The Sentinel=record., 1915-04-25
RIFLE PRACTICE
 NOW ENCOURAGED
WASHINGTON TAKES INTEREST IN HAVING RIFLE CLUBS
 FORMED ABOUNT COUNTRY.
Makes Arrangement So That the Regulation Rifle May Be Secured By Citizens Under Proper Rules.

Following the action of congress at the last session authorizing the chief of ordnance to issue free to rifle clubs the Krag rifles stored in the govern meut arsenals and 12O cartridges to be used in the same for each member of the rifle club, the president and his cabinet are confronted with the prop osition to put the seal of approval of the administration on the training of the civilians in the use of the mill tary arm as recommended by the president in his last message to con gress. This approval or disapprovaI will come about through the efforts of the national board for promotion of rifle practice to organize rifle shooting associations in all the gov ernment departments in Washington, such organizations necessarily re- quiring the approval of the chiefs of the departments.
 The movement to issue Krag rifles for the training of citizens in rifle shooting explains what is being done with the Krag rifles in storage in the government arsenals, which has been q matter of a great deal of newspaper speculation as to the disposal of the same since the outbreak of the Euro pean war It was the efforts of specu lators, influential and otherwise, who were making the life of the chief Of ordnance miserable in their efforts to purchase the Krag rifles, which caused the president to have issued the order in January forbidding the sale of arms to rifle clubs. It was not thought that there was any abuse of the privilege accorded rifle clubs to purchase government arms, but the president desired to be in a position of saying that no arms in any amount and of any description were being sold to anyone, especially Krag rifles as there were being reserved for issue 10 government rifle clubs under au- thority of the recent new law.
 Since this law went into effect last summer over 250 rifle clubs have been organized throughout the coun. try No particular section seems to be leading in this respect, although these clubs are more successful in the west where it is easier to acquir, and maintain ranges in the open. The lack of ranges in the densely popu- lated eastern section of the country is going 10 materially retard the de yelopment of rifle shooting in the east unless the government should construct ranges that can be used at 200 and 300 yards near the larger cities, after the plans of protected ranges carried out in Germany and other foreign countries which provide for the building of shields to catch all slots which would have missed the target, thus making them abso- lutely safe from stray bullets and ac cidental discharge of the rifle The general staff of the army is now at work on a new code of rifle practice which can be used on such ranges and also on open ranges of the Ma tional Guard, where it is impossible to get distances beyond 300 yards.
 Congress will be asked at the com ing. session to adopt a policy of range construction in the United States. Every year that this is put off will add to the difficulties and cost to the government of eventually acquiring suca ranges, and without such ranges the government will never obtain any adequate returns from it's loaning to citizens of Krag rifles and ammuni- ton. Such clubs are now being or ganized at the rate Of i5 to 2o a week and the offices of the National Rifle Association of America, in whose hands the government has placed the organization of these clubs, are a busy place. By addressing this asso citation at Washington, descriptive printed matter in regard to the move ment may be secured by any citizen who is interested in the matter of rifle training in this country.