Oswald’s membership in a hunting club while he was in the Soviet Union has been a matter of special interest to the Commission. One Russian emigre testified that this was a suspicious circumstance because no one in the Soviet Union is permitted to own a gun for pleasure.[C6-230] The Commission’s investigation, however, has established that this is not so. The Central Intelligence Agency has advised the Commission that hunting societies such as the one to which Oswald belonged are very popular in the Soviet Union.[C6-231] They are frequently sponsored by factories for their employees, as was Oswald’s.[C6-232] Moreover, Soviet citizens (or foreigners residing in the Soviet Union) are permitted to own shotguns, but not rifles, without joining a society; all that is necessary is that the gun be registered at the local militia office immediately after it has been purchased.[C6-233] Experts from the Central Intelligence Agency have examined Oswald’s club membership certificate and gun permit and expressed the opinion that its terms and numbers are consistent with other information the CIA has about the Soviet Union.[C6-234] [Illustration: (COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 25) EXCERPTS FROM A SPEECH OSWALD NEVER DELIVERED, WHICH HE PROBABLY WROTE ABOARD THE SHIP WHILE RETURNING FROM THE U. S. S. R. WITH HIS FAMILY] Marina Oswald testified that her husband went hunting only on one occasion during the time of their marriage.[C6-235] However, Oswald apparently joined the Byelorussian Society of Hunters and Fishermen in the summer of 1960[C6-236] and did not marry until April 30, 1961,[C6-237] so he could have been more active while he was still a bachelor. Oswald made no secret of his membership in the hunting club. He mentioned it on occasion to friends after he returned to the United States;[C6-238] discussed it at some length in a speech at a Jesuit Seminary in Mobile, Ala., in the summer of 1962;[C6-239] included it in his correspondence with his brother Robert;[C6-240] and kept his membership certificate[C6-241] and gun permit[C6-242] until the day he was killed. In view of these facts, it is unlikely that Oswald’s membership in a hunting club was contrived to conceal some sort of secret training. Moreover, the CIA has informed the Commission that it is in possession of considerable information on the location of secret Soviet training institutions and that it knows of no such institution in or near Minsk during the time Oswald was there.[C6-243]