Advice for a student shooting organization

D

deerslayer

Milforum Swamp Dweller
I'm beginning my freshman year at LSU this August, and I'd love to start doing practical shooting. In the 70s LSU had a team for marksmanship, but all I could find was the ROTC shooting team- not what I'm looking for.

Now, naturally, I probably can't put up a want ad saying "Shooters wanted", but I thought about talking to the incoming freshman ROTC folks and selling the concept of a practical shooting team at LSU.

My plan is to find some freshman ROTC cadets at LSU and try to restart the shooting team LSU had in the 1970s- I got the idea from an article in the Louisiana Sportsman. The Dept. Of Mil. Science is remodeling the range to take pistols up to .45, but you can only use their guns. I'm willing to talk to the range operators and the department with any interested potential shooters and sell it like this:

By having a team that participates in not just regular range shooting but practical shooting, and going around the region competing, your cadets get more practical experience in weapons handling that would come to bear more in combat than a normal firing line session. We have the range here at LSU, why not use it for that? I'm willing to pull targets and help them rebuild the range.

Personally I think having an LSU-affiliated practical shooting team composed of the mil. science department is a great idea, and practical, considering that in five to six years these same guys may find themselves in a real tactical situation.

As far as getting the word out, I'm willing to put up info and listings on Facebook and similar places, and to speak, along with any interested folks, to the department directly about this possibility, and maybe bending the range rules so that school competitors can bring their own firearms, provided they stay cased (LSU doesn't allow CCW yet) until the students are on the firing line. Naturally, I can see this causing quite an uproar, and I'm probably not going to get far on the BYOG part.

As I see it, the facility is there; the core of shooters is there; it's a practical idea, and the skills the shooters learn could prove useful in later life, since my target group is likely to see combat.


Any help/ideas/advice selling this idea and getting the word out?
 
Start talking to equally minded students. Once you have enough people you can start talking to professors, faculty, and staff that share your views. Once that's done you all can start pushing for allowing students to use their own firearms at the range.

Does LSU allow students to own firearms in their dorms? I don't know what Louisiana law allows. If you can keep firearms in your dorms then maybe you can ask the school to allow students to keep the firearms in a armory at the range.
 
on-campus living is the problem. I'm living off campus, so for all LSU cares I can stockpile a nuclear arsenal. They do not permit CCW. What you suggested is the same format I'm trying, it's getting the word out that's the problem right now. I may not have been clear, I typed this when I wasn't completely lucid.
 
How does the ROTC keep arms on campus? In a armory?

Pretty much do what you think is right. That's really the only way. Once you have enough people that can push an issue then you might be able to reach an agreement with the head faculty.

If they won't agree to storing the firearms on campus then maybe you can come to an agreement to how the firearms are transported. disassembled in a locked case, etc...

Does LSU have it's own Police Department? Public Universities in Florida have PDs, maybe LSU has one. Speak to them also or if they don't then the secuirty staff.
 
Yeah, it has a PD, didn't really think about contacting them, more along the lines of the mil sci department. I'll check into that.

My real problem right now is outreach- finding folks who would do it, meeting them, and finding a dedicated core of people to present our case to the school.
 
Personally I would check to see what the requirements are for using the range, there is no point in getting people interested if you can't get access to the range or the restrictions make it impractical.
 
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MontyB said:
Personally I would check to see what the requirements are for using the range, there is no point in getting people interested if you can't get access to the range or the restrictions make it impractical.
Click to expand...

That's the main issue. My thinking this early in the morning takes me as far as finding interested people, clearing it through the mil sci department, and then attempting to make arrangements with the range officers.
 
If any accident happens on their range, they are responsible for it, regardless of whose weapons were used.
And they won't want to have additional duty by watching over you guys while you shoot. Is anyone in your group qualified to be a range master? Even then it's iffy.
Lawsuit's a b*tch.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
If any accident happens on their range, they are responsible for it, regardless of whose weapons were used.
And they won't want to have additional duty by watching over you guys while you shoot. Is anyone in your group qualified to be a range master? Even then it's iffy.
Lawsuit's a b*tch.
Click to expand...

Lawsuits won't happen if they do Liability Wavers.
 
I hope there's no loophole in that one as well.
And I hope the range officers will actually believe in liability waivers.
 
Tell me about it- I was raised by lawyers and I'm living with my sister, also a law student.

Thanks for all the information, keep it coming. the ROTC reps I talked to at orientation a few months back thought it was a cool idea, but talk to the ROs and work something out with them to where we could bring a personal weapon- I was told that for that to happen, I had to be cool with the ROs- that's also high on my list of things to do this week when I'm in BR.
 
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