午夜剧场

A rifle range was established as a new facility within the Hiyoshi Commemorative Hall, which was completed in 2020. It is a range dedicated to smallbore rifles and is primarily used by the Athletic Association Rifle Shooting Club. Since firearms are handled here, security is strict to ensure that only club members and authorized personnel can enter. It is very rare for a university to possess such a facility.

The Rifle Shooting Club was founded in 1924 and has a history of approximately 100 years. Sports competitions using firearms have a small competitive population in Japan. Owning a firearm as an individual requires a possession permit and involves strict screening criteria, making it unfamiliar to the general public. While the Rifle Shooting Club uses the air rifle range in Hiyoshi Mamushidani as its base of operations, members previously had to travel to the Nagatoro or Isehara ranges for smallbore practice.

Shooting sports consist of rifle shooting, pistol shooting, and clay pigeon shooting, with events divided based on the type of firearm used.

Smallbore is a competition where participants use .22 caliber rifles to fire a set number of rounds at a target 50 meters away from three positions (kneeling, prone, and standing). It requires precise technique, and the key to victory is how well one can maintain concentration.

The rifle range established in the Commemorative Hall is a "covered range" type, where the walls and ceiling of the room, including the trajectory path, are entirely covered in concrete. There is a distance of 50 meters from the firing line to the targets, with eight firing points allowing eight people to shoot simultaneously. The targets are electronic, using infrared sensors to display the impact position on a monitor. This entire system was imported from Germany. Bullets are prevented from scattering by a bullet recovery device, and ventilation ports are installed behind the targets to prevent the accumulation of gunpowder smoke. The area around the firing points is covered in wood; by intentionally using timber, any accidentally fired rounds will embed themselves in the wood rather than ricocheting. Shooting noise is moderately dampened by sound-absorbing materials on the walls and ceiling. Excessive soundproofing can cause discomfort, while insufficient soundproofing could lead to hearing loss for the shooters. Because it directly affects health, the optimal sound absorption settings were determined by referencing multiple indoor ranges.

Since the decision to install a rifle range was made during the planning stages of the Hiyoshi Commemorative Hall, inquiries were made to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police. However, as they had no prior precedent, the process began with both parties feeling their way through. Standards for establishing rifle ranges in Japan are based on a Cabinet Office Ordinance enacted in 1962. It is an extremely strict law with detailed facility standards and management methods, but because it is an old law, some parts do not align with current competitive standards. After two years of coordination from the planning stage, an "Application for Designation of a Designated Shooting Range" was submitted to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police, and the facility finally became usable after obtaining the "Notice of Designation."

In May 2020, those involved invited a Shinto priest to the range to perform a safety prayer ceremony, and the facility began operations.

(Hiroshi Watanabe, Office of Facilities and Property Management)