Blue Trail Range Update.
Numerous improvements have been implemented at the range. A shooting range designer and Professional Engineer who is considered the industry leader has designed and overseen this project. For the record the P.E. does not believe that any of the alleged errant shots originated at Blue Trail Range. This opinion is also shared by the former head of the CT State Police's Forensic Unit.
Improvements include a significant increase in the elevation of all berms (now 24 feet). Design and construction of a baffle system that prevents both seeing over any berm and prevention of any round that impacts the baffles from leaving the range property. Access to the range is now controled by 900+ feet of chain link fencing and gates along North Branford Road.
There is public hearing scheduled for Tuesday July 22nd @ 6PM at the Durham Town Hall. Attorneys for the range will be present and are expected to announce the re-opening of the covered outdoor range.
At this time the 200 yard uncovered range has been assigned a lower priority and will be addressed at a later date. Currently no improvements have been implemented on this range.
As expected the local liberal anti-gun media has been on this story like flies on crap. The bias has been pathetic and even has resorted to the Hartford Courant's editorial board writing pure fiction and presenting it as fact.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-bluetrail.artjul08,0,101649.story
Mickey Mouse Antics
July 8, 2008
Some startling news: Mickey Mouse showed up at the Blue Trail Range & Gun Store in Wallingford on Memorial Day weekend for a little target practice. We know this because Mickey's name appears in Blue Trail's sign-in book.
Pretty goofy, huh?
It might even be funny. Unless you happen to live within 1 1/2 miles of the shooting range and a stray bullet — probably one from the Blue Trail range — shattered your kitchen window that weekend.
Which is exactly what happened.
In the wake of the Memorial Day incident, Blue Trail owner David Lyman voluntarily agreed to shut down its 100- and 200-yard shooting ranges, which back up against the state park and, beyond, Tri-Mountain Road. During a meeting last month with The Courant's editorial board, Mr. Lyman's lawyers said he is also installing safety enhancements at Blue Trail, including a bigger backdrop berm, better baffles and some chain-link fencing.
These improvements are long overdue. But even the best physical improvements will mean little if the culture of safety at Blue Trails is inadequate.
State police have been investigating the bullet incident for more than a month. Perhaps because of Blue Trail's poor record-keeping, troopers may never be able to identify "Mickey Mouse" or the gun that sent a bullet through a kitchen window in Durham.
Yet the fact that shooters at Blue Trail used such an outrageously fictional name suggests Mr. Lyman and his staff weren't taking the sign-in requirement seriously or weren't paying attention. It also indicates that customers at Blue Trail were reasonably sure they wouldn't be held accountable.
Such slipshod management practices at a shooting range pose a clear and serious danger to the safety of Durham residents and people using Tri-Mountain State Park. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal should pursue a civil action shutting down Blue Trail's 100- and 200-yard ranges and setting strict limits for its future operation.
For the Record Blue Trail Range does not have a log book, they use range tickets. There is no record of any Mickey Mouse purchasing range time on Memorial Day or any other day for that matter. The Courant is the country's oldest newspaper in continuous publication. No wonder the print media is dying when they print bovine excrement like this.
There are other gun clubs and ranges in the area as well as documented insistences of illegal shooting in the adjoining wooded areas. However the media has seen fit to assign all blame to BTR and has had them in their sights since this fiasco surfaced.
All this has been driven by one unscrupulous resident who happens to be a land developer who lives on the other side of the ridge behind that range. He was pictured on WTNH TV holding what he claimed was a recovered round that came from the range and said, "I would like to see the hunter that fired this round".
One last point. The range was not shut down by any State agency or any authority. Dave Lyman closed the outdoor ranges himself in a purely defensive move as advised by attorneys. That decision was made to prevent being slapped with an injunction and to implement the improvements.
http://www.savebluetrailrange.org/
Or claim that anyone taking a walk near their house would surely arrive back home dead, after their walk, from an airplane hitting them.