The Irony is not Lost on Me.

[Demi-human]

I spent today at the range.

The five of us loaded up everything we thought we would need. Ladders, a compressor, saws and levels. As well as our hand tools, hammers, tape measures, levels and squares. And all the fasteners, two headers and sill seal.

We had already delivered the wall sections I built in the shop. Eight all on a trailer, twelve foot by ten. Also all the roofing materials and sheeting O.S.B. were down at the range, waiting to be assembled, hunkered down in the twenty five bay, covered and lighted, firing line.

A convoy of three red Chevrolet pickups with identical white trailers and one red Dakota pulled slowly down the barely plowed road. As we drove in I read the white signs that proliferated in the adjacent woods.

"University Property No Trespassing"

The three company trucks entered the driveway and drove down to the range. I stopped at the empty Public Access overflow lot. No boaters on the Muskegon today!
Did I forget something? A tool maybe?
No.
I stopped to unload my thirty eight revolver, put the cartridges in the armrest, stowed it in a soft case and locked it in my glove box.

Yep. You guessed it.

I was just about to spend the entire day at a very nice Law Enforcement practice range, with no gun.

The perfect three sided berm. Square and perfectly level across the tops. Fourty feet tall and in the middle of a forest. The wabe was flat and level, a little littered with shot shells, but firm and square. Thirty yards to the berm from the bays and sixty between the two sides, where there was some rifle target holders. The day was sunny and warm, (For January, I am a Michigander.) the wind still and the firing line clean. A range day if there ever was one!

But it was not to be.

The Range is on the local university's property, and as such, we were reminded that we were not to have any weapons on our person. For that reason I had to stop at the drive, unarm and walk the remaining few hundred yards to the site. That is, leave a gun and bullets in my truck and walk, to a Gun Range, without them.

The unease was terrible. Somehow I managed, with the help of the crew, to frame and roof a twenty four foot by thirty storage shed without leaving in a disgusted and beaten huff.

I walked up to the gate and waited for the other trucks to leave so I could lock up. 'Barney' stops and says, "So, you so itchy ya gonna go shoot tonight?" With a wide grin.

"No." I reply. "But I am going to make a short ton of bullets and sleep with my Desert Eagle tonight!"

So, I was stuck at a gun range with a gun and rounds in the truck and forbidden to use them.



Has anything like this happened to anyone else? Or is it just me that is tortured so?



(And yes, the Eagle is already under the pillow, but I ran out of H-one-ten. I will report on the neck pain tomorrow morning.)

 

[ontarget]

I live in very close proximity to a Sheriff dept. Weapons training range. I hear them shooting often and can see their berm when I drive by. The LEOs have a very nice range.
I'm a little jealous, but I have a 100 yd. range right outside my back door so I get by alright.

 

[drk1]

I understand completely and you have my deepest sympathy. Here is what might be considered a distantly related story with similar irony. During World War II, a large company created a factory that employed thousands of people. The folks who worked at this factory, many of whom moved to this town just to work in this factory and create better lives for their families here, created all sorts of clubs. There were fraternal lodges, bowling clubs, etc., but there was also a shooting club. Well, this club grew and prospered to the extent that it had enough members and enough money that the members decided to buy 20 acres or so near the factory and create a range. They went forward with the idea and it turned out great. The best part was probably the indoor pistol range because it was a first in the area and if you were a member, you had 24/7 access. Well, over the years the number of workers at the factory diminished and the number of people in the club diminished to the point that by the late 1960s, they simply couldn't afford to maintain and operate it any longer. The members decided that rather than sell the land and divide the profits, in the spirit of contributing to the community, they would offer to give the land to the largest nearby police department with two conditions. First, the police department would maintain and improve the facility, spending significant money on it even though the range was located in a very small community outside of the jurisdiction of the department to which it was being given. And second, that the police department open the range to the public in perpetuity. The politicians and the police administrators in the city that was being offered the 20+ acres and the shooting range agreed to the terms immediately. There was a great big ceremony where they went on and on about how grateful they were and how great for the communities involved in that it would bring them together and how wonderful it would be for police/community relations for the public to shoot alongside of police officers. All of that lasted about 6 months. The police and the politicians cut a deal. The police agreed not to complain about the politicians selling off most of the land, including the skeet and trap ranges, and spending the money on other "community projects." At the same time the politicians agreed to allow the police to close the range to the public permanently. Since then they range has become a club house for that small percentage of the police department that like to shoot. At the same time, untold thousands of taxpayers' dollars have been spent to maintain and improve and range that the public was supposed to be able to use but which is now closed to all but a select few. There might be a little irony in there somewhere.

 

[Speedo66]

Rodman's Neck is the NYPD's outdoor range, training center, and bomb disposal area, located on the water at the northern tip of the Bronx next to City Island. If you're boating in the area, the convergence of the LI Sound and the East River, you can sometimes hear what sounds like a heated battle as the firing lines open up.

As far as I know, it's the only outdoor range located in NYC, and definitely closed to the public. Be wonderful if the local residents, subjected to this frequent barrage, could use it, but NYC has taken constant steps to make any form of gun ownership difficult. The actuality is that there probably aren't that many members of the public who could actually use it.

I've shot there, the agency I worked for used to take training there, and it's a really nice location, being on the water, with great views. Seems a shame more people can't use it.

 

[Axis II]

In the summer time i am always working at my hunt/gun club on something and being big on safety we aren't allowed to have a firearm on us when stuff like this is going on. Our neighbor absolutely hates us and has came over cursing and threatening me for shooting before noon on Sunday which wasn't posted or told to us during orientation and called the sheriff and flipped on another guy for shooting 2min before noon and i found out from a reliable source the other neighbor is so strung out on drugs he looks like the crypt keeper so i always have a 5 shot 38spl in my pocket even if it is just to cut the grass. I hate it when my LEO friends go to their depts. range and rub it in. They aren't really nice though one is LEO only cause its behind a high school and the other is a private range that does cowboy action shooting they let the PD use but i think they booted them cause the neighbors complained about night shoots and rapid fire.

 

[quest4perfection]

I spent today at the range.

The five of us loaded up everything we thought we would need. Ladders, a compressor, saws and levels. As well as our hand tools, hammers, tape measures, levels and squares. And all the fasteners, two headers and sill seal.

We had already delivered the wall sections I built in the shop. Eight all on a trailer, twelve foot by ten. Also all the roofing materials and sheeting O.S.B. were down at the range, waiting to be assembled, hunkered down in the twenty five bay, covered and lighted, firing line.

A convoy of three red Chevrolet pickups with identical white trailers and one red Dakota pulled slowly down the barely plowed road. As we drove in I read the white signs that proliferated in the adjacent woods.

"University Property No Trespassing"

The three company trucks entered the driveway and drove down to the range. I stopped at the empty Public Access overflow lot. No boaters on the Muskegon today!
Did I forget something? A tool maybe?
No.
I stopped to unload my thirty eight revolver, put the cartridges in the armrest, stowed it in a soft case and locked it in my glove box.

Yep. You guessed it.

I was just about to spend the entire day at a very nice Law Enforcement practice range, with no gun.

The perfect three sided berm. Square and perfectly level across the tops. Fourty feet tall and in the middle of a forest. The wabe was flat and level, a little littered with shot shells, but firm and square. Thirty yards to the berm from the bays and sixty between the two sides, where there was some rifle target holders. The day was sunny and warm, (For January, I am a Michigander.) the wind still and the firing line clean. A range day if there ever was one!

But it was not to be.

The Range is on the local university's property, and as such, we were reminded that we were not to have any weapons on our person. For that reason I had to stop at the drive, unarm and walk the remaining few hundred yards to the site. That is, leave a gun and bullets in my truck and walk, to a Gun Range, without them.

The unease was terrible. Somehow I managed, with the help of the crew, to frame and roof a twenty four foot by thirty storage shed without leaving in a disgusted and beaten huff.

I walked up to the gate and waited for the other trucks to leave so I could lock up. 'Barney' stops and says, "So, you so itchy ya gonna go shoot tonight?" With a wide grin.

"No." I reply. "But I am going to make a short ton of bullets and sleep with my Desert Eagle tonight!"

So, I was stuck at a gun range with a gun and rounds in the truck and forbidden to use them.



Has anything like this happened to anyone else? Or is it just me that is tortured so?



(And yes, the Eagle is already under the pillow, but I ran out of H-one-ten. I will report on the neck pain tomorrow morning.)

ummm...two BRs, one 22 one 6. Drover 40 miles to range. Wrong ammo. Haven't done it since.

 

[Demi-human]

I am happy to report that I slept like a rock.

 

[splattergun]

Meanwhile, the Salt Lake Police Mutual Aid Association operates a range that is open to the public when it is not in use specifically for police activity.
Different worlds.

 

[hdwhit]

ontarget's avatar says:
Aim for the Cat

With the caveat that if you miss you may not get a second chance...

 

[hdwhit]

Demi-human wrote:
Has anything like this happened to anyone else? Or is it just me that is tortured so?

The place you described sounds nice; almost idyllic.

But, it belongs to someone else, so they get to make the rules. And as much as I would breathe a heavy sigh on leaving a place like that, I, like you did, would follow the rules and do the right thing - and derive some satisfaction knowing that not everyone else would have.

 

[Rock185]

Demi-, No, glad to say I've not had that experience. Our club range is on Forest Service land, and open to the public on Saturdays. There is a covered 100 yd. main range, along with separate 200 and 300 yd. rifle ranges, and several separate pistol bays. LE uses the range, but rarely interferes with other users as they conduct most of their handgun and shotgun training and qualification in the separate pistol bays.

I was in LE, but sure hate to hear about LE taking over ranges for their exclusive use........

 

[Demi-human]

do the right thing - and derive some satisfaction knowing that not everyone else would have.

I agree. Though it was difficult.

Really, I am just jealous. Where I shoot is natural, safe and perfectly adequate. However, it is not square, measured and purpose built specifically for me. In fact, half the year it is a Sugar Beet field. I am thankful for every minute I get to use it though.

I would like a dedicated berm to collect and perhaps recover bullets, but there is a rather large swamp that precludes any doing so. And berms are hard to plow and plant around.(Where I want them anyway.)

At any rate I have seen paradise, and some day will reproduce it, this time for my enjoyment.

 

[Kendahl]

With respect to the donated range that was mostly sold off and closed to the public, I assume there was no written contract that spelled out the recipients' obligations and provided for a meaningful penalty if they failed to meet them.

 

[ontarget]

With the caveat that if you miss you may not get a second chance...

Don't remember where I got that picture. Pretty sure my daughter sent it to me. She has a German Shepard and knows I'm not a big fan of cats sooo....

For the record I would never shoot a cat just because my spotter thought it would be funny.

 

[huntsman]

We choose the hoops we jump through and some just aren’t worth the effort.

 

[Demi-human]

I have a silver lining.

After some very rare weather for Michigan, the snow had melted from the Wabe. Gleaming in the intermittent sun rays were three piles of two twenty three brass. On the last day we were there, as the storage shed is finished, I was rewarded with about three hundred once fired brass.
The rest of the area was otherwise spotless. Only seven fourty S&W cases, I looked. Those went in the scrap bucket.

Between the youthful user of the private range and these, I will be set for auto loader brass for quite some time.

The shed looks good too!

 

[ontarget]

At least there was something in it for a shooter. They could have at least let you pretend to fire on their range. That would have been the least they could do for you.

 

[huntsman]

So was this a paying job? University donates land for a LEO range but J6P ain’t allowed, what about LEO doing personal training?

The irony I see is University is soliciting funds from the public to fund their grand institution yet lock the gates to keep the public off vacant land, bureaucrats at their finest.

 

[Hasaf]

Meanwhile, the Salt Lake Police Mutual Aid Association operates a range that is open to the public when it is not in use specifically for police activity.
Different worlds.

Just to ask, where is it at?

Are you talking about the Lee Kay Range? My daughter stopped there to ask about the range and it was made abundantly clear, by some police that were there, that she was very unwelcome. She used to enjoy shooting with friends, when we lived in California. However, that visit to the range left her with a rather sour taste.

She rides her bicycle everywhere and at 29 still does not have a drivers license. When looking at data for millennials, this is not too unusual. She rode to the range to find out if there would be an issue with a rifle, in a case, on the bicycle trailer. Her main question was if she could roll her bicycle up to the shooting line. If she could then she would be able to set a trailer up, just for range trips, and not be constantly packing and unpacking shooting stuff. She also wanted to know if the range allowed Black-Powder, as that is her main interest.

The police there told her that if she was ever seen with a firearm on a bicycle, even cased and on the trailer, carry permit or not, she would be arrested. The went on to say that the firearm would not be returned. They went on to tell her that they would not allow her to lock the bicycle when arresting her and that her permit to carry would be revoked (It's a $5,500 custom built bicycle, when you think in terms of not having a car, it makes some sense, assuming the police don't just toss it to the bike thieves. The rifle she wanted to shoot was a Black-Powder Sharps, the weapon of choice for violent hoodlums nowhere).

Apparently it was a pretty rude and aggressive encounter. It definitely left her a lot less interested in doing much shooting. I mentioned driving her to the range, thus avoiding the issue of firearm near a bicycle. She wasn't interested, the incident left her pretty sour.

***********************************

To add a much more positive bit, the town I work at, in Kansas, allows groups to use the Police range. A group can be a single person. The issue is that they only allow one group at a time, be it one person or twenty people.

We do need to request it in advance and there is some paperwork for the person who will be responsible for the key. Once the paperwork is done, I can make a reservation, pick up a key and return it within 24 hours of my reservation (they have several sets of keys).

The rules are simple, obvious, and clearly posted. There is no charge; but we are expected to clean up after ourselves and keep the gate locked. In all, it is a good place to shoot.

 

[morcey2]

Just to ask, where is it at?

Are you talking about the Lee Kay Range? My daughter stopped there to ask about the range and it was made abundantly clear, by some police that were there, that she was very unwelcome. She used to enjoy shooting with friends, when we lived in California. However, that visit to the range left her with a rather sour taste.

She rides her bicycle everywhere and at 29 still does not have a drivers license. When looking at data for millennials, this is not too unusual. She rode to the range to find out if there would be an issue with a rifle, in a case, on the bicycle trailer. Her main question was if she could roll her bicycle up to the shooting line. If she could then she would be able to set a trailer up, just for range trips, and not be constantly packing and unpacking shooting stuff. She also wanted to know if the range allowed Black-Powder, as that is her main interest.

The police there told her that if she was ever seen with a firearm on a bicycle, even cased and on the trailer, carry permit or not, she would be arrested. The went on to say that the firearm would not be returned. They went on to tell her that they would not allow her to lock the bicycle when arresting her and that her permit to carry would be revoked (It's a $5,500 custom built bicycle, when you think in terms of not having a car, it makes some sense, assuming the police don't just toss it to the bike thieves. The rifle she wanted to shoot was a Black-Powder Sharps, the weapon of choice for violent hoodlums nowhere).

Apparently it was a pretty rude and aggressive encounter. It definitely left her a lot less interested in doing much shooting. I mentioned driving her to the range, thus avoiding the issue of firearm near a bicycle. She wasn't interested, the incident left her pretty sour.

Lee Kay is owned and operated by the DWR and is very much open to the public. I've shot there twice, both times black powder on the cowboy action area. There's something seriously wrong with her interaction with the police. Did it get reported to the officers' department? What they were saying to her was completely nuts, especially in Utah.

Matt

 

[splattergun]

Just to ask, where is it at?

Are you talking about the Lee Kay Range? My daughter stopped there to ask about the range and it was made abundantly clear, by some police that were there, that she was very unwelcome. She used to enjoy shooting with friends, when we lived in California. However, that visit to the range left her with a rather sour taste.

She rides her bicycle everywhere and at 29 still does not have a drivers license. When looking at data for millennials, this is not too unusual. She rode to the range to find out if there would be an issue with a rifle, in a case, on the bicycle trailer. Her main question was if she could roll her bicycle up to the shooting line. If she could then she would be able to set a trailer up, just for range trips, and not be constantly packing and unpacking shooting stuff. She also wanted to know if the range allowed Black-Powder, as that is her main interest.

The police there told her that if she was ever seen with a firearm on a bicycle, even cased and on the trailer, carry permit or not, she would be arrested. The went on to say that the firearm would not be returned. They went on to tell her that they would not allow her to lock the bicycle when arresting her and that her permit to carry would be revoked (It's a $5,500 custom built bicycle, when you think in terms of not having a car, it makes some sense, assuming the police don't just toss it to the bike thieves. The rifle she wanted to shoot was a Black-Powder Sharps, the weapon of choice for violent hoodlums nowhere).

Apparently it was a pretty rude and aggressive encounter. It definitely left her a lot less interested in doing much shooting. I mentioned driving her to the range, thus avoiding the issue of firearm near a bicycle. She wasn't interested, the incident left her pretty sour.

***********************************

To add a much more positive bit, the town I work at, in Kansas, allows groups to use the Police range. A group can be a single person. The issue is that they only allow one group at a time, be it one person or twenty people.

We do need to request it in advance and there is some paperwork for the person who will be responsible for the key. Once the paperwork is done, I can make a reservation, pick up a key and return it within 24 hours of my reservation (they have several sets of keys).

The rules are simple, obvious, and clearly posted. There is no charge; but we are expected to clean up after ourselves and keep the gate locked. In all, it is a good place to shoot.

The PDMAA range is in Parley's canyon. If there is official police sooting going on there, the public is not allowed, but if not, it is accessible to public.
THe Lee Kay center does also close to the public sometimes, for police events. If the cops have it reserved, it is off limits to public.

You've described a very disturbing encounter. That officer should have been reported. Utah has some of the most liberal gun laws in the country. Open carry is legal, even on a bicycle. There are restricted locations, like government offices and courts. But to be arrested for having a BP rifle on a bicycle??? something sounds fishy.