March 7, 2010, 1.30pm, West Side Rifle & Pistol Range

After last week's experience, I was reluctant to go back to the range without some kind of reason to be there. I went down on Tuesday to see the Chelsea Gun Club training, but again I faced the same problem of gaining access; I simply had no reason to be there, and no one there had any reason to speak to me.

I submitted an application for the introductory rifle class that required a background check, which was cleared on Saturday, so I went to the range again with a different plan this time. Attempting to interview people was just awkward, and having to introduce myself as a college student majoring in journalism wouldn't help at all, so instead I hung around for as long as possible while looking like I was waiting for something. While doing so I concentrated on overhearing the conversations going on around me.

On the far end of the range (relative to the entrance), an introductory class had just finished a round of shooting at paper targets and were reloading their rifle clips and comparing their targets. An instructor was present, giving dispensing and criticism to each student. Excerpts are as follows:

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Instructor to Student A (young, brown-haired, white, male): “Hey, you gotta stop snapping the trigger. Don't anticipate the recoil, and be consistent, your shots are going everywhere. Remember what I said about breath control and timing your shots.”

Student B (young, blonde, white, female) to A: “Hah! My groups are tiny compared to yours!.” (Group size is the diameter of an imaginary circle drawn around your two furthest shots on a target; the smaller, the better, because that means your technique is consistent)”
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Nearer to the counter and entrance where I was standing, a group of members were standing around what looked like a disassembled target pistol while its owner explained the modifications and upgrades he'd done on it while the onlookers hmm-ed, ooh-ed and ahh-ed. At some point one of the onlookers, an Asian man who looked like he was in his late 20's made a remark. Excerpt:

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Asian 20-something year old man: “That's a nice compensator, but that's gonna scare some PC-types for sure!” (laughs)

Presumed owner of disassembled pistol: “Yea well if I really gave a shit about what they think I wouldn't have a gun now would I?” (everyone including the owner laughs)

(A compensator is a device fitted to the end of a gun barrel that has holes on the top, which directs some of the muzzle blast from each shot upwards, reducing felt recoil somewhat)
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Soon enough John whom I met last week returns to the counter, so I tell him I've passed my background check, and ask about registering for the introductory class. He puts me in the 7pm time slot this Tuesday (March 9), which is conveniently when the Chelsea Gun Club practices.

John is busy answering some calls while finding a time slot where I wouldn't be the only student in the introductory class, and I notice the pistol he carries is some kind of Glock (ubiquitous Austrian-made handgun, used by the NYPD and popular with gangsta rappers, held sideways). I try to make small talk with John whenever he's not busy, and when he hangs up the phone again I ask him about his choice of handgun and caliber, which is when he gets a lot more chatty. Here's what I learned from the bits of conversation I managed to have with John:

-John owns a Glock 36 pistol (.45 ACP)
-John does not like 9mm or .45 GAP
-Choice of handgun/rifle and ammunition caliber is a huge dividing factor amongst gun owners; 9mm is to .45 ACP as liberal is to conservative.
-Gun owners as a general rule have a deep distrust of journalists and the media, whom they feel misrepresent their hobby and community on a regular basis.

Having fulfilled the purpose of my visit, I went home and did more extensive googling, and this is what I learned:

-Most online forums catering to gun owners are based on either firearm model, locality, purpose (concealed-carry, hunting, recreational/competitive shooting, etc), or any combination of these.
-NYC gun owners have no dedicated online forum or community that I could find. Rather, it seemed that NYC gun owners are highly fragmented as an online community, and most of them post on forums based in Long Island or upstate New York.
-In any online forum where I could find NYC-based members, these members constitute a small minority of the forum's membership. Comparisons are frequently drawn between Nazi Germany/Soviet Russia/Communist China/pre-liberation Iraq or Afghanistan and NYC gun laws.

In lieu of the online research I've done, I think contacting one of these online forum members who are NYC residents for an interview might be doable. However I'll have to do more research and forum-browsing to suss out the right questions to ask the right people.