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Mar 19, 2007
RECREATION:
Pistol club classes emphasize safety
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NRA instructor Arnold Pittori
discusses the safety features on a Ruger .22 semiautomatic
pistol with Press reporter Chipp Reid during
the National Rifle Association pistol class at Ramapoo Rifle and Revolver
Club. —Scott Mullin photo
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It’s a Wednesday evening and a small crowd shuffles
into the Ramapoo Rifle and Revolver Club on South Street. The six men and one woman carry books, not guns, and look
more like they are on their way to school.
In fact, it’s exactly what they’re doing.
Ramapoo offers the National Rifle Association
pistol permit class the first Wednesday of each month. The people who take
the class, however, are far from the gun-loving, bullet-crazy Second
Amendment nuts that populate Hollywood films
and ultra-liberal nightmares. If anything, they’re like Ridgefielder
Bill Bellion.
“It’s something new,” Mr. Bellion
said. “I have some relatives that have pistols and I would like to shoot
with them. You need a permit to buy ammunition and you have to take the
class to get the permit. It’s something I want to try.”
It’s the same story instructor and range safety
officer Arnold Pittori has heard for five years.
Mr. Pittori was one of the eight hands-on
instructors at the class and has been shooting for more than 30 years.
“I don’t get a lot of people who come in here saying
they want to learn to shoot for personal defense,” Mr. Pittori
said. “I almost never hear that.”
Homework
The NRA class starts before any of the students
even arrive at Ramapoo for their hands-on instruction. Each student must
read the NRA basic pistol handbook and pass an exam consisting of a mix of
multiple choice and true-and-false questions. Most of those questions
revolve around safety.
The same is true for the class. Instructor Joe Italiano spent
nearly an hour emphasizing safety, not in handling firearms but in storing
them. The NRA mantra, it turns out, is to not keep a loaded firearm in the
house. If a gun owner decides it is important to do, Mr. Italiano was quite
pointed: “Put a lock on it.”
The lecture part of the class moved on to cover
the basics of handling and firing a pistol. Always, safety was the main
topic. Each student had to learn how to pick up and grip both a .22 caliber
semiautomatic target pistol and a .38 caliber revolver. The two main facets
were how to use the middle and ring fingers to grip and balance the pistol
while leaving the index or trigger finger along the trigger guard but not
on the trigger.
Again, the reason was safety.
“We have a perfect safety record here,” said
Ramapoo club president Ted Richards.
“We’ve never had an accident and we don’t want to lose that record.”
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Press reporter Chipp Reid sights
down range with a .38 revolver during the National Rifle Association
pistol class at Ramapoo Rifle and Revolver Club. Scott Mullin
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Most of the seven members of the most
recent class were first-time shooters. Mr. Pittori
said those are type he likes to work with most, and also the most common
student.
“First-time shooters usually listen best,” he
said. “People who have shot before had time to develop bad habits they
bring with them. First-time shooters listen to everything and you can teach
them the right way.”
Hands-on training
After the lecture, the class moves to the hands-on
stage on a standard 50-foot pistol range. Here, they put into practice what
they learn in the book and in the classroom. Each student works one-on-one
with an NRA-certified firearms instructor. Again and again, the instructors
ask questions about safety, making sure each student understands the rules
of handling a live firearm.
The most important — and most inviolable — rule
was to never point a weapon anywhere but “down range” or in the direction
of the targets.
Once satisfied the students were ready, the
instructors signaled the range officer, who allowed the students to begin
firing.
Each student had to place eight shots on a
standard pistol target at a range of 50 feet. Accuracy wasn’t that important
as long as the students simply hit the paper. For those who shot before,
getting rounds in the black — the center of the target — was a point of
pride although not a part of passing.
The first pistol the students shoot is a .22
caliber semiautomatic. Although it has a 10-round magazine, each student
fired a single shot, reloaded, and shot again. The slow pace allows the
instructors to check where the round went and also correct any problems
with grip and position. Ten shots on the paper, eight in the circle but
only one in the black was more than good enough to pass, but still left
even prior military shooters open to a bit of good-natured ribbing.
“It’s always the guys that have shot before that need a few extra rounds to make it,” Mr. Pittori said with a grin.
Next comes the .38
revolver. More powerful, the .38 offers students the chance to handle a
revolver and feel the kick of a bigger charge. Like any pistol, mastering
the .38 offers students something of a thrill.
Different feeling
“It’s not like on TV or in the movies,” Mr. Bellion said. “You can read all the
book and see things on TV, but it’s completely different when you actually
do it. I don’t know how to describe it. The revolver was really different
than I imagined. It’s just a lot different than you see.”
Each student that night passed the class,
receiving a certificate and slip of paper for local police departments
attesting to the completion. After qualifying, the air of expectancy was
still there, but the students were looser. They had questions about types
of pistols, hours at Ramapoo and where to purchase a pistol. It was a
perfect ending for Mr. Pittori.
“This why I do this,” he said. “I enjoy shooting.
It’s a good sport and I enjoy it. I find it relaxing. It’s something to do
on an afternoon with friends. We can shoot a little, talk, shoot some, talk more. There is a lot of
recreational aspects to it.”
For Mr. Bellion,
completing class was simply one step in his own journey in mastering a
difficult discipline.
“I plan to keep shooting now,” he said. “I want to
get better. I enjoyed it and since we have a town range, I want to keep
shooting.”
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Ramapoo Pistol & Rifle Club President Ted Richards and range safety officer Tom Falconieri
stand in front of some of the many trophies the club has won in shooting
competitions. —Chipp Reid photo
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Ramapoo
Pistol and Rifle Club was founded here in 1953
It’s almost hard to see.
Tucked away in a corner of the town garage on South Street, the Ramapoo Pistol and Rifle Club quietly goes about the
same task it has since 1953.
“We see what we do as a public service,” said club
president Ted Richards. “We teach people how to use and handle firearms
responsibly and safely.”
Although small in size, the club is tall in the
esteem of others, epsecially law-enforcement
groups. The Ramapoo club has an unequaled safety record in its 54-year
existence. There has never been a firearms-related safety incident at the
club, said Mr. Richards.
In addition, the club offers the National Rifle
Association pistol permit class, which is mandatory for anyone wishing to
own a handgun.
“We’ve never had a police department turn down
students from our course,” Mr. Richards said. “I say that with some pride
and satisfaction.”
Many activities
The NRA class is just one of the many programs the
club offers. Every night except Saturdays there is something happening at
Ramapoo.
“We would like to do even more but everything is
done by volunteers,” Mr. Richards said. “We also have very close
supervision any time the club is open.”
Ramapoo has about “200 members” Mr. Richards said.
The annual dues are just $50, while administrative fees in the first year
can add up to $135. Mr. Richards said about half the members are from
surrounding towns and half are from Ridgefield.
“People say we could have even more members, but
we have some pretty tight guidelines,” Mr. Richards.
A person must be 21 or older to be a member.
“People say that’s pretty restrictive, but we think it’s just smart,” Mr.
Richards said. “You have to be 21 to own a handgun so it seemed like the
smart way to go.”
The public may attend open range nights on
Mondays. The club charges members $5 and non-members, $10. “It’s
ridiculously low,” Mr. Richards said, “but we’re not here to make money. We
see this as a public service.”
Humble beginnings
Ramapoo began on 1953 at the Community Center. The
town established a list of what activities it wanted at the center and
“shooting training” was one of them. The first range, Mr. Richards said,
was actually under the porch of the center.
Nine years later Ramapoo moved to its present
location next to the town garage off South Street and
Old Quarry Road. When the club first opened there, members fired into a huge
sand berm. The club replaced that with reinforced
steel angled so spent shells ricochet up into a hopper. The club also
collects all spent casings.
“We recycle just about everything,” Mr. Richards
said.
About the only drawback at the club is its size.
Ramapoo has just nine shooting booths. Normally, it isn’t too much of a
problem, Mr. Richards said. However, when a Boy Scout went to the club
earlier in February for a firearms class, the scouts arrived with 12
members.
“Three had to wait and that’s not fun,” Mr.
Richards said. “It’s just the way we do things here. Everything is
one-on-one.”
When the club is open, NRA-certified safety
officers as well as certified range safety officers are always on the
premises, Mr. Richards.
“Safety is always the first, last and
everything-in-between concern,” he said.
Growth
Since its inception, the club has grown into more
than just a town pistol range. The Ridgefield Police Department holds its
safety and qualification classes at the club while Ramapoo has teams in the
Southwest Connecticut Pistol League.
The club is almost exclusively a handgun club,
although it also trains with .22 calibre
bolt-action rifles. The range is a standard 50-foot length. Each shooter
has his or her own port and the club provides ear and eye protection as
well as .22 calibre semi-automatic target
pistols. Each firing port has soundproofing
The range can accommodate any caliber up to .45.
Mr. Richards said about the only handgun the club doesn’t allow is anything
in .50 calibre. Black
powder shooters are also welcome, Mr. Richards said, although only a couple
at a time. “The smoke can become a problem,” he said with laugh.
“We’re all here because of the camaraderie and
because we enjoy the discipline of a shooting sport,” Mr. Richards said.
“We saw a huge surge after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but that was
predictable, After about a year, we went back to normal.”
The club offers the NRA pistol course the first
Wednesday of each month. Class size is limited to nine people and the fee
is just $50. Most ranges charge up to $150 for the class.
Ramapoo leases its space from the town and had a
public hearing Feb. 28 on its latest deal. The planned lease would cost
Ramapoo $4,000 per year, plus it would cover any utility costs in excess of
a set amount.
“We try to keep everything as low-cost as
possible,” Mr. Richards said. “Like I said, we’re not here for the money.
It’s a labor of love. We see this is a public service.”
© Copyright 2007 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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