Piedmont Tech Receives Grant for Gunsmithing Program

Piedmont Technical College’s gunsmithing program has been awarded nearly $3000 in firearms from the National Rifle Association (NRA). The guns will be part of a new gun library.

The idea to obtain the grant came from Rick Sellars, a student in the program.

“This has been a passion of mine, that we have some actual modern guns to work on,” Sellars said. “I had an idea that we needed to build a gun library.”

The idea for the gun library was to provide a variety of working firearms to show to the students. They can be disassembled in the classroom to show the inner workings and to acquaint the students with weapons they may one day be asked to repair.

Sellars said the original application was for a larger amount, but “this is a start.” He said he intends to reapply each year and hopes to eventually fill the library with a variety weapons in order to teach the students. The guns have already been utilized in the gun safety class.

“We want to eventually have multiple versions of each gun so when we have a class, we can have one to two students for each gun,” said Bob Koster, department head for metal trades. “This will allow us to provide even more hands-on instruction.”

For more information about the gunsmithing program at PTC, contact Koster at (864) 941-8471 or koster.b@ptc.edu.

Photo Caption: The gunsmithing program at Piedmont Technical College recently received nearly $3000 in guns from the National Rifle Association to help build a gun library for the program. Pictured are, from left, Bob Collyer, instructor; Richard Sellars of Greenwood, student and grant writer; and Bill Jacobs, instructor.