WATCH: Muskets and magnums target gun safety, stigma on National Range Day

• Local gun club held an open house to showcase gun safety and education
• People could try shooting in a safe environment

Tim Smith has been shooting guns since he was five years old. At the time, his grandfather would ask him to shoot gophers on the farm to earn an allowance.

For Smith, sport shooting is a lifelong hobby and comes with a strong sense of community.

“We’re your neighbours, we’re your friends, we’re your family. We’re not some big, scary group of people that likes to run around and shoot things, although we kind of do,” he said with a chuckle.

June 4 is National Range Day, a day set aside to mark the 2.3 million licensed gun owners in Canada.

For the Joe Rich Sportsman’s Association (JRSA), it was an opportunity to welcome the public to an open house and see what legal gun ownership is all about.

“Regardless of what their shooting discipline is, it’s a day to come out and celebrate us, the shooting public,” Smith, a long time JRSA member, told Kelowna10.

Visitors to the site on the rainy Saturday afternoon could explore the different clubs within the JRSA. They also had a chance to try a plethora of different firearms under the supervision of a range officer (RO).

Both the 300-yard long-distance shooting range and the handgun station had .22 calibre firearms.

The club specifically chose that calibre as it's beginner friendly. The bullets are small so the sound is less intense, and the recoil is softer.

For more of a challenge, people could try out the period-accurate, muzzle loaded muskets, which were much louder and had more kick than their .22 caliber counterparts. Every participant wore hearing protection.

Kelowna Air Soft was also on hand to demonstrate their non-lethal guns.

Safety was paramount. All RO’s are legal gun owners, have proper licensing, and had to pass various background checks. They handled loading the guns and dictated when it was safe to fire.

“This hobby isn’t so scary, it’s actually a lot of fun and that’s a big thing that we want to get across to the public,” Warren Fradette, president of the Joe Rich Sportsman’s Association said.

Not only was the open house an opportunity for fun, education, and to show off the improvements to the ranges, but also to combat stigmas around guns.

While he understood the public's and politician's concerns, Fredette said legal gun owners can often be unfairly penalized when new legislation is introduced.

“We ought to remember that the Americans are quite different than the Canadians. Our gun laws are totally separate,” he said “You’re not fixing any problems when you’re going after the legal gun owners. We’re not the criminals and that’s who they need to go after … A criminal’s not going to go rob a 7-11 with a gun registered to his name.”