In a culture where safety can be a reality but not always a guarantee, local advocates promote firearm training for safety and to build confidence.
The Globe Miami Gun Club has been the educational home to many generations and ages since 1949, and it will soon help train new recruits for the Gila Pueblo College Police Academy.
Gun Club President Chuck Willis said the main goal of the main club is safe handling and proper care of firearms. In his own family, he started his children young with BB guns and slowly progressed them to higher calibers as they learned proper care and responsible handling.
He has seen many families do the same thing through the years.
“People don’t realize how much fun they can have with shooting sports when you start them young,” he said. “If they want to continue, they can become hunters. If they don’t, they know how to safely handle firearms.”
The Gun Club has also provided extensive training opportunities through the years with numerous programs for youth and women’s programs for gun safety at no cost in an effort to further that agenda.
The Gila County Women’s Gun Club is a partner in that endeavor. Originally known as the Well-Armed Women’s Club, the Women’s Club was formed to bring together women of all ages to improve shooting skills and firearm safety. The group took an eight-hour NRA class to become Range Safety Officers (RSO) and has more RSO hours than any club in Arizona.
They also host programs designed to inform children about gun safety.
Gun club history
The range was founded in 1949 as the Miami Arizona Rifle and Pistol Club by 12 World War II veterans who wanted a safe place to shoot. Most of the men were mine employees, and the property was leased from two mines. The club still maintains a $2-million liability policy and pays taxes on property improvements that are paid for by club dues and fall fundraisers.
The range was renamed Globe Miami Gun Club in 1983 and became an educational nonprofit — a 501c7 — in 2014.
“There was nothing out here then,” Willis said.
Now, there is an office, meeting rooms, concrete pads, a 300-yard rifle range with a bench rest area and covered shooting stations, a 100-yard pistol range with covered shooting stations, a small-bore silhouette target range with covered shooting stations, an Action Pistol Range, a Trap Range, a Five-Stand Sporting Clays Area, handicap-accessible bathrooms, as well a family picnic area.
There are also steel targets for those who like to hear when their ammunition hits the mark.
“Some people like to hear a bang and a clang,” Willis said with a smile.
In addition to National Rifle Association (NRA) Foundation grants that have funded the majority of the improvements, Willis, Jim Ownsby — or Big’un — as he was known by his friends, and several other club members, put a lot of money and sweat equity into the place. They poured concrete pads under the bench rests and pistol areas, as well as for the 300-range prone area.
The covered shooting positions, 300-yard range, handgun range, two trap ranges, are all made possible by the NRA Foundation grants, which come from Friends of NRA dinner events, that the club has been receiving since about 2002.
The Action Pistol Range and the Jim Ownsby Meeting Room are dedicated to Big’un, who passed away about three years ago.
“He put a lot of his time and money into this place,” Willis said.
The range once hosted a sharpshooter — or marksman — performance in February 1951 that drew an audience of almost 500 people.
Willis remembers reading an article from the Arizona Record newspaper from a local museum in which the marksman, Ken Beegle, lectured the crowd about gun safety, and then, using 22-calibre rifles, demonstrated their power and the impact of bullets by shooting oranges and potatoes in flight.
Beegle also held a shell in his mouth, threw a target into the air, had his wife toss him a gun, then loaded it, and shot the target before it hit the ground.
The article concluded by stating the use of the rifle range was “donated by the Miami Rifle and Pistol Club.”
Education and the future of the club
The range will soon host the Gila Pueblo College Police Academy for firearms training and qualifications.
For years, the club wanted to build a berm between the handgun range and the middle range — which the club called the bench rest area — that would allow shooters to continue practicing without requiring everyone to unload and clear.
A contractor built the berm with the donations from three local entities, and the pistol range lighting has been upgraded to code.
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board has now certified the range, and the program is slated to begin sometime in the next year, according to Willis.
For more than 40 years, the Gun Club has sponsored the Arizona Hunter Education program, the Boy Scouts of America shooting sports badges program, the Scholastic Clay Target Program, the 4-H Shooting Sports Club, Women on Target Clinics, and the Gila County Women’s Gun Club (formerly known as the Well-Armed Woman Globe Chapter).
Arizona Game & Fish allows people, including youths, to take firearm safety classes online, but they must complete Range Day Activities before earning their hunter education certification and going hunting for the first time. Those activities are earned locally at the gun range and are taught by certified teachers several times a year.
The Women’s Gun Club has hosted the Eddie Eagle Club in Globe, which has proven to reduce gun accidents by educating children on firearm safety.
The Action Pistol Club was started more than 25 years ago as the Combat Pistol Club. Willis said Ownsby started the club, and Willis ran the club for years. It died out, but was started again about five years ago.
Gila County Women’s Gun Club
Shannon Coons, president of the Gila County Women’s Gun Club, and Carol Ptak, past treasurer, share the belief that young people and — specifically — women should be well trained in handling firearms.
“The best learning experience is a woman learning from another woman,” Ptak said.
In a community where many households own guns, it is important that women know how to “be around them and use them safely,” Coon said.
That is why she encourages women to get an education on their guns and get out to the range and practice.
“If you are going to rely on your gun for personal safety, you need to practice,” she said. “Join the Gun Club and enjoy the company of other female gun owners.”
They build on that safety tradition by assigning mentors to new trainees to ensure they stay safe as they build confidence and skills in gun handling.
Instructor Dan Palmer from Heber teaches the Range Safety Officer program, and Lee Kinnard provides support for basic pistol and Concealed Weapon and Permit training.
For more information on the Gila County Women’s Gun Club, call 928-200-1999.
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