Can I use police gun range?

Go ask them,,,,,the range you are talking about, Be polite, and don’t ‘demand’. Because ‘I paid for it!”

Lot's of luck with that one.

Go to the police station, tell them you want in since you “pay for it”.

To answer your question, no you can’t use it.....and using your own words, yes....it was a dumb question.

Darth-Vang said:

Can I use a police range since “we”(the people) basically pay for it? Or is that a dumb question? Government building is after all public building...

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You can’t use the range for the same reason you can’t drive the police cars or fly a military aircraft.

Both entities are always hiring should you really want to do either.

FWIW they are not always taxpayer funded. For example the County Sheriff’s dept range is on our property. The mowing, maintenance of the berm and equipment is on them though. I can shoot on that one but it is not open to the public.

Range "ownership" varies by jurisdiction.

Some are owned and operated by the department and usage is dictated by the city or county administration. The larger the organization the less likely it will be available to outside agencies or public use. I retired from a large agency in SoCal and even the rank and file had difficulty using the main range for practice. The schedule was pretty full 24/7/365! There were satellite ranges in outlying areas that were available for practice and some were open to the public on week ends. I was on the pistol team and an Instructor and had to drive 40 miles to get to a range for practice most of the time. Most of my practice was at a private gun club!

Smaller agencies may share ranges with the local "parks and recreation". These usually allow public use.

There is a huge liability and EPA issue involved running shooting ranges. Allowing public use may be cost prohibitive at smaller agencies.

Your best bet is to find a local club and get involved in volunteer work to keep the range open for everyone!

All the best,

When I was a teenager I was in an Explorer group (associated with the Boy Scouts) that was focused on shooting sports. Mostly four-position small bore shooting but in the summer we would do service rifle matches too. Every other Saturday for the fall, winter and spring, we would meet at the local police station and use their indoor range for our Saturday practice session. I put thousand of 22LR down range in the police range.

Can't hurt to ask, be polite, professional, and it will probably help to actual have a sanctioned/organized group of some type focused on a particular sport/activity as opposed to individuals just wanting to use the range to blast away.

I worked for them for 20 years and was a range instructor for ten of them. Now that I am retired I can't even use the range anymore.

The St Pete police range used to be open to the public, then an anti-gun mayor appointed an anti-gun chief. The range got closed to the public and has been for the past six years. The building the range is in is on Police Athletic League property.
I shot there for decades and was acquainted with a few current and retired police. One told me the chief did not want St Pete citizens practicing shooting. They might get better than his officers.

jmorris said:

FWIW they are not always taxpayer funded. For example the County Sheriff’s dept range is on our property. The mowing, maintenance of the berm and equipment is on them though. I can shoot on that one but it is not open to the public.

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Good point. My “private” paid membership club is used by several small departments for training and quals. Good public relations for us,no expense to them.

I live in a rural area and a mostly rural county. My gun club has a range outside one of the small cities. The county Sheriffs Dept. and the small city police dept near our range both use our range. When they use our facility it is closed to all members. Members are usually notified of these closures well in advance.

Can you sleep in the White House because you paid for it? The initial premise is a touch silly. If they have a policy, all well and good but you have no claim as a tax payer.

So closed.