What do you think? PD Range Closure

[redhawker]

This horse has long left the barn but I was sitting here reflecting, more remembering, when we first moved into our house we where about a half mile away from the local police department outdoor range, which was in an "off-limits" area adjacent to the local park. This was buffered by a couple of streets of industrial area before the residences started. Most all hours of the day (and sometimes of the night) we could clearly hear gunfire from the range, although any night shooting was few and far between and not unreasonable IMHO. Many people (well, I'm not sure it was "many" but at least some very vocal people) complained about this to the city and the range was eventually closed down due to this and, allegedly, due to the lead buildup. The range still sits there today, unused and still off limits to the public. It is now adjacent to a big "sports complex" that has several baseball / soccer / etc. fields which weren't there when it closed and I'm not sure were even on the radar when it was closed. I'm not sure where the local PD does their range qualification now but I'm sure its an indoor range somewhere. I have to wonder about those that complained saying that the sounds of gunfire we were hearing were "disturbing", "unnerving", "dangerous", and so on. To me, it was a comforting sound. It was the good guys practicing their craft, keeping prepared to protect me and mine. I'm probably preaching to the choir here but would you feel as I did or would you think an outdoor range in the area a nuisance?

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

Range noises rate right up there with fighter jets going overhead in my book: "That's the sound of freedom, Son!" as it was 'splained to me when I was but a wee rat. Besides, the brain has a marvelous way of blocking background noises that it considers "normal." Have been thru a couple of "range noise" issues, on the side of the ranges, and kinda decided the complainants would usually make good contestants in a "Princess and the pea" reality show... :roll:

Rick C

 

[Pat-inCO]

To me, it was a comforting sound. It was the good guys practising their craft, keeping prepared to protect me and mine. I'm probably preaching to the choir here but would you feel as I did or would you think an outdoor range in the area a nuisance?

I see no problem with it . . . . at all.

Well . . . . . maybe I do. Since it was not open to the public, there might of
not been enough people working to keep it open, as there might have been.

 

[GunnyGene]

It's got nothing to do with noise or danger. If it did I'd be in a lot of trouble, and so would many of my neighbors, shooting & hunting on our properties out here in rural MS. These people are just plain anti-gun and expect the entire world to conform to their wants. Piss on 'em. :x

 

[Bull Barrel]

It's the same whether it's ranges, race tracks or small airports.
People move in next to them, knowing they are there and then complain about the noise.

 

[bobski]

funny how they dont complain about crowd noise from those parks now.

 

[GunnyGene]

It's the same whether it's ranges, race tracks or small airports.
People move in next to them, knowing they are there and then complain about the noise.

Yep.

A thought just occurred to me about the "dangerous" complaint. I think many of the anti-gun people just don't understand ballistics. They think that a bullet somehow is exempt from the law of gravity, and stays in level flight forever, eventually exiting the earths atmosphere and heading into outer space. They don't get that a common pistol bullet - say a 9mm - fired level from the standing position will impact the ground within 200yds or so. :roll:

 

[contender]

I can fully understand AND feel your pains.
Our local PD (Lake Lure) had an outdoor range. At one point, it was being used by several different departments as well. THEY PAID RENT. Well, thanks to the attitude of some folks, who complained of the noise etc, worries about tourists not coming etc, they first restricted it to just the LLPD. Well, finally they closed it, to build a school on the property. The property was owned by the town, and as such was at the whims & wishes of the city council. Oh, and the night noise comes from the requirement of night fire training, required by most states.
Noise was just one of the main complaints. Now, once the school opens, there will be ball games, big lights, & much more traffic etc to cause different problems. I doubt anybody will complain.

Also, nearby, there is the Western NC Justice Academy. It's a LEO training facility. It was build on an old school site. They needed a gun range. Guess what,,,, the imported folks, along with just a few of the locals, pitched a hissy fit. Petitions, news media, you name it. Well, guess what,,, no range was built.


It amazes me that people expect,,,, no DEMAND professionalism & well trained officers of the law. THEN they do things to forbid the training those LEO's need. They all demand well trained officers, but do not want to spend tax dollars to get them that way. Or, they place such restrictions upon them that they spend a lot more tax dollars just to meet the state certification requirements. (Travel, indoor ranges, rent to other departments etc.) BTW; indoor ranges that can meet the nighttime live fire requirements is not an easy or cheap option.

I own a gun range, and I'm lucky that I have it in the edge of one county, just away from the legal reach of Lake Lure. I've had a few complaints, but nothing serious once they figured out my location, the idiots realize that they can not win.

 

[coach]

I have a skeet/trap range 3 or 4 miles as the crow flies and every Thursday especially I hear the shotguns in the evening. Not loud of course, but nice to hear.
About ten years ago the general assembly passed a law that exempted any existing gun range from noise regulations and possible lawsuits from nearby residents. One of the few pro gun things Maryland has ever done.

 

[loaded round]

Many years ago when my wife and I were house hunting, we found and purchased a house about a 1/2 mile from our a rod and gun club house as the crow flies. I joined the next year and have been a member ever since. The gun club is a good neighbor, allows our local police to train there gratis, and have restricted shooting times on Sundays and holidays. Much rather have the gun club as neighbors that another housing development or a strip mall.

 

[gramps]

I live in the country. We all have gun ranges on our properties. July 4 around 10 pm it sounded like a small war was upon us. Very comforting to me!
gramps

 

[mohavesam]

Private ranges cannot be regulated, just noise ordinances usually, no noise before 7AM or after 10PM normally. YMMV.

Too bad the police range closed. Remember federal laws require any range built with public monies, not limited to federal funds, have hours reserved for public use. Alan Korwin researched & wrote about that. Helped a club in MI get the local prison range (DOC & Sheriff Dept.) open two days per week to the public. LEO teams and DOC were not very happy about that for years! Especially the 3-D range, which required a safety officer with the shooter...

 

[stevemb]

I think it's sad too. Here, down the road was a facility that made munitions. Then was a S&W/Def-Tech site. The boys in black helicopters used to play there. Now it's just bomb disposal. The last big boomer rattled my windows and I'm 4 miles away and in a valley.

 

[eveled]

I belonged to a club in a countryish setting, but suburbia is closing in on it. The residents complain about the noise from our range. The thing is, most of the shooting I hear that they blame on us, is not even us.

 

[nekvermont]

When I was a kid we lived near a range in a privately owned gravel pit that got a lot of use by the local and state police and the sheriffs dept. We were able to use it ourselves and would dig lead to sell. The noise never really bothered us to much but it would drive the poor dogs crazy. Seems like a lot of dogs are terribly nervous of gunfire.

 

[blackhawknj]

So many longtime well established private ranges have been closed because the noise "offended" someobody-usually a newcomer, now even the so-called "privileged" groups have to knuckle under to them....what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

 

[toysoldier]

Our gun club is located on 80 acres well north of town, in the sparsely-populated sand hills. Haven't heard about any complaints from neighbors. After 9/11, when security got ramped up at Ft. Riley, the Wichita Marine reserve unit got shut out for their yearly qualification shoot. They used our range instead, free of charge (although some members scavenged a goodly bit of brass).

There's a LE range in Oklahoma that's situated on a wedge of land between I-44 and a 400-acre naturist campground. Neither party has any objections to the activities of their neighbor. Shooting can be heard at the campground's clubhouse.

My subdivision is protected from Cow Creek flooding by a levee. The houses on the other side of the street from me back up to it. Several of the neighbors, including a city cop, use the 15' berm for target practice. Never heard anyone complaining.

 

[SamV]

Here is a question for you. Now that suppressors are starting gain a little traction, what do you think the locals would say about ranges where suppressors are used? My guess is that while there are many that really do object to the noise, there are probably a bunch that would still object even if there was no noise. I would be willing to bet that even if a range were restricted to suppressed firearms, the general public would be convinced that something evil was going on there and needs to be stopped.

 

[Cheesewhiz]

To me, it was a comforting sound. It was the good guys practicing their craft

My feelings exactly.

 

[noahmercy]

The Tampa Police Pistol and Rifle Club was a large facility dating back to the 50s, if I remember correctly. It had a range that was open to the public and a range reserved for LEO use, as well as a bomb disposal training range and an area for SWAT training. Decades after it was built, developers built homes "downrange" from the club. Naturally, the complaints began about noise, then folks claiming bullets were hitting their homes. Anyone who had visited the range knew it was IMPOSSIBLE for rounds fired from the public range to travel past the berm and then an additional half mile through a conservation easement to impact a house in the middle of a couple hundred other houses. There were massive overlapping concrete overhead structures from the firing line to the backstop. Any legitimate claims of rounds going over the berm could only have involved the LEO side, since they didn't have the overhead baffles, or could have been folks shooting in the easement. The newspaper even ran a story about a woman who claimed a bullet landed near her and her son, complete with a picture of her holding the alleged projectile...A LOADED RIFLE CARTRIDGE! Long story short, they closed the range.

Never underestimate the power of a small number of whiners in this PC age.

 

[DGW1949]

Range noise doesn't bother me, but it's been a long time since I was trying to keep a sleeping infant from waking during nap times.

The bottom line, don't move there if you don't like it, and definitely don't start complaining if you just got hoodwinked by your realtor.

Except for your first sentance, I agree.
"Exept for" meaning that when I'm at a public range, I absolutely refuse to shoot anywhere near a guy who is using a .300 Win-Mag with a muzzle brake. :shock: .

DGW

 

[Rick Courtright]

"Exept for" meaning that when I'm at a public range, I absolutely refuse to shoot anywhere near a guy who is using a .300 Win-Mag with a muzzle brake. :shock: .

Hi,

Go shooting with my BIL and you'll probably want to add his Win 94 Timber in .450 Marlin (18" factory ported barrel) to that list! When he pulls that thing out of the case it's time for a coffee break ... there's just nothing pleasant about being around the front, back or sides when it goes off.

Rick C

 

[CLAYPOOL]

I am located with some miles near the contested range to be at West Frankfort, Illinois. Its is heating up by a local resident who family are local politicians. The range owner to be is in the right on there is no county ordinations against them. I'm am built all ready for a few years and in a local village to boot. We shill see how this plays out. The tract hoe work has been slow due to rain. To follow this go to Channel 3 WSIL or the Southern Illinoisan news paper. His range is bigger pit wise than mine. I have a full 100 yards from my barn to shoot from . We are in a hold on building the firing room.

 

[Jeepnik]

The local cop range isn't closed. Likely won't be as it's in adjacent to a large military fuel depot (tanks are all underground). But they did anger quite a few of us a while back.

For decades the range was open to the public. Many of us practically grew up shooting there. Then things changed. Liberalism hit the PD. Civilian gun ownership was thrown under the bus.

The range was closed to the public. But there had to be a good reason so they invented one. It seems they decided that local gang bangers "might" use the range to improve their skill. While no one ever recalls seeing anyone even slightly suspicious it was the excuse they used.

A number of us tried to fight it, but let's face it, there wasn't a darned thing we could do. So now we have to drive a considerable distance to an outdoor range, or put up with the range Nazi's at the local indoor ranges.

 

[Colonialgirl]

It's the same whether it's ranges, race tracks or small airports.
People move in next to them, knowing they are there and then complain about the noise.

Very true; There is a section in Orange County or adjacent area of LA County that USE to be known as DAIRY VALLEY thanks to all the Dutch Dairy Farms in the area. Well, the area gradually got developed into housing and the first thing was complaints about the Smell and the flies; So, the Dutch Dairy men bought property out in the Chino area, Built brick houses and Barns, each one building a BIGGER one than the one before him (they ALL knew each other from the Dutch Reformed Church they attended) after while, There was only ONE Dutchman left in Dairy Valley and everyone wondered HOW BIG his house and barn would be.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE; He DIDN'T build a New House, He had his OLD one moved out to his new Dairy farm. Don't know the distance, BUT it's a ways.
Sad part was that the same thing happened in Chino, Developers bought the surrounding properties, loaded it up with California throw-up housing and those people BOUGHT next to the Dairy KNOWING it was a dairy farm and then complained about the flies and smell. They finally sold off again (AT a HUGE profit) and moved somewhere else in California.

I Learned all this because a friend that worked in the same Lab as me knew the farmers and attended the Dutch Reformed Church.

 

[Jeepnik]

It's the same whether it's ranges, race tracks or small airports.
People move in next to them, knowing they are there and then complain about the noise.

Very true; There is a section in Orange County or adjacent area of LA County that USE to be known as DAIRY VALLEY thanks to all the Dutch Dairy Farms in the area. Well, the area gradually got developed into housing and the first thing was complaints about the Smell and the flies; So, the Dutch Dairy men bought property out in the Chino area, Built brick houses and Barns, each one building a BIGGER one than the one before him (they ALL knew each other from the Dutch Reformed Church they attended) after while, There was only ONE Dutchman left in Dairy Valley and everyone wondered HOW BIG his house and barn would be.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE; He DIDN'T build a New House, He had his OLD one moved out to his new Dairy farm. Don't know the distance, BUT it's a ways.
Sad part was that the same thing happened in Chino, Developers bought the surrounding properties, loaded it up with California throw-up housing and those people BOUGHT next to the Dairy KNOWING it was a dairy farm and then complained about the flies and smell. They finally sold off again (AT a HUGE profit) and moved somewhere else in California.

I Learned all this because a friend that worked in the same Lab as me knew the farmers and attended the Dutch Reformed Church.

They all pretty much went up to the San Joaquin valley. The areas they are in are either agricultural or petroleum area. There are some small towns, but none too near the dairies. On the plus side, the manure is used as fertilizer for the crops. Now if we can just get rain.

By the way, I grew up around dairies. There were quite a few small ones in the L.A. County. But as mentioned, they were all forced out by neighbors. Funny thing is, those of us that lived fairly close to them never worried about odors. I guess we just thought it was normal.