The newest group of firearms enthusiasts? Ivy League students

Good day all. In a massive shock to the system, it seems that one of the fastest growing groups of enthusiasts in the shooting sports are students attending the most progressive of universities, the elitist Ivy League schools.

Now, if you have recovered from your faint, allow me to provide some details via that well known conservative newspaper, the Washington Post (The Washington Post is about as conservative as Barack Obama for those of you in Rio Linda)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

Cambridge Massachusetts? The Kremlin on the Charles?

In between completing problem sets, writing code, organizing hackathons, worrying about internships and building solar cars, a group of MIT students make their way to the athletic center, where they stand side-by-side, load their guns and fire away.

*FAINT* *Thud!*

They are majoring in biological engineering, brain and cognitive sciences, aeronautics, mechanical engineering, computer science and nuclear science. Before arriving at MIT, nearly all of them had never touched a gun or even seen one that wasn’t on TV.

Normally, I would expect these people to be out demanding the repeal of the Second Amendment and the instant roundup of all guns. That is the standards we’ve come to expect from Ivy League schools. I wonder what happened?

Once they fire a gun, students say they find shooting relaxing — at MIT, students call it “very Zen” — and that it teaches focusing skills that help in class.

“I had a poor view, a more negative view of people who like guns than I do now,” said Hope Lutwak, a freshman on MIT’s pistol team. “I didn’t understand why people enjoyed it. I just thought it was very violent.”

And then she had some instructions, held a firearm, and then sent some lead downrange and ventilated paper. Once that happens, they are hooked. (Unless they are total closet cases, aka barking moonbats) In wonder what changed their minds?

And that’s precisely what the gun industry hoped it would hear after spending the past few years pouring millions of dollars into collegiate shooting, targeting young adults just as they try out new activities and personal identities.

Ah HAH! I see it now! It’s all a plot by the evil gun industry to expand their customer base and put those evil guns into the hands of young skulls full of mush! Don’t they know that this might turn them into Constitutional Conservatives? Oh Wait.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a powerful firearms lobbying group, has awarded more than $1 million in grants since 2009 to start about 80 programs. A couple who own a large firearms accessories company created the -MidwayUSA Foundation, funding it with nearly $100 million to help youth and college programs, including MIT’s. The National Rifle Association organizes pistol and rifle tournaments, including the national championships next weekend in Fort Benning, Ga.

See? I was right! It’s all a conspiracy by evil capitalists out to exploit the Ivy League proletariat!

Zach Snow, who oversees the college shooting program for the NSSF, said, “This is something the industry overlooked for a number of years.”

And I can see the Ivy League professors now as they see Mr. Snow approaching. They will hold up their hands and cry out “Unclean! Evil! Begone! Fat lot of good it’s doing.

And now that the industry is paying attention, the growth has been phenomenal. The upcoming collegiate clay target championships — George Mason has won 11 titles, including in 2013 — has swelled from a few hundred shooters in 2010 to more than 700 this year.

Ahh, they are using the high end target firearms. Still, you have to start somewhere. Eventually, they will have a collection that includes several EBR’s. (Evil Black Rifles, aka AR-15’s) So, how did the NRA and other hated organizations manage to get their foot in the door at places like Harvard, Yale and MIT?

Though industry groups distribute booklets to students counseling them on how to start programs and deal with reluctant administrators or communities — tips: write letters to the editor in the school paper and sponsor bake sales —officials say the teams have not generated as much pushback as they expected. Shooting is even publicized as a recruiting and teaching tool.

Have no doubt, the Administrators are quietly planning their revenge. No doubt Harvard is even now contacting Obama and telling him if he doesn’t stop this, the transcripts he has hidden might find their way into the sunlight. Still, it might be to late.

MIT offers a shooting class that fills up in mere minutes. A recent post on the MIT admissions office’s blog featured Lydia Andreyevna Krasilnikova, a mechanical engineering major, writing about a class rifle competition.

I read the blog entry Ms. Krasilnikova posted. She put up a few pictures and for a beginner, she did very well. She didn’t mention the make and model of the .22 she was using, but the picture of her holding it, (In a safe manner I might ad, trigger finger along the side and the bolt locked open), and it’s a Ruger 10/22, probably one of the most popular semiautomatic .22’s out there. I would wager that she’s going to move up to “Heavier Artillery” once she finishes school and starts making some money.

Now I have been making a bit of sport with this, but it’s these young people who are going to be needed to protect our right to keep and bear arms. Currently, they are using .22 caliber rifles and pistols, but if they stay with the sport, they will start moving up to larger firearms and bigger calibers.

These fine young people have probably not started thinking of firearms as a means of self defense yet. All it will take is someone like Ms. Krasilnikova having a run in with some two legged vermin who doesn’t understand that “No means NO!” and deciding she needs to start packing. In New Hampshire, it’s very easy for a fine young woman such as Ms. Krasilnikova to secure a CCW, (New Hampshire is also moving Constitutional Carry through the legislature as I write this), but in Massachusetts, she will find out just how hard it is to secure the means to defend herself.

These young people are enjoying themselves, they are learning how to concentrate as well as safety. Soon, they will understand that there are people who don’t want them to have a firearm or exercise their rights. Then they will take their firearms, put them in a secure spot, and votes those who would deny them their rights from office.