MIT Pistol & Rifle Club
Membership Information and FAQ
Thank you for your interest in the club!
We hope this answers some basic questions:
What is the Club and What Does it Do?
The Club exists to encourage safe competitive and recreational
shooting among members of the MIT community. Club members have access
to the MIT Range for practice. The Club has at least one team in the
Greater Boston Pistol League (Autumn-Winter) and the Eastern
Massachusetts Rifle League (Spring), and many members compete in other local
pistol and rifle leagues. There is a Club pistol championship each
Spring. Club members help with Range maintenance and teach evening
marksmanship and safety courses.
We are granted the use of the MIT Pistol Range on most Tuesday
evenings and Sunday afternoons, though this is always subject to change
due to special events hosted by Varsity Pistol, maintenance activities,
or the availability of a club Range Officer. Note that the MIT ranges
allow only standard velocity .22 rimfire and airguns.
Membership Requirements
MIT Affiliation (required for all members)
You must have
some MIT affiliation to join the club. This includes faculty, staff,
students, and spouses of same, as well as alumni. Former affiliates can
maintain membership, but you must have a current affiliation
(though this includes alumni) to get a campus firearm permit.
Firearms Knowledge (required for all members)
You must be familiar with the safe an responsible handling of firearms.
If you are a new shooter, you must have taken either the MIT P.E. Pistol
Class or the course offered by the Club. If you are an experienced
shooter you must possess an N.R.A. or USA Shooting Classification Card
for some type of pistol or rifle competition. For associate members
shooting only airguns, the IM Air Pistol safety training will suffice.
Otherwise experienced shooters who do not meet these criteria should
speak to the club President.
License (required for Regular, but not Associate membership)
You must have a valid Massachusetts Firearms Identification Card (FID)
or License to Carry Firearms (LTC). Either can be obtained from your
local police station.
NRA Membership (required for Regular, but not Associate membership)
You or someone in your family (at the same address) must be a member
of the National Rifle Association. NRA dues support competitive
shooting, instructional and training courses and many other
activities. The NRA magazine alone is worth the cost of membership,
just to stay informed about legislation, safety, and gun care.
Dues
Once you have satisfied Items 1 through 3 above, fill out the membership application form. The
dues are listed on the form. (As of this writing, new members are
charged $28 for a full membership year (September through August) and $18
from January-May; renewals are $3 less.) Once your application is
approved by the Executive Committee, you're in.
If you are not an NRA member, an application form can be provided, though
if you're reading this, doing it directly online is probably easiest.
Range Security Arrangements
A number of changes have been made at the Range and to our operating
procedures to comply with the MIT Campus Police's review of Range
security. Access to the Ready Room is now only through the door to
the left of the drinking fountain near the rest room (across from the
weight room). The door to the Rockwell lobby is only to be used as an
emergency exit. The Ready Room door has an electronic touch-pad
lock. All members will be given the entry code when they receive
their membership card. Both the rifle and pistol ranges have a
motion-sensor alarm system. Club Range Officers will be given the
codes to deactivate these alarms.
The Campus Patrol is extremely concerned that they have no idea what
firearms are kept in the Club safe. In the future, you must submit
one of the enclosed inventory forms if you wish to keep any firearms
in the Club safe. You must also enter your name on the sheet posted
inside the safe, and remember to mark your gun cases with your name.
We are still trying to find the owners of a few firearms currently in
the Club safe.
Range Use
In many clubs membership includes a key to the range and your ability to
use it at any time you want assuming there is not a scheduled activity
taking place. We are guests on the MIT ranges, and their primary
function is serving the needs of the university. Our use is restricted
to Tuesday nights after 6:00pm and on some Sunday afternoons. (We may
also shoot at times allowed by the rangemaster, and there will be
occasional exceptions to the above times.)
Getting Into the Range
You may be a member of the club, but you still need to get into MIT's
athletic facilities to visit the range. There are several ways to do this:
- be a student (you've mostly already paid for access, though it's an
extra $40 for the summer)
- buy a
regular membership (talk to DAPER about this)
- buy a
temporary pass (again, talk to DAPER about this)
- buy a special range-access-only membership for $75 (talk to the club
Secretary about this; you'll get an access card which will let you into
the main DAPER complex at and around our regularly scheduled times)
- get the special range-access-only card for free (by having helped teach the
club's classes or performing organized major maintenance work on the range)
Comments or questions? Email
us.