Firearm Safety Collective Unrecognized

Announcements
Next meeting will be this Wednesday March 10th 2015 in FPH.

Mission Statement
Debates abound in today’s political discourse regarding the Second Amendment Right to bear arms. Guns have taken on a political and psychological character that exists as a veil over the practical reality of firearms. To some, guns are a symbol of an individual’s rights; to others, they are a symbol of the maligned felon, and of our civilization’s wars. We stand in defiance of the absolutism of these symbols. We recognize that because these symbols exist in the popular consciousness, an informed education and experience of firearms becomes all the more important. It is vital to understand the operation of these symbols within gun rights discourse, and we seek to provide an environment for the Hampshire community to form their own views rather than borrow recitations of a political bullet point.

This group serves to inform and educate the Hampshire Community on the use of firearms and to demystify national gun culture. This will be accomplished by trips to the Smith and Wesson Sports Center in Springfield, MA (and other gun clubs) as often as funding allows. We will also hold weekly meetings to discuss contemporary gun news, review gun history within the United States and globally, and hold structured debates on the place of firearms in the modern world. These will all serve to ultimately deconstruct the members’ perceptions of gun culture and use while constructing the reality of the political and social discourses within which guns exert power influence.

10/17 meeting notes File:gunclub 10:17.png

Trips to the Shooting Range
Trips will occur periodically throughout the semester. For further details, attend our meetings please contact ngl12@hampshire.edu, Nick Lee.

Meeting Notes
November 7th, 2014 Attendance: Sky H, Ian Rand, Dina Amouzigh, Jake Benzin, Kali Ranson, Gusty Catherin, Nick Lee

October 24, 2014 Attendance: Nick Lee

No other members came.. During the time I reviewed the email I got back from the Manchester Firing Range yesterday about reservations. The prices are pretty standard. I review the list of firearms they have averrable to shoot and watched youtubes videos of them. Including: C.A.I. AK47, AR-15, AR-10, Springfield M1A, Sterling submachine gun,UZI submachine gun,Thompson submachine gun,Russian RPD belt fed machine gun. I consider these more exotic guns. I have not found these guns readily available to shoot at Ranges in MA. I find it important to have first hand experience with these because some of them are talked about in the media. The ar-15 has been used in mass shootings. The Ak47 needs no introduction. And the Uzi has come up in the news from young children shooting either themselves are their instructions with by accident. For a first time shooter this range also has the .22 rife, very fun, easy and cheap to shoot. Also have the standard selection of revolves and semi-autos.

After the meeting I uploaded notes. I was unable to to upload a file and had to copy them directly to this page. Our next meeting will have to be in November as next Friday is Halloween. In the mean time I will be contacting those members who have showed up to meetings with regards to traveling to the gun range. Priority will be given to those who have been to more meetings.

October 17, 2014

Attendance Nick Lee Bryan Prieto Yawen Xiong Owen Neuburger Theo Naylor Kanchan

Today we had to meet in room #107 as our original room was taken over by another event. We met from 6:00pm -7:00pm. We did not have food today. For todays meeting we screened an episode of “Morgan Spurlock: Inside Man” on gun in the USA.” The episode took place in a southern state where Spurlock worked at a gun store for a week. He interview various people and spoke about some of the issues at stake. One important part was where he discussed the NRA. The video said only about 5% of gun owners in USA are life time NRA members. Also, around 90% of USAmericans agreed on common sense guns laws. When common sense gun laws were trying to be passed after one of the recent school shootings the NRA put out false information and swayed the polls ect. The NRA is heavily funded by gun business’. Meeting ended at 7pm.

October 3, 2014

Nick Lee, Jake Benzin, Theo Naylor, Jackson Posinen, Bryan Priedo, Kali Ranson, Gusty Catherin, Nancy Nichaud, Owen Neuburger, Laura Stowers, Sasha Conley, Ian Rand, Joseph Coonam, Sky Hayes

This was our first official meeting of the Fall semester. I(Nick Lee) order several boxes of pizza from Antonios. Members expressed Chinese food. I told them a little bit about the Firearm Safety Collective. I want to meet weekly and discuss gun politics. A few times a semester we will go to a firing range for first hand experience. I took a show of hands to see who had experience etc. Only a few. Most said they were curious about guns as their parents had no experience/ looked down on them. One said he played video games with lots of shooting and wanted to do the real thing. I explained to them that shooting for the first time is usually scary. They are dangerous. A group member shared about the ease of the ability to buy a rife in a southern state. I told them about the process of how I obtained my firearms license form Massachusetts. Even though MA is considered strict I generally felt like it was an easy process with not too many hoops to jump through. We discussed try possibilities. In the past we have gone to Massachusetts Firearms Schools in Holliston MA. This time I would like to venture to a range in manchester NH. Also, a shotgun exclusive sportsman club in Burlington I once belonged too. Meeting ended at about 715pm.