PRINGFIELD – Gunmaker Smith & Wesson this week opened an expanded version of its Smith & Wesson Academy in Tennessee, rather than Springfield.
The academy now sits on 30 acres of its 236-acre campus at its headquarters near Marysville, Tennessee. The shooting school is open both to law enforcement and the general public for training.
The new academy features pistol and carbine ranges, a 300-yard rifle range and other facilities, according to Smith & Wesson. It is headed up by a former Navy SEAL.
The shift in location to Tennessee breaks with tradition.
“For decades prior to its closure several years ago, the Smith & Wesson Academy in Springfield, Massachusetts, was an industry staple,” the company’s president and CEO, Mark P. Smith, told investors in a conference call last week.
“Providing training for countless law enforcement officers, consumers, and agencies around the world,” he said of the Springfield program.
Smith & Wesson moved its headquarters, distribution and much of its manufacturing to a new facility in Tennessee in 2023 after Massachusetts lawmakers proposed legislation that would have limited its ability to make military-style semiautomatic rifles in the state.
The legislation was never passed.
Smith & Wesson still has about 1,000 employees at its sprawling factory on Roosevelt Avenue in Springfield. Operations remaining in the city include the forge, metal working, machining, finishing, assembly of Colt 1911-style handguns and revolver assembly.
The academy had been operating for nearly three decades when, in 1997, Smith & Wesson opened a $3 million firearms training center at 299 Page Boulevard.
Smith & Wesson closed the range and retail operation to the public in 2012 after three felons were charged with renting firearms and taking target practice at the center. It is against the law for felons to be in possession of firearms.
The company sold the facility in 2019 and it has since been leased to the Springfield Police Department for training.
©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
