There was still one at MIT in 1999 when I visited it and the man in charge was, if I recall correctly, former US Marine.
When I was in fourth and fifth grade, I used to take a city bus downtown to the YMCA almost every day. There was a shooting range in the basement of the “Y”, and usually there would be one or two boys in the back of the bus carrying rifles. My recollection is that they were in cases.
No one seemed to think anything of it. I went into the range to watch them shoot, which was OK with the instructor as long as I stayed behind a line on the floor. They had ear protectors, but no one made you use them. I thought it was cool. I don’t recall the thought of one of them turning the gun on me, or doing anything bad with their firearms at all, ever even occurring to me. It never even crossed my mind to think that I was in any danger at all; they were all older boys, and I was sure they knew what they were doing.
And that “Y” had been there since before WWII, I’m pretty sure.
This was in Syracuse, NY.