Bruin Marksmanship Society aims to foster firearm education

Section 102.20 of the UCLA Student Conduct Code leaves no room for ambiguity; it wants no part of guns – real or replica – on campus.

There is no indication of an amendment to the rule anytime soon, but the discussion of guns both in a recreational and legal sense on campus has already changed.

Politics cast a long shadow, and amid a never-ending discussion on gun control, the perspective of shooting as a sport can easily disappear.

For first-year pre-business economics student Brandon Belanger, clay target shooting has long been a way to channel competitiveness, rather than a source of political dialogue.

Clay target shooting has been held as an Olympic event since the dawn of the modern games in 1896, and the Olympic international skeet event has even received coverage on the NBC networks in recent games.

Belanger is also one of the original members of the Bruin Marksmanship Society, approved by the Center for Student Programming earlier this quarter to provide UCLA students with an opportunity to shoot competitively and recreationally, as well as learn more about the laws that regulate firearms.

For now, Belanger epitomizes the group’s competitive side; in his 12-plus years of shooting, he has won 50 regional, national and international shotgun competitions since deciding to spend his time at the range rather than the baseball diamond when he was 7 years old.

It’s a sport that has given him incredible opportunities as well. Through a long-time shooting friend, Belanger said he has an open invitation to travel to India for a year to train with and earn an opportunity to join India’s national shooting team, whenever the timing is right.

In the meantime, the college student tries to gain recognition for his sport domestically.

“It’s important to get the word out that these types of sports exist and there’s a lot that people can learn from them,” Belanger said. “When you’re out there competing, it’s just you, and you’re on your own.”

“You have to make adjustments and essentially be on autopilot, trusting your brain and your mind.”

Belanger said that in light of recent atrocities, clay target shooting has had to overcome a negative perception of guns, namely, assault rifles, not even used in the shotgun-based sport, and that depoliticizing guns of any kind has been difficult in the community.

“I would mainly draw the difference in that the firearms are different,” Belanger said. “People who compete in this sport, they are … not the type of people who are going to go out and do bad things with a firearm.”

For Belanger, shooting is a lifestyle, and one he has even considered as a future source of income.

“I’ve quite honestly always said that if I could make a living out of shooting, I would. I love it that much,” he said.

 

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Along with one of its members, Belanger, the Bruin Marksmanship Society is still shaping its role in the UCLA community, as well as what it stands for and what kind of activities it hopes to participate in, as all new clubs must.

Political, educational, both or neither, the new group, co-founded by second-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student William Chakar, doesn’t intend to go anywhere, and in the foreseeable future, the right to bear arms won’t be going anywhere, either.

“We have guns in America, the Second Amendment is a well-established right,” said Adam Winkler, an American constitutional law professor at the UCLA School of Law and author of “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.” “Guns aren’t going anywhere, so if people are going to use those guns, the fact that people are going to use guns responsibly, that’s the best answer.”

The Bruin Marksmanship Society was created with these goals of safe handling and education in mind, according to Chakar. He also painted the picture of a club that generally opposes excessive gun control and carries an appreciation of the Second Amendment.

While the group has experienced little to no backlash since its inception, it seeks to expand this fall into a college campus environment that generally favors gun control.

“I find most college students are where so many Americans are, which is that they support the right to bear arms, but they think reasonable gun control laws are permissible,” said Winkler, who teaches Law 697: “Gun Control,” a course focusing on the philosophical and legal basis of the right to bear arms, at UCLA.

The liability waivers and bureaucratic procedures naturally attached to the firearms club, which Chakar said is the first of its kind at UCLA, kept the group from walking away with a rubber-stamp approval, which is the case for many on-campus clubs and organizations, for nearly 11 weeks.

“Do I wish it was simpler, the bureaucratic things? Yes,” Chakar said. “But I understand where they’re coming from. I’m happy they actually did the research for us into liability and what areas we can tread on without getting into trouble, and where the line should be drawn.”

The group currently sits at roughly 25 members from a range of skill levels. Chakar grew up with hunting and owns a shotgun in his name, but has never competed in formal competitions like Belanger. Others have little to no experience and were drawn simply by the opportunity of learning how to shoot and possibly compete when their skills improve.

Chakar contends that recent political debates about gun control have sparked an interest in trying shooting among students, and that rather than listening to back-and-forth arguments on the legality of guns, his group has simply decided to visit ranges and shoot.

“I think we have a lot of politicians who have never handled a firearm in their life, or who don’t have firearm certification,” Chakar said.

“It’s something that the students want to see for themselves rather than being told what to do.”

Chakar said that before the society begins its regular events in the next couple quarters, he wants all of the club’s board members to be certified by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the federal level, especially for those seeking to own firearms in the future.

Most of the society’s members do not currently own guns, however, and student curiosity has led to more groups like the Bruin Marksmanship Society being interested in going to local gun ranges and renting for the first time.

Thomas Watt, owner of A Place to Shoot, a pistol, rifle and shotgun range in Santa Clarita, said the number of young shooters at his range has increased by as much as 40 percent in the last year. Watt attributes the spike to what he believes to be a sense of insecurity with respect to the government among young adults.

“I think they have some trust issues (right now),” Watt said. “They want a place where they can shoot, and they don’t trust the government and they don’t trust them with taking their guns away.”

In recent weeks, the Bruin Marksmen have declined to reach out to the National Rifle Association for funding due to what Chakar called “a past history of divisiveness.”

Instead, the group has reached out to the Leadership Institute, which was founded in 1979 to fund proactively organized conservative campus groups. Because the society has decided it won’t be using UCLA Center for Student Programming money to pay for gun rentals or ammunition, it will be seeking additional outside funding in the coming quarters.

 

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As Chakar reflected on his recently formed club, he said he could only think of one naysayer, a friend of his who questioned whether the Bruin Marksmanship Society’s formation was inconsiderate given how recently so many firearm-related tragedies had occurred.

Rather than shying away from the question, however, Chakar reaffirmed the Bruin Marksmanship Society’s appreciation for safe handling of firearms and what he referred to as a respect for the Second Amendment.

“We feel the way to tackle an issue isn’t to shut down the conversation and step away from it,” Chakar said. “We feel by jumping into it and engaging in it, then we’re able to be more productive in the conversation.”

“Was there a fear that it’s too soon? Yes,” he said. “But there was also the fear that if not now, then when?”