Gun ho

>> Shooting range operator says
safety and stupidity don’t mix

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Marco Pendenza

Age: 49

Occupation: Co-owner of Club de Tir Ville St-Pierre.

Bio: This gruff yet affable Montreal West resident was fathered by an Armed Forces marksman in a gun-free household, only purchasing his first shotgun at age 18. Shortly thereafter finding himself enamored with firearms, Marco began “devouring” everything he could on the subject, and after completing his MBA at Concordia in the mid-’80s, decided to open a hunting and fishing store, which has since evolved into the Ville St-Pierre Gun Club (www.ctvsp.com). A gifted marksman himself, after you’ve jumped through countless bureaucratic hoops to obtain your firearms licence, and if you don’t strike him as an irresponsible, dangerous asshole, Marco will welcome you into his private club and teach you everything you need to know about target shooting. When not cruising around on his 1450cc Harley Davidson, he drives a 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 Mega Cab. “Ha, people reading this are gonna think I’ve only got a two-inch prick or something. You know, the Harley, the truck, the guns, they’ll think I’ve got to be compensating for something.”

What’s involved before owning a handgun in Quebec: “You must be a member of a gun club, have a clean police record, and your three personal references have to check out. Then you have to pass all your safety courses with the government, and later pass another in-house safety course at your gun club. By the time you come see me about joining our club, it’s been three or four months of courses and filling out paperwork.”

Does it really require that much instruction to learn it’s probably not a great idea to put a loaded handgun in your mouth? “If you came looking to join our club and said this stupidity to me I’d politely tell you to take the door. And if you didn’t, then I wouldn’t be so polite. Safety training is so important, if only because most people’s exposure to handguns comes from movies, and it’s not like that at all.”

How often he rejects applicants feeling they might be too wacky or irresponsible to shoot firearms? “Not often, but it happens. Once you’ve passed all your safety courses and come here, you should know to be responsible with a firearm.”

One former CTVSP member: Kimveer Gill. “He passed all his courses, was pleasant, polite, soft-spoken, didn’t have spiked hair, followed all the rules and gave no impression whatsoever of someone about to snap. I was as surprised as everyone else about it. And then the media blames it on guns. But, you know, if somebody snaps and starts mowing people over in their car, do you then put responsibility on the car dealer? Do you blame the government who gave this person a driver’s licence?”

Do many CTVSP members take up handguns for self-defence purposes? No. “Just because you’re a good target shooter doesn’t mean you can use a gun for self-defence. Anyway, at home your gun must be locked up with the ammunition locked separately, so there goes your self-defence. Shooting is a sport.”

Last book read: Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper by Jack Coughlin, Casey Kuhlman and Donald A. Davis.

Musical preferences: Spice Girls, AC/DC, Backstreet Boys.

Words of wisdom: “Be good, be careful, and if not, name it after me.”

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