MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) - Eyes and ears on. A steady squeeze of the trigger. A muffled explosion marked by muzzle flash sends a round into the target four yards away. Another and another, until the poster is pockmarked with holes.
Mari Hiltz turns around with a wide smile, pleased with the results.
Hiltz, 62, of Melbourne, is a new member of A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League, a national club by and for women that advocates firearms education and competition.
On this particular evening, the club is meeting at FrogBones Family Shooting Center along auto dealer row on U.S. 1 in Melbourne. It’s Girls Night Out and members have trickled in from their job and family duties.
Standing beside her in Lane 3 of the indoor gun range is LuAnn Moyer, facilitator of A Girl & A Gun Space Coast FL, the local chapter to which they belong.
Hiltz has been a member for about a week at this point and has arrived with beginner jitters. Moyer talks her through practice with a style that is hands-on and cordial, yet authoritative.
The first six lanes are dedicated to “the girls” and gunfire comes both intermittently and in tight groupings. Mandatory safety equipment consists of goggles (eyes) and noise-blocking earmuffs (ears), as well as a cap.
Hiltz and Moyer are joined by eight other women in the earlier of two groups who first sit through a safety briefing before heading out to the range.
“It’s the same safety stuff every time. There are new people each time, plus we don’t want to get complacent,” Moyer said, adding, “We spend about 15 minutes on the safety briefing and introductions and then about 5:30 p.m. we head over to the range and we start the shooting time.”
Moyer, 55, of Melbourne, said they pack up the gear and head back in about an hour later so the second group gets its range time. Some go home and some settle in for dinner and drinks at the facility’s full-service restaurant, Double Tapp Grill. Yes, guests can order alcohol but no, not before shooting.
FrogBones, named in honor of Navy frogmen, reached out to the women’s market the moment doors opened in 2015. It helped that the club’s original facilitator, Stephanie Ollikanen, worked at FrogBones at the time. The first chapter meeting was held within a week of the range’s opening.
“We get a reduced range fee here; club members pay $5. The regular range fee is $15,” Moyer said. “They also get to rent guns for free. That’s one of the benefits that FrogBones provides for us. So they get an opportunity to try it before they buy it.”
The Cedar Park, Texas-based group has 5,567 members in 138 chapters shooting at 170 ranges in 48 states.
Moyer said the Brevard County chapter grew rapidly and in August 2016 she began a second group at the American Police Hall of Fame’s Shooting Center in Titusville.
The two groups merged, creating a chapter with 137 active members who meet in Melbourne on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month and in Titusville on the first and third Wednesdays.
“In Titusville, the group has the whole hour together, and we have access to 12 lanes in one large group,” said Moyer, who is certified as a National Rifle Association pistol instructor, range safety officer and Refuse to Be A Victim instructor. She also provides private shooting instruction for individuals and small groups.
The club has members, called the A-Team, who are trained to assist the facilitator in keeping shooters and guests safe. On this evening, range safety officers Samantha Brengard, 48, and Tara Johnson, 31, both of Melbourne, are the A-Team.
The RSOs wear orange shirts with the four rules of safety emblazoned on their backs in pictographs: Live rounds, an explosion, a finger and a target with a magnifying glass. They mean, in order: Treat all guns as though they are loaded, don’t point a gun at anything you are not willing to kill or destroy, keep your finger off the trigger unless you are actively shooting and know your target and what’s behind it.
“The rules overlap each other, so if we follow the rules we avoid accidents,” Moyer said.
After shooting, the kind of fellowship nurtured by common interest is fostered at the meet up in Double Tapp.
“We stay usually until they close. Sometimes we’ll stand talking in the parking lot,” Moyer said. “Because it’s more than shooting. It’s a bonding sisterhood, you know, we are there with you through the good times and the bad times. We’re connected and enjoy each other’s company.”
That bonding element was commonly cited by the women when talking about why they are members.
“I joined because I wanted some camaraderie with women and to learn how to shoot,” said Grace Ban of Indian Harbour Beach. “I went to a gun show and met LuAnn and the next week I was in and it’s been love ever since.”
That was nearly a year ago, in November 2017.
“I wanted to learn how to shoot and to feel more comfortable with it and the ladies just seemed really nice,” Hiltz said.
The banter continues around the table and Linda Shideler, 70, of Rockledge, offers: “Basically, it’s a group of girls that go and shoot. You don’t have some guy telling you you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Before returning to the range for the second group, Johnson answered the question why a gun club and not, say, archery or bowling.
“I’m in a bowling club, too,” she said. “But my dad is a shooter. Going with him all the time, it was bigger guns. I was comfortable shooting with him, but the firearms weren’t comfortable because I was brand new at it.
“So we were shooting here and went to Double Tapp Grill to eat dinner, and this line of girls came through and they all have these (club) shirts on,” she said. “I looked them up on Facebook and found them and joined the group.”
Now she’s comfortable handling several types of guns.
“It’s fun for all of us shooting big stuff and little stuff and fun stuff and loud stuff and fast stuff. It gives us a chance to be able to share that with each other.”
There is another, more-sobering motivation, and that is learning how to handle a gun for self-defense.
“I did have an experience that was unnerving, and I didn’t have my gun on me,” said Sharon Rice, 45, of Melbourne. “I was walking my dog sort of late at night, and I had a gentleman park and then start following me for a good distance. He was very clearly following me. I reported it to police and I was able to get back to my home. That’s when I said I would never walk without my gun again.”
Hours later, this sisterhood of the guns wraps up an evening of convivial conversation, some serious talk and more than a few jokes with the expectation of doing it all again the next week in Titusville.
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Information from: Florida Today (Melbourne, Fla.), http://www.floridatoday.com
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