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, though this is always subject to change due to special events hosted by the MIT Pistol Club, 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.
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.
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 subject to change due to construction activities in nearby spaces. The map shows two entry paths: one from the Rockwell lobby, and one next to the new Varsity gym. At the time of writing, you should only enter and exit the range from the Rockwell lobby, indicated with a red arrow. Both the rifle and pistol ranges have a motion-sensor alarm system. Club Range Officers will be given the codes to deactivate these alarms.
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 6:30pm. (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)
- 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)