St. Mary's College of Maryland Shooters and Marksmen Clup (SMCMSMC)

Hello all,

I am a student at St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) and part of a relativity new shooting club on campus that is struggling to get its feet under it. We are having numerous issues establishing a shooting club on a liberal arts campus (no funding for one) but another major problem we are running into is a place to store our guns and ammo. We can't have them on campus and having them spread out amongst people's houses to have stranger show up to parent's houses to take guns is awkward to say the least. None of us like the idea of using a storage unit and I am out of ideas but I figured if anyone might have some tips or leads for our club it would be MD Shooters! We are looking for a place to store a good amount of guns, possibly close to 50 in a secure, safe and accessible manner. We would be willing to pay a fee to use a location and be accommodating in the details of who would have access to it, at what times, etc.

A little bit about our club is that we are about 50 members strong (60% guys) and we are looking to establish shooting as a serious club and even a sport at our college. We are hoping to be CMP and NRA affiliated, have some of our members trained as range safety officers, establish a postal competition with other MD colleges and eventually (hopefully) start a league for MD collegiate shooters which would be a postal competition throughout the year and at the end it a college would host a tournament. We hope to have a strong women's team and have our members go after as many NRA marksmen certificates as possible as well as compete in as many NRA or CMP competitions and take as many classes as possible. We have a whole list of other ideas we hope will become a reality; matching college shooters with young shooters in mentor type way and then compete in a tournament with them to get kids interested in shooting. Without any location to store our guns, no sponsors, and so few connections to the MD shooting community and businesses we are having a hard time getting off the ground which is a shame because I think our club would help bring shooting into the mainstream even at place where it would be unlikely to be (my liberal arts school). First thing is first though, as a shooting club we need to be able to access our guns. If anyone has any suggestions about a way to store our club member's guns safely, securely, and nearby where we can access them please feel post up! Even if it is not about gun storage, even if is just support of our cause or tips to making it success, please post! Comments, Questions, concerns, criticism, etc. please post them! Even though we are a college club we are hoping to get involved with the surrounding community as well as our own little one on campus and the MD Shooters forum seems like a great place to start! Thanks for sticking though the long post and happy shooting!

Good luck

There are potential insurance issues with storing firearms offsite.

The logistics can be problematic. Times for drawing firearms, checkout procedures for accountability, maintenance etc.

Starting from the ground up is truly a challenge.

I am sorry you are having such a difficult problem as you have a great idea. I wish I could help you in some way (former College Professor). Is there a range near you that could provide storage facilities for a fee? How about a local FFL that would offer storage for a fee?
As an Official Club of St. Mary's, the College could actually do it through their Campus Security Office if they wanted to (buy gun safes, manage a sign out system during specified club shoot hours, etc.). Do you have a ROTC on Campus? Where do you shoot? Local Range?
Maybe the NRA could help. Have you contacted them?

ROTC is a good question, particularly with NAS Pax just up the road, Webster Field just down it. I too am curious where you plan to shoot at. Also, whether this would possibly be an intercollegiate exercise.

PM me for some thoughts about this.

Back in olden times (the mid - late 80's) the Public Safety Office would store long guns for students. Ask them when that changed and why.

Sorry I am not there to take part in this effort. Got my bachelors degree from there.

OEH said:

Back in olden times (the mid - late 80's) the Public Safety Office would store long guns for students. Ask them when that changed and why.

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a couple of queres in trench coats with died hair changed that!

I will be out of town for a little while. Please PM me and we will go from there.

Steve

OK...
First, make the precision shooting events your top priority. Air rifle and air pistol especially. There's a monthly (during the academic year) air pistol match up in Annapolis (12th Precinct Pistol Club), get your people shooting it. The NRA has a collegiate program at http://www.nrahq.org/compete/coldir.asp.

I stress the precision events for three reasons. First, you get to use the Olympic Games as a hammer. You're participating in an Olympic sport...what's their problem? Second, air rifle and air pistol have much simpler range requirements. A room 40 feet long will suffice (which means shooting through the winter) - and I suspect it would ease storage problems as well. Third, you learn to shoot well, as opposed to being a duffer just blasting away in the general direction of the target.

WRT storage, I can think of several options. Probably the easiest would be to get a climate-controlled storage unit, then put a vault or two in it.

The only range in the area is Sanners Lake. By now, you should have been contacted by at least one member of the Board of Directors (one previous responder to this thread is one). We're getting back to full capability after some serious range reconstruction, and I think some collegiate shooters would be welcome.

Max, glad to hear about this. I'm an SMC alum and would have liked it if this had started when I attended (class of 2001). I can't be of much help to you personally but a friend of mine, another SMC alum, works for the NRA and liked your idea. I'll PM you some contact info and maybe she can help.

You may want to contact the Rifle team at Loyola University in Maryland. They went through a similat problem a few yearsa ago and worked out an arrangement with a local indoor range (Continental Arms) .

I am sure they would give you some ideas and suggestions!

Also contact the folks at Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association (www.msrpa.org)!

I am an SMCM alum as well. I spent time on the SGA Finance Board (2007-2008) which funds ALL student clubs.

Have you tried to form the club through the SGA? I imagine you have. I understand this will be difficult b/c you'll have to sit in front of a 90% liberal SGA board and explain how guns could possibly be a part of the community-- even ostensibly as a completely off-site venture. Your huge plus: you already have 50 members. That's a very good sized club! Stress this level of interest, safety, and then you'll probably need to throw in a few warm-fuzzies (i.e. this is completely target practice, like in the Olympics... as opposed to saying we're shooting skeet to get ready to kill some birds!!!).

Anyway, after you're a club, you'll have to sit in front of the Finance Board for funding. PM once you get this far. I'll be glad to help w/ tips and tricks for that meeting.

mcbruzdzinski said:

You may want to contact the Rifle team at Loyola University in Maryland. They went through a similat problem a few yearsa ago and worked out an arrangement with a local indoor range (Continental Arms) .

I am sure they would give you some ideas and suggestions!

Also contact the folks at Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association (www.msrpa.org)!

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Good Idea about Loyola! As far as the MSRPA goes I don't think our club will be associating any time soon. Keeping the liberal nature of the campus and the SGA in mind I am trying to keep the club politically unaffiliated. I know it is the easy way out but in the interest of gaining as much support as possible in the college the MSRPA has too much of a political agenda for us to be affiliated with it. I know its lame but sometimes that's the way its gotta be.

Thanks for all the comments so far, you guys are great! All PMs responded to

wenfa said:

Good Idea about Loyola! As far as the MSRPA goes I don't think our club will be associating any time soon. Keeping the liberal nature of the campus and the SGA in mind I am trying to keep the club politically unaffiliated. I know it is the easy way out but in the interest of gaining as much support as possible in the college the MSRPA has too much of a political agenda for us to be affiliated with it. I know its lame but sometimes that's the way its gotta be.

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Why would a shooting club ever be politically affiliated anyway? Politics should not even come up in any of your discussions of the club with anyone, and if the board starts to steer in the direction of questioning you about politics, you should look confused...

Guns and the shooting sports are not a polarized political debate. Firearms are a constitutionally protected right guaranteed to all.

Clubs at your school should be based solely on participation, so long as you are within the rules. Funding should be based on weather the club provides a benefit to the school, which should be accomplished by stressing the Olympic nature of the club. Anything else should be deemed prejudice on their part.

Good luck, and good on you for advancing the firearms sport!

You might also consider applying as the "St. Mary's College Olympic Shooting Club", or something similar. Work the Olympic angle for all it's worth.

Good luck. I wish you all the best.

Mike OTDP said:

OK...
First, make the precision shooting events your top priority. Air rifle and air pistol especially. There's a monthly (during the academic year) air pistol match up in Annapolis (12th Precinct Pistol Club), get your people shooting it. The NRA has a collegiate program at http://www.nrahq.org/compete/coldir.asp.

I stress the precision events for three reasons. First, you get to use the Olympic Games as a hammer. You're participating in an Olympic sport...what's their problem? Second, air rifle and air pistol have much simpler range requirements. A room 40 feet long will suffice (which means shooting through the winter) - and I suspect it would ease storage problems as well. Third, you learn to shoot well, as opposed to being a duffer just blasting away in the general direction of the target.

WRT storage, I can think of several options. Probably the easiest would be to get a climate-controlled storage unit, then put a vault or two in it.

The only range in the area is Sanners Lake. By now, you should have been contacted by at least one member of the Board of Directors (one previous responder to this thread is one). We're getting back to full capability after some serious range reconstruction, and I think some collegiate shooters would be welcome.

Click to expand...

This is VERY sound advice! From the point of view of a policy planner (in education), I can see a lot of areas in what you are proposing that would be waving big red flags to college administrators. They are going to be looking at potential liability issues (numerous), safety issues (perceived as more numerous than they are, but perception functions as reality in such circumstances), and other things that might make them vulnerable to lawsuits, or worse. As you know, the issues of owning, storing, moving, and using any sort of firearm in MD can be done in a manner that brings the law down. Also keep in mind the reality that a lot of the people whom you approach are going to be concerned about who's of legal age. More to the point, who is not of legal age might be given access to a firearm that they shouldn't be transporting, etc.

In a case like this, it's far safer and easier for a school to say, "No!", than to help get something going, so you have to be smart and very patient.

Can you find a respected administrator or faculty member who would be willing to serve as your adviser, and who can present your case to "the powers" on campus? Do you have a certified range safety officer who can supervise any shooting that you do?

The smart approach to take is to forget what you think you should be entitled to do, or want to do, and start thinking in terms of what CSMD might go along with. Have you asked campus security if there's any way that they might store student-owned firearms ... of any type? I don't think you have an ROTC unit, but that would be a good foot in the door if you did.

Another possibility would be to have your campus adviser, or RSO, or both in charge of the firearms, and for the club to purchase a limited number of firearms that you share, rather than have everyone bring their own gear from home. These are just some things to think about.

Machodoc brings up a good point. Get at least one (preferably several) member certified as an Range Safety Officer.

I'd work air rifle/pistol first. Use that as a wedge. It's really hard to object to an Olympic event that doesn't require a full-up shooting range.

The other option is to work the historical angle. Shoot muzzle-loading firearms - especially matchlocks and flintlocks such as those used in Colonial times. They look less threatening to the uninformed.