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During the past decade, the mix of members at the Berwyn Rod & Gun Club on the northern outskirts of Bowie has changed a lot.

"Ten years ago, it was 98 percent white male," said Dave Ridgway, a West Laurel resident and manager of the club that sits off Route 197 south of Bowie State University. "Today there's someone from every race, and there a lot of women."

"We've turned it around so it's a more family-oriented club," he said.

Founded in 1938 and set up as a nonprofit social club, the group has about 400 members that live all over the region, including Washington, D.C., Ridgway said. It also offers hunter safety and safe gun handling classes to the general public for $5 or more, depending on the level of instruction.

Club volunteers were on hand at Saturday's Bowiefest event in Allen Pond Park staffing a portable air gun range as part of their efforts to let the public know about their safety classes and membership information.

"Sometimes it's the kids who bring the parents over, and sometimes it's the parents who bring the kids over," said Jim Saville of Bowie, the club's corresponding secretary and member of its executive board.

The curious, both young and old, lined up to shoot at five orange metal targets using air guns that fired lead pellets, said Saville, who moved to Bowie 11 years ago and owns a computer networking consulting company.

"I didn't know a gun range existed in Bowie — where are you?" is a typical reaction among the more than 200 people who stopped at the booth, he said.

A self-confessed late bloomer in the shooting sports, Saville said he joined the Berwyn club five years ago after his wife inherited some firearms and he talked to a member about having them evaluated.

"We have law enforcement, military, doctors, lawyers, teachers, all walks of life," said Saville about the membership.

In May, the club hosted its Ladies Tea & Targets event, where women compete using pistols and rifles. After the shooting, 15 of the women where served "high tea" by six of the men in their lives dressed in suits and white gloves, with chamber music playing in the background.

Ridgway estimated that roughly 60 women regularly shoot at the club. They could be paying members themselves or use the club because their husbands are paying members.

"The fastest growing demographic of firearm owners are women," said club President Chris Buss, a longtime Bowie resident and real estate agent with Weichert Realtors in Bowie.

Buss joined the club about 20 years ago to target shoot because he felt it was a safer environment than the public shooting ranges.

"Ignorance is not bliss with a firearm," Buss said.

Even if you don't use firearms yourself, it's in your interest to know how they operate if you're near someone who does, he said.

Ridgway, who has a business handling data processing for the direct mail industry, also said broadening the membership base is needed to keep the club thriving in a state where people against firearms outnumber those who are for them.

"In Maryland, there is so much anti-gun policy and philosophy," said Ridgway, who has been involved in competitive shooting for most of his life.

A 1980 graduate of High Point High School in Beltsville, he tried out twice for the U.S. Olympic team, he said.

"Guns aren't really a bad thing," he said. "It's all about safety and how you use them."

Because of its location off the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Recreational Trail, the club closed for several years and spent half a million dollars to install baffles over the ranges to prevent any stray bullets from leaving the property before reopening in 2005, Ridgway said.

Hunter safety classes that can be used to get a state hunting license are available to members and the general public, as well as sessions where members can qualify to shoot in certain areas of the state and gun handling classes taught by member Bruce Jenkins.

A Laurel resident, Jenkins said what makes the Berwyn Rod & Gun Club unique is the diversity of its offerings and activities. There's everything from pistol and hunting to competitive shooting and personal protection.

"It's a club that's all mixed in," he said. "And whatever you're into, there's somebody to go along with you, to help you."

Despite its far-flung membership, the club keeps Bowie in mind by hosting an annual dinner where admission is a donation to the Bowie Food Pantry. It also opens its ranges to Bowie police officers free of charge.

"We have used it for qualifications as well as for training purposes and are very appreciative of Mr. Ridgway's support," wrote Deputy Police Chief John Nesky in an e-mail.

E-mail Virginia Terhune at vterhune@gazette.net.