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Freeburg, Illinois.
The ATA Executive Committee recently appointed Randy Moeller as Gipson’s successor as executive director, starting the role in April 2026.
As for the 127th Grand American, this year’s tournament begins July 29 at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta, Illinois. It will be the first one staged without Lynn Gipson in 14 years.
He will be missed.
Legends: Lynn Alexander Gipson
October 24, 1958 – April 18, 2026
