Devonai
Member
I caught this one over at Packing.org.
The source article.
September 10, 2003
The bullet hit the side of the garage at about 9 a.m. one recent Saturday while Bob and Karen King were in bed reading the newspaper.
The projectile drilled a pencil-size hole about 5 feet above ground level through the shake-covered wall, shattered the backs of two plastic hardware drawers on a shelf inside and bounced off the opposite wall. Spent at last, the slug fell to the concrete floor.
On the other side of that wall, the noise interrupted Bob King's concentration.
"I heard something rattling around in the garage, but we kept reading the paper," King said of that Aug. 23 morning. "Later on, I was messing around in the garage when I found little pieces of plastic lying on the floor. Then I found the bullet lying there, and I said to myself, 'This is not a good thing.'
"And I called the police."
The Kings' neighborhood hasn't been the same since.
Police officers called the Bainbridge Island Sportsmen's Club, which for more than 60 years has had a pistol firing range south of the Kings' 5-year-old subdivision just north of New Brooklyn Road. The range, which is used by the police themselves for training, is about three-quarters of a mile from the Kings' house.
A club official told the officer that the pistol range had been used that morning by an off-duty Bainbridge Island Fire Department firefighter and a friend. The slug found in the Kings' garage was a 9 mm Glock semiautomatic pistol bullet that was "consistent" in caliber and make with the ammunition being used by the firing range shooters, police said. The shooters denied firing any bullets out of the range or above the protective dirt berm behind their targets.
The investigating officer didn't find any evidence that the two people practicing were negligent in any way. He called the incident a "freak accident."
The club closed the pistol range immediately, said Bill Omaits, its president.
"I didn't sleep for five nights," Omaits said. "This was very disconcerting to me. I believe this is the first time this has ever happened, although I don't know for certain. But it was time to do something anyway.
"Our No. 1 concern is safety."
Several days later, the club allowed shooters to resume target practice from a distance of 10 yards, but not from the 25-yard shooting stations.
The Sportsmen's Club is among dozens of clubs across the country that have been fighting encroaching urbanization. A shooting club in Gig Harbor has been seeking approval to move its operations to a new location away from the town.
Bainbridge's Sportsmen's Club was founded in 1929 when the island had only a few dirt roads. It was miles from the nearest habitation. New housing developments have been creeping down the hillsides from Bainbridge High School since the 1970s, and the club has been getting increasing numbers of complaints about noise coming from the practice ranges.
No one can recall any incident involving a stray bullet.
Bob King couldn't stop thinking about that bullet and how it could have gotten to his garage.
"I remembered the real estate agent who sold us the house a year ago telling me there was a shooting range over south of us somewhere, but I never gave it much thought," he said.
King got on the Internet and downloaded a satellite photo of his neighborhood. It showed that his house was almost directly due north of, and in the direct firing line of, the pistol range.
The range has a high berm of dirt behind the target area at the northernmost end. Someone would have had to fire a bullet over the top of the berm or the bullet would have had to skip on the dirt to get over the barrier and reach King's house, several officials said.
The bullet traveled some 2,200 feet through dense forest and undergrowth, narrowly missing two other houses just to the south of the Kings' on Laughing Salmon Lane.
King's photo shows that six houses are within a 10-degree arc from a line King drew north from the firing range, and 12 are within a 20-degree arc.
"I think it was just an accident," he said. "It sounds like somebody just aimed a bit higher than he should have. I haven't lost a minute's sleep over it."
Karen King says she is just glad nobody got hit by the bullet.
"But it's a wake-up call," she said.
That's not the way their neighbor John Green feels about it.
Green, president of the Brookfield Homeowners Association where the Kings and Greens live, said he didn't hear about the bullet until Sept. 3, and he immediately set up a meeting for 6 p.m. Friday at the Madison Avenue Fire Station to discuss the issue with city and Sportsmen's Club officials.
Green said he also plans to attend tonight's meeting of the Bainbridge Island City Council to discuss safety at the range.
"I don't believe that it was just a single round that got away one day," Green said. "I can't believe that's the only one that got away."
On Monday night, the Sportsmen's Club's officers decided to close the range to all shooting until it can install safety devices that will ensure that bullets can't escape. The devices, Omaits said, could include a concrete barrier along the east side of the range -- the west side already has one -- and an "eyebrow," a large metal deflecting screen, above the target area.
"It's not going to be a total roof, but the only way anybody would be able to get a round out of that range is to shoot straight up," Omaits said. "I can't see anybody shooting straight up."
The club also plans to require all of its members and anyone else who wants to use the range, including police officers, to go through a safety training course.
That's not enough to satisfy Green.
He said he feels the club should also place limits on the types of weapons that are allowed at the range.
"I am fairly comfortable in saying that the particular gun that was used to fire this bullet is a very powerful gun," Green said. "I don't know if we need that kind of weapon on a target range. To me, it's an egotistical kind of weapon to own. I think there should be a limitation on the power of the weapons people are allowed to use."
-----------------------------------------------
I'll let you guys rip this one apart, I'm too
ticked about it right now.
The source article.
September 10, 2003
The bullet hit the side of the garage at about 9 a.m. one recent Saturday while Bob and Karen King were in bed reading the newspaper.
The projectile drilled a pencil-size hole about 5 feet above ground level through the shake-covered wall, shattered the backs of two plastic hardware drawers on a shelf inside and bounced off the opposite wall. Spent at last, the slug fell to the concrete floor.
On the other side of that wall, the noise interrupted Bob King's concentration.
"I heard something rattling around in the garage, but we kept reading the paper," King said of that Aug. 23 morning. "Later on, I was messing around in the garage when I found little pieces of plastic lying on the floor. Then I found the bullet lying there, and I said to myself, 'This is not a good thing.'
"And I called the police."
The Kings' neighborhood hasn't been the same since.
Police officers called the Bainbridge Island Sportsmen's Club, which for more than 60 years has had a pistol firing range south of the Kings' 5-year-old subdivision just north of New Brooklyn Road. The range, which is used by the police themselves for training, is about three-quarters of a mile from the Kings' house.
A club official told the officer that the pistol range had been used that morning by an off-duty Bainbridge Island Fire Department firefighter and a friend. The slug found in the Kings' garage was a 9 mm Glock semiautomatic pistol bullet that was "consistent" in caliber and make with the ammunition being used by the firing range shooters, police said. The shooters denied firing any bullets out of the range or above the protective dirt berm behind their targets.
The investigating officer didn't find any evidence that the two people practicing were negligent in any way. He called the incident a "freak accident."
The club closed the pistol range immediately, said Bill Omaits, its president.
"I didn't sleep for five nights," Omaits said. "This was very disconcerting to me. I believe this is the first time this has ever happened, although I don't know for certain. But it was time to do something anyway.
"Our No. 1 concern is safety."
Several days later, the club allowed shooters to resume target practice from a distance of 10 yards, but not from the 25-yard shooting stations.
The Sportsmen's Club is among dozens of clubs across the country that have been fighting encroaching urbanization. A shooting club in Gig Harbor has been seeking approval to move its operations to a new location away from the town.
Bainbridge's Sportsmen's Club was founded in 1929 when the island had only a few dirt roads. It was miles from the nearest habitation. New housing developments have been creeping down the hillsides from Bainbridge High School since the 1970s, and the club has been getting increasing numbers of complaints about noise coming from the practice ranges.
No one can recall any incident involving a stray bullet.
Bob King couldn't stop thinking about that bullet and how it could have gotten to his garage.
"I remembered the real estate agent who sold us the house a year ago telling me there was a shooting range over south of us somewhere, but I never gave it much thought," he said.
King got on the Internet and downloaded a satellite photo of his neighborhood. It showed that his house was almost directly due north of, and in the direct firing line of, the pistol range.
The range has a high berm of dirt behind the target area at the northernmost end. Someone would have had to fire a bullet over the top of the berm or the bullet would have had to skip on the dirt to get over the barrier and reach King's house, several officials said.
The bullet traveled some 2,200 feet through dense forest and undergrowth, narrowly missing two other houses just to the south of the Kings' on Laughing Salmon Lane.
King's photo shows that six houses are within a 10-degree arc from a line King drew north from the firing range, and 12 are within a 20-degree arc.
"I think it was just an accident," he said. "It sounds like somebody just aimed a bit higher than he should have. I haven't lost a minute's sleep over it."
Karen King says she is just glad nobody got hit by the bullet.
"But it's a wake-up call," she said.
That's not the way their neighbor John Green feels about it.
Green, president of the Brookfield Homeowners Association where the Kings and Greens live, said he didn't hear about the bullet until Sept. 3, and he immediately set up a meeting for 6 p.m. Friday at the Madison Avenue Fire Station to discuss the issue with city and Sportsmen's Club officials.
Green said he also plans to attend tonight's meeting of the Bainbridge Island City Council to discuss safety at the range.
"I don't believe that it was just a single round that got away one day," Green said. "I can't believe that's the only one that got away."
On Monday night, the Sportsmen's Club's officers decided to close the range to all shooting until it can install safety devices that will ensure that bullets can't escape. The devices, Omaits said, could include a concrete barrier along the east side of the range -- the west side already has one -- and an "eyebrow," a large metal deflecting screen, above the target area.
"It's not going to be a total roof, but the only way anybody would be able to get a round out of that range is to shoot straight up," Omaits said. "I can't see anybody shooting straight up."
The club also plans to require all of its members and anyone else who wants to use the range, including police officers, to go through a safety training course.
That's not enough to satisfy Green.
He said he feels the club should also place limits on the types of weapons that are allowed at the range.
"I am fairly comfortable in saying that the particular gun that was used to fire this bullet is a very powerful gun," Green said. "I don't know if we need that kind of weapon on a target range. To me, it's an egotistical kind of weapon to own. I think there should be a limitation on the power of the weapons people are allowed to use."
-----------------------------------------------
I'll let you guys rip this one apart, I'm too
ticked about it right now.
