Hot topic
Gun safety is number one on Northampton Revolver Club's list
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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Precisely at 8:30 a.m. last Sunday morning, Tim Messer, president of the Northampton Revolver Club and a stickler for detail, began his presentation before a group of five students who had come to learn the basics of gun safety.
They would spend all morning and much of the afternoon listening and taking notes as Messer drilled them on the rules and regulations of firearm ownership. By the end of the day they would have to pass a written test in order to apply to local officials for a gun permit. In addition to the lecture, Messer would give them hands-on instruction in loading, aiming and firing revolvers.
Messer, a trim, fit-looking man, was dressed in jeans, sneakers and a gray sweatshirt emblazoned with the revolver club's logo. A 48-year-old with an approachable but businesslike manner, Messer was standing in front of an easel on which he'd outlined topics he would cover: licensing, storage in the home, safety devices, types of ammunition and so on.
Messer teaches these classes about once a month. He has been doing that for 11 years, and has been president of the revolver club since 1998. In his life away from the club, he is a familiar face behind the counter at the CVS drug store on Main Street in Northampton, where he works as a pharmacist. He is the father of two grown sons. His wife, he is quick to point out, has no interest in guns.
But Messer loves the whole scene.
"It's very peaceful," he'd said the other day as he talked about his hobby.
Peaceful?
Shooting takes discipline and control, he explained. You have to be calm or you'll miss your mark.
Low profile
The club that Messer leads is one that many city residents know little about - and, truth be told, some of its members are just fine with that. "We walk on eggshells," said longtime member David Korpiewski, an electrician who lives in Hatfield. Acutely aware that many people in Northampton are anti-gun, and sensitive to being lumped in with news stories about shootings in Springfield or the death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself at a Westfield gun show last year, some club members say they're better off keeping a low profile.
But on the other hand, they point out, they are by-the-book people who share an interest in the several types and styles of target shooting. Their membership includes blue-collar workers and white-collar professionals. They say they don't all support every stand the National Rifle Association takes. Some of them are hunters. Messer, for one, says his interest in guns took root when he "trudged along" on hunting trips with his father when he was growing up in the Berkshires. And some of them, like Rick Scott of Northampton, don't hunt and have no desire to shoot at anything more warm-blooded than a bowling pin. "I couldn't kill anything," he said.
What they share is the camaraderie of being part of a group that becomes, as Korpiewski puts it, "like family." They say they like helping each other become better shooters. And they like competing in matches against other area clubs - even if the Northampton group hasn't been faring so well lately. "Do you have to print that?" asked Scott with mock pain.
And so when the group recently marked its 76th year, at least one member, Nancy Nickerson, who works as a real estate broker in Hampshire County, thought the club's efforts to promote gun safety deserved public mention.
"It's a great club to belong to," said Nickerson, who is one of four women who are active members. Honing her skills to hit the bull's-eye is a rewarding challenge, she said. "It's a great release of energy and makes you totally focus on your mark."
Born in the '30s
In its early days, the club was very much a gentlemen's organization. Its history dates to 1933, when George King, Thomas Tyler and Gordon Marston gathered in King's home on College Lane in Northampton to discuss starting a club for the "purpose of firing revolvers as a form of recreation and relaxation."
Tyler recruited 15 men and by the end of its first year, the club had 60 members, according to a Gazette story in 1995. Its first home was a vacant loft on Pleasant Street where members put up metal shields to protect passing motorists and walkers from stray bullets.
Today the club occupies a gem of a setting - 26 acres of wooded land off Ryan Road in Florence that was deeded to the club by an early member. A green and white sign almost directly across the street from the Robert K. Finn Ryan Road Elementary School marks the winding dirt roadway that leads to the outdoor shooting range. Though the club has been using the property since the 1930s, the sign at the end of the driveway didn't go up until 1995 - a symbol, the Gazette reported then, of the club members' penchant for keeping to themselves. Because of its location near a school, the NRC rules prohibit any shooting until after the school day has ended. And, though the club members can rightly say that they were in the neighborhood before any of the nearest homes were built, the members also refrain from shooting on Sundays until late morning. "We try to be good neighbors," said Messer.
At its peak the club had about 235 members. That number has dropped off in recent years, says Messer, who pegs the current total at 140. The many demands on people's time these days is the chief reason for the decline, in his view, not a decrease in interest in shooting. At a match slated for last night between Northampton and a team from Holyoke, Messer was expecting a standing-room-only crowd. But just as many other organizations are finding these days, it's hard to get people to take over the nitty-gritty of running the club and organizing meetings, he says.
"We need new blood, and I really don't want a 13th term." Still, Messer's proud of what he's done. "I've accomplished a lot," he said. In the old days, the club had a rudimentary, partly underground shooting range. Under Messer's leadership, members raised funds and borrowed money to build an addition onto the original clubhouse; the indoor range, constructed in 1999, is backstopped by layers of steel and concrete and, beyond that, an earthen berm.
Though Messer fervently hopes someone else will step up to take over, he says he plans to continue teaching the gun classes. He uses a curriculum from the National Rifle Association. Those who take the class are charged a $125 fee.
In class
The ages of the five people who took Messer's class Sunday ranged from the mid-20s to 60s. Among them was a woman from Haydenville who said she'd inherited a gun from her father. "I think it's a skill a woman should have," she said. Rather than be afraid of her gun, she said, she wanted to know how to use it. A 62-year-old man from the Hilltowns, who is a U.S. Army veteran, said he wanted to be able to kill predators who go after the sheep and chickens he raises. A man in his 20s said he'd just bought his first home and wanted to be able to defend himself, if necessary. Yet another said he, like the woman from Haydenville, had a gun that had been passed down through the family. "It has a sentimental value," he said.
They sat at a table in the main room of the clubhouse, where dark-paneled walls are covered with rows of plaques and awards won by club members in shooting matches. The room has an organized, no-frills look to it, down to the notices on the "Guns 'n Stuff" bulletin board and the posted reminders banning smoking.
It did not take Messer long to touch on contemporary issues. As he discussed the authority local police chiefs have to issue gun permits, he stressed that a gun owner should never hesitate to show his or her gun license when asked to by a law enforcement officer. "The world is a very anxious place these days," he said, noting the recent spate of killings in Springfield. "It's getting very weird out there," he said, making it all the more imperative that law-abiding gun owners act responsibly.
Messer went over a host of rules and tips.
Always be sure to renew your license on time, he advised. If you move, you must notify state authorities and officials in the town you're leaving and the town you're moving to. He went into detail about storing firearms in the home: "A firearm has to be locked up when it's not in use," he said. He went over the types of safety devices to keep a trigger locked. He showed the students a sample locked storage box that costs about $60. He reminded them that they are responsible for any crime that's committed with a gun they own, whether they pulled the trigger or not. He reviewed the laws pertaining to transporting a firearm in a vehicle: A handgun, for instance, must be "under your control at arm's length, not in the back seat." Always remove the ammunition before cleaning a firearm. Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction, so you won't cause injury or damage. Always keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot. Always keep your gun unloaded until you're ready to use it. He went over the parts of a gun and how they work. He had the students handle them, showed them how to train a target in their sights and how to shoot. It would take awhile, he said, before the movement would feel nice and smooth.
At the end of the afternoon, they took their written test. All passed. The next step would be applying to the police departments in their respective communities for permits, and undergoing the required FBI background checks.
As new gun owners, Messer told them, they need to be aware that some people will be opposed to the choice they've made. "There are lots of people out there who just don't like guns, period," he said. "You need to be able to speak intelligently about them, or don't speak at all." Mostly, he said, he wanted them to remember that owning a gun isn't a right, no matter how much anyone wants to argue about the Second Amendment. "It's a privilege," he said.
For more information about the Northampton Revolver Club, call 586-7821.
Suzanne Wilson can be reached at swilson@gazettenet.com.
Comments
Privilege
In this state, yes. If you want to live in a state that understands the Bill of Rights, you move to Vermont or Alaska. I won't buy real estate in Massachusetts.
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