Free Republic

School shooting teams were common before 1970. They suffered enormous decline with the war on guns from 1970 to 2000. Now they are making a comeback. The numbers are growing, and even the Associated Press is noticing. From detroitnews.com: Dahlonega, Ga. – Their classmates took to the streets to protest gun violence and to implore adults to restrict guns, seeming to forecast a generational shift in attitudes toward the Second Amendment. But at high school and college gun ranges around the country, these teens and young adults gather to practice shooting and talk about the positive influence firearms have...

On Sunday morning, July 23, 2017, Roy Eykamp, Jr. invited me to the Quirindi Sporting Clay Target club. The club is located 20 some kilometers out of town on a few acres of a former sheep farm, in New South Wales, Australia. A small creek meanders through the property.  A combination of flat land for a club house and parking, with surrounding hills and mixed elevation gives an ideal location to configure challenging sporting clays competitions.I fell in love with the atmosphere and the club from the start. The club house is a former shearing shed.  The exterior is...

Rocky Mount United Methodist Church decided what to do with the gully behind their church–they built a gun range and launched a gun range ministry “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

The decision of Germany’s largest gun club to disbar a title-winner over his Muslim religion—hastily withdrawn last August after an anti-discrimination uproar—came back to bite members after their bid for UNESCO cultural heritage status was suspended. Last July, 33-year-old Mithat Gedik was crowned Schützenkönig (marksman king) by his local club in Werl, North Rhine-Westphalia—only to have his title withheld because the organization’s ancient statute meant that non-Christians were ineligible to claim the crown. The Bund der Historischen Deutschen Schützenbruderschaften (BHDS—Federation of Historic German Marksmanship Brotherhoods) club then granted him the prize as an “exception” after the case was taken up...

HONOLULU — Kenji and Hiromasa Ozawa, a father and son vacationing on the island of Oahu, spent Christmas morning hiking up Diamond Head, a volcanic cone here with sweeping views of Waikiki Beach. Their next stop: The Royal Hawaiian Shooting Club — an indoor shooting range in an upscale shopping center just above Cartier and Hermès stores — where they fired off several dozen rounds between them. “We love shooting guns, I love shooting guns,” said Kenji Ozawa, 52, who was visiting from Chiba, Japan. “It’s a very exciting experience.” Japan has among the most restrictive gun laws in the...

From the sounds of this article about a Virginia gun club that needed approval to take on some construction projects, it appears as though anti-gun advocates were actually trying to end all gun owner activities rather than having any concern for actual firearms use on the range. In July, they report that 13 people came out to oppose the club’s plans. Now, that might be expected if the club was looking to vastly expand the number and size of ranges or do something else that would greatly increase quality-of-life factors for residents around the club. But, no. They were opposing...

The Burlington Police Department last week found itself in a crossfire between the Burlington City Council and the Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club. The club’s Morristown shooting range is no longer allowing the police department to train there because its executive board feels the city council is infringing on Second Amendment freedoms.

Once upon a time, it was common for an American child to be packed off to school with a rifle on his back and for him to come home smiling and safe in the evening. Shooting clubs, now quietly withering away, were once such a mainstay of American high-school life that in the first half of the 20th century they were regularly installed in the basements of new educational buildings. Now, they are in their death throes, victims of political correctness, a willful misunderstanding of what constitutes “gun safety,” and our deplorable tendency toward litigiousness.In 1975, New York state...

PETERBOROUGH — A gun club official says members are doing all they can to be considerate of their neighbors. The Monadnock Rod and Gun Club will most likely not make any changes after receiving a letter from selectmen asking it to be quieter, said Mark Carbone, chairman of the board of directors. Neighbors recently brought their concerns to town officials about noise levels at the shooting range increasing in recent years. Town officials said they could not make the gun club change its activities because it has not done anything illegal. But selectmen sent a letter last week requesting the...

Three neighbors have sued the Ashland Gun Club and the city of Ashland, alleging that lead ammunition is contaminating the environment and stray bullets are striking one of their properties. Cathy DeForest, her husband, Leon Pyle, and Dr. Edward Kerwin filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Medford on Dec. 23. They are represented by attorney Tom Dimitre, who is also chairman of the Rogue Group Sierra Club. The gun club has operated on city-owned land east of the Ashland Municipal Airport since the 1960s. It has a lease agreement with the city for use of the site. DeForest...

TACOMA — The court trial involving the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club will move into its third day on Thursday, when Kitsap County deputy prosecutor Neil Wachter is scheduled to call more witnesses to support the county's case. The county is seeking to have the gun club's shooting range on Seabeck Highway declared a nuisance because of noise and risks to neighbors. The county also wants the club to be found in violation of local land-use rules related to clearing timberland, filling a wetland and diverting a stream. The club maintains that the county has overstepped its legal authority and...

MANILA, Philippines - Firearms, the “last line of defense” in home protection and self-defense, can kill or seriously injure. As such, gun owners should treat it with care and constant vigilance to ensure personal safety and the safety of others. And when time does come for one to draw his gun against an attacker, it is imperative he fully knows the weapon and how to properly use it. Such was the main thrust of discussion when members of Stronghand One Gun Club and guests gathered for their first general assembly at the Stronghand Shooting Range in Quezon City. Samson Macariola,...

Kitsap County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Hauge, a Democrat, filed a complaint against a respected gun club just two months before he is up for reelection. His opponent is a member of that gun club. Hauge has attempted to criminally prosecute the gun club's Executive Officer three times already, but each time the charges were dismissed by a judge. Hauge has appealed. With the county suffering financially, some suspect Hauge is engaging in a political vendetta.   The Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club (KRRC) has been a landmark along Seabeck Highway in Kitsap County, Washington since 1926. Its website url is...

Following complaints to the Town Board about increased noise from the Kinderhook Sportsmen’s Club, officials and members of the club are speaking out about its roots and contributions in the community. Several neighbors told the board in October that the amount of shooting had risen markedly, and they wanted to know if the town could help find a compromise. The club, located on more than 50 acres off Fowler Lake Road in Ghent, was founded in 1954 and predates the town’s zoning laws. Club President Terence Toomey says that little about the club’s operation has changed recently. While a Wednesday...

A recommendation to close the sporting clays range at McMiller Sports Center has been proposed by Paul Sandgren, WDNR-Superintendent of the Southern Unit of The Kettle Moraine Forest. This is the same person who proposed closure of parts of the forest to deer hunting this past fall. The contract (lease) with Wern Valley to operate McMiller for the DNR is due to expire (after 15 years) on March 31st. There is no contract up for bid as yet. The Department has asked the lease with Wern Valley be extended on a month to month basis while it makes up its...

One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: “Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident.” This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another. Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of...

Local gun club members have banned on-duty state Justice Department officers from their popular Sacramento-area shooting range in a symbolic stand against Attorney General Bill Lockyer's pursuit of legislation they oppose. Lockyer's office fired back Wednesday by calling the impact minimal because most, if not all, of its Sacramento-based officers did not use the range on duty in the past year. The Folsom Shooting Club, which runs the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center in Sloughhouse, last week sent the Democratic attorney general a letter describing the ban and the group's opposition to two bills designed to trace bullets or cartridges back...

If Gig Harbor enacts legislation to regulate the operation of a 52-year-old gun club in the city, the issue surely will wind up in court, said Dan Koch, past president of the Gig Harbor Sportsman's Club. "I get kind of nervous when I see an ordinance that's going to put a shooting club out of business," gun club member David Gordon told City Council members Monday night, pointing out that there already are laws "against dropping rounds on your neighbors." But residents of the neighboring Avalon Woods housing tract think it's time the city policed the facility at 9721 Burnham...