Gun club organizing

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A meeting for anyone interested in organizing the "Malpais Gun Club," is set for 10 a.m., Saturday in Milan.

Organizer Mike Gregory said the meeting will be at the Milan Volunteer Fire Station at 619 Uranium Ave., near the Grants-Milan Municipal Airport.

"We had a meeting a year ago,"he said, but a club did not materialize.

Gregory said he is hoping to see about 30 people show up.

Both Gregory and David Loeffler, owner of Loeffler's Gun Shop in Grants, said a gun club is a family affair.

The club will have land on lease from the village of Milan at the old Oasis Nursery, across from the Mt. Taylor Millworks west of the village on U.S. Route 66.

The building will be used to house meetings and events and a dual purpose pistol and rifle range will be built on the land.

Gun clubs offer a way for youth to be taught how to shoot, proper use of a weapon, gun safety courses and hunter courses, Gregory said.

"The range will be a meeting place for people and offer things to do," Gregory said.

The club and range will be NRA and American Trap Shooting Association sanctioned, Gregory said.

One of the things a local gun club can offer is to develop a high school shooting team as well as offer the shooting range to families and youth, Loeffler said.

Old fashioned turkey shoots even playing golf players walk around a course and the person who shoots closes to the bullseye on each target is the winner is something gun clubs have fun with, he said.

One thing the club may become involved in is "cowboy shooting," Loeffler said.

In cowboy shooting, everyone dresses in 19th century cowboy attire and uses the single shot pistols that were in use in those days, even re-enacting famous shootouts.

The current woman's national champion, whose cowboy shooting name is "Holy Terror," is 20 years old, Loeffler said.

Teaching firearm safety is a priority for gun clubs, Loeffler said.

There is also an area in 4-H for gun programs, Loeffler said.

"This gives youth something to do," he said, "and we encourage young ladies to participate, too," he said.

The range will also be offered to law enforcement agencies for target practice.

Clubs provide information bases for the press and the Malpais Gun Clubhouse will offer a meeting place for members to discuss what is going on in the world today, he said.

For information on joining the club or information on the NRA or other firearm topics, call Gregory at (505) 285-3725.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.