TRA fired up by successful trip to gun range

The moment you pull the trigger of a nine millimeter automatic handgun, you feel like the guy standing beside you just took a punch at your arm. Hard.

After doing the same motion 50 times in less than 15 minutes, you begin to feel like your arm has turned into jelly.

At the same time, you vainly try to hit the target over 40 feet away. Shells eject from your neighbor's gun into your chest, which is only slightly less startling than the constant roar of gunfire all around as the other participants empty their clips and instructors help them reload for another go.

The Tufts Rights to Arms (TRA) group took 15 members and non-members to a shooting range last month, where they shot over 1,000 rounds of ammunition from nine millimeters, .38- and .22-caliber revolvers and .22 semi-automatics.

The excursion was the TRA's first event, after the group received recognition last semester from the TCU Judiciary decision. The approval of the group sparked some outcry on campus from liberal groups and protests were made to the administration.

Many of those groups felt that supporting gun use would result in more gun deaths. According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 30,708 people in the United States died from firearm-related deaths in 1998. 12,102 (39 percent) of those were murdered; 17,424 (57 percent) were suicides; 866 (three percent) were accidents; and in 316 (one percent) the intent was unknown.

TRA President Nick Boyd said while students on campus associate the group's activities with violence, it is something that he hopes to change through educating that "responsible firearms use does not cause crime, does not cause violence," Boyd said. "That was the message that was misunderstood by the student body, and that's why it was so controversial."

The trip was sponsored by the gun-advocacy group Gun Owners' Action League (GOAL) and cost participants nothing. The cost for shooting that amount of ammo and for gun rentals could easily reach over $100 according to TRA President Nick Boyd. GOAL may also sponsor the one or two other trips this semester, limiting the costs to $10 a student Boyd said.

"They're certainly helping us get off the ground," Boyd said. "We're relying on them at least for now."

Ask those who went to the range why they wanted to shoot deadly weapons against a tiny target, and the answers that start coming back at you could fill a book.

There were people who loved to go to the shooting range as a recreational activity, and a girl who used to skeet shoot competitively. However, there were also those who simply wanted to see what it was like.

Many at the gun club spoke of the empowerment that they feel from owning, holding, and most importantly, shooting a gun.

The TRA says that it is an open group, and that left-wingers are welcome just as much as right-wingers, as long as you enjoy recreational gun use and want to discuss gun ownership rights. But a quick glance at the bulletin board of Woburn Sportsman Association reveals strong right-wing affiliation for gun users, with articles, letters and pictures supporting the Republican Party and president George W. Bush.

Sophomore Elise Sabbeth argued ardently that in her hometown of Denver, Colorado, guns and politics are rarely mixed. Sabbeth grew up skeet shooting with her dad and even shot in amateur competitions when she was younger.

"When a couple [eastern] people found out I shoot guns, they think I'm a raging conservative," Sabbeth explained, who was on the shooting trip. "But it has nothing to do with politics where I come from. It was always just something I did with my dad." Sabbeth said that she has fired nearly every type of weapon short of automatics, but that does not mean she supports groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA), and she is not a member of the TRA. "I just wanted to go shooting because I haven't been able to do it for a while," Sabbeth said. "I was shocked with all the politics surrounding gun issues out here... In Colorado, it's just a sport."

In the northeast, gun clubs are more popular with older citizens. Jon Green, Director of Education and Training with the Gun Owners' Action League, said that "when you look around, especially at meetings, they're all white. I would have to say the mean age is 50, and that's really too bad."

Dick Dyer, president of the Woburn Sportsman Association and former coach of the MIT pistol and rifle teams, said the MIT students had no problem with a shooting team at their university. "Surprisingly, it was a non-issue," Dyer shouted as gun shots reverberated around the room. "Ninety-nine percent of the kids I got on the team never shot a gun before, but they were fast learners."

Green reiterated the point when speaking to the group of TRA members that guns prevented more deaths than caused, and cited facts that more students had died in cheerleading competitions than shooting competitions over the past 50 years.

He also complained about what he considered Massachusetts' restrictive gun laws, which he says makes it too hard for a law-abiding Massachusetts citizen to purchase firearms.

The Brady Campaign gave the state an A- report card this year on its current firearm restrictions.