When police found a small arsenal of guns in the home of a prominent member of the University of Toronto’s gun clubs, some demanded the closure of the Hart House shooting range. U of T Rifle Team Captain Cindy Peart explains why fears of “military training” at Hart House are unfounded.
The Rifle Association owns and uses only .22 calibre target rifles. These are what biathlon shooters use in the Winter Olympics. One would be hard pressed to hear about these rifles in any other context, and definitely not in any criminal or violent setting. There are no assault rifles on campus, no machine guns down on the range, no members roaming the halls with hunting rifles slung over their shoulders. The use of any rifle of calibre greater than .22 is absolutely forbidden, and would cause serious physical damage to the range itself.
The Revolver Club is dedicated to three of the disciplines found in next year’s Commonwealth games: sport pistol, standard pistol, and center fire pistol. There is no “combat” or “practical” shooting in Hart House. No students are taught how to run around with holstered .45 automatics, shooting at human shaped targets. With the exception of one center fire revolver (reserved for very experienced and proven members), the club owns only .22 caliber, Olympic-style target pistols—nothing you hear about in the news or movies, and no more dangerous than a fencing epee. Royal Military College, which Hart House frequently competes against, recently deemed this type of shooting to be completely irrelevant to the military training of its cadets. This should satisfy anyone’s fears of “military training” on the U of T campus.
