Resistance at UCSD

[pullnshoot25]

So I am meeting some resistance to my air pistol team idea and I need some good arguments to bring forth and possibly some representation. Anyone in the SD area an airgun competitor that could lend some assistance if needed?

[pratchett]

How about referencing it as an Olympic sport?

[pullnshoot25]

How about referencing it as an Olympic sport?

Oh, I am hammering that point home in a big way. However, the golden line is "we aren't a set up to be a shooting range" and "why don't you do this off-campus?" and "the equestrian club do their activities off-campus" and "what if you shoot someone walking behind the targets?"

I had appropriate answers to all of these questions. I am working on finding a good backstop solution as well as presenting pellet trap designs.

She was taken aback when I said we had 93 members in our club. That is JUST from this quarter WITH NO ADVERTISING BUDGET!

[sd1023x]

Where on campus do you want to shoot? In the canyon behind earl's place?

[Iknownot]

My answer would simply be:http://archery.ucsd.edu/

If they're not worried about someone walking behind an archery target and taking an arrow, I'm not sure why they should be so worried about a pellet from an airgun.

IMO.

In fact, they should probably set aside some time and space for your club, since they conveniently do have a range already set up.

[SJgunguy24]

How about referencing it as an Olympic sport?

I was talking with pns25 last night. The Olympic sport is one angle, quite a good one too. Imagine if one was good enough to make to the Olympic trials or maybe make the team? How fast would they jump on that band wagon?

I also told him to work the military base angle. It's part of the history of the USA, and of the land that school occupies. Too many people tend to forget our history and just throw it aside but we cannot forget where we came from.

[ocabj]

Contact the Civilian Marksmanship Program to get information on smallbore (air rifle/pistol) collegiate programs. I believe Christine Elder (celder@odcmp.com)is the point of contact for coaching/instructional/competitions. She might be able to provide you resources for setting up a smallbore range in the form of documentation and contacts for other campuses with actual full-fledged smallbore programs.

While you're not trying to setup an actual campus smallbore program, such information would be invaluable for you.

[sd1023x]

My answer would simply be:http://archery.ucsd.edu/

If they're not worried about someone walking behind an archery target and taking an arrow, I'm not sure why they should be so worried about a pellet from an airgun.

IMO.

In fact, they should probably set aside some time and space for your club, since they conveniently do have a range already set up.

And they won't give you the range time when its on campus!

Has the lead issue come up?

[Iknownot]

From the archery club's photos, seems like there's a reasonable backstop already at the range as well.




I'm not sure what the problem with your club is, if they are letting the archery club use this range that UCSD already has set up.

[ocabj]

As a followup to my reply, it's important to be aware of how to setup a range. You'll need to understand the concepts of range fans. Fans being the areas where rounds will go after being fired which include rounds that stay in the impact area and those that may ricochet/bounce out of the impact area.

I attached a sample photo of a standard range fan diagram.



This may look complex for a smallbore range, but it's important to consider when setting up a range, whether permanent or makeshift/temporary, and demonstrates your knowledge and ability to safely operate a firing range/line.

You should also get a copy of the NRA Range Sourcebook:

http://materials.nrahq.org/go/products.aspx?cat=Range%20Source%20Book

Also, getting some of the membership trained and certified as NRA Range Safety Officers will go a long way to demonstrate your club's capability to function safely and professionally.

[KylaGWolf]

PNS While I agree with you there SHOULD be a program there on campus I have a feeling it will not happen.

I would use the argument that if they allow archery they cannot deny guns. There is more risk of injury or death from an arrow than an air pellet. While I would too think the military angle would be a good one I know how well that didn't work for the ROTC down here in San Diego when they were told they had to shut down their air gun program due to parents being upset of weapons on campus. So now the ROTC is no longer allowed to shoot even off campus if I understand correctly.

Have you done any research as to if any other campus here in California or anywhere else in the country offers the same type of program? If so that could also be used to argue your point.

[SJgunguy24]

In an area with such a strong military history as San Deigo I find that completly insane.

PNS While I agree with you there SHOULD be a program there on campus I have a feeling it will not happen.

I would use the argument that if they allow archery they cannot deny guns. There is more risk of injury or death from an arrow than an air pellet. While I would too think the military angle would be a good one I know how well that didn't work for the ROTC down here in San Diego when they were told they had to shut down their air gun program due to parents being upset of weapons on campus. So now the ROTC is no longer allowed to shoot even off campus if I understand correctly.

Have you done any research as to if any other campus here in California or anywhere else in the country offers the same type of program? If so that could also be used to argue your point.

[pullnshoot25]

Research is underway to find other collegiate programs that we can communicate with.

I will definitely contact the CMP.

We discussed the archery range over the phone as they apparently are having issues with the range because arrows have been found in the rope course behind the archery field. Apparently, "even highly trained individuals using complex bows can't keep arrows in the field," which is dumb because that back fence is 28' tall and in order to launch an arrow over that fence you have to be completely negligent (like drawing the bow with it raised over your head) in order to accomplish that feat of ballistics. Furthermore, the people that use the range arent "experts", they are mostly newbs and the bows they use are just the average stickbow. Like the technologically advanced equipment makes the arrow behave badly... LAME! EVEN BETTER is the question of WHY people aren't retrieving their friggin arrows.

For 10m air pistol/rifle, it is an indoor sport and is subject to a lot of variations even in that short distance. Doing it outdoors while sharing the archery range would just not work well.

What is so silly is that I am not asking for anything radical. This is done all over the country in high schools and living rooms (solo practice) and it REALLY isn't that hard.

One of the biggest obstacles is that the woman I talked with is not a shooter. Her dad was a shooter but never took her shooting so she has no clue about anything related to shooting. She may be my next range buddy if I can get her to come out of her shell so she can actually know the score. She makes it seem like it is REALLY HARD to put a pellet inside of a 2'x2' box at 10m but it isn't.

Criminey.

Will keep you all posted.

[GrizzlyGuy]

Maybe show them this news article. Your club will be teaching students many skills that are applicable to real firearms as well, and those skills could be used to save the lives of students someday (as in that case).

[Jonathan Doe]

I also would contact some college teams to see how they chartered the club. My son is a member of the Yale University Skeet and Trap club. I never thought those colleges would have a shootiing team.