In this week’s “Light Over Heat” video, I give an overview of my 9^th Sociology of Guns class field trip to the gun range.

This video was recorded before the students arrived at the range, so in next week’s video, I will discuss the shooting itself. And in the coming weeks, I will (as before) post some of the students’ field trip reflection essays on my Gun Curious blog. They have historically been among the most popular items I post, so stay tuned!

Students are required to go on the field trip, but not to shoot. Prior to the COVID pandemic, all 16 students visited the range as a single group. From 2015 to 2019, about two-thirds of students opted to try shooting during the field trip. In 2020, due to COVID, I had the students visit the range in 4 groups of 4 students. I was interested to observe that in these smaller groups, every student opted to try shooting. Because there are always so many new shooters in the class, I think these smaller groups made it more comfortable for them to try.

So, even though COVID restrictions were not as strict in 2021 and 2022, I kept the small group approach. All 16 students in the class tried shooting last year. This year, all 16 students again shot all 3 guns offered.

As in previous years, my goal is not to make these students proficient shooters or to develop their marksmanship, but simply to give them enough instruction to safely hold and fire three different guns: a Ruger Mark III .22LR semi-automatic pistol, a Glock 48 9mm semi-automatic pistol, and an AR-style .223 semi-automatic rifle.

Another COVID pandemic-induced modification to the course is that I cover information about types of firearms, gun safety, and shooting in pre-recorded videos the students watch prior to arriving at the range (rather than giving this instruction at the range). These YouTube-hosted videos are available below.