Drizzt
Member
Neighbors target gun club
KRIS SHERMAN; The News Tribune
Doug Nesbitt and his Gig Harbor neighbors are among growing numbers of Americans who think cracking rifles and booming shotguns are ruining their peaceful days and restful nights.
"I've got two kids. I try to put them to bed by 8 o'clock, but it's impossible to put them to bed with gunfire going on around them," Nesbitt recently said during debate on an ordinance to regulate the Gig Harbor Sportsman's Club.
"Don't dump your noise on my neighborhood," the Avalon Woods resident pointedly told the gun club members.
But as newcomers seek regulations on hours of operation and noise levels at shooting ranges from West Coast to East, gun enthusiasts fire back, "We were here first."
Shooting ranges, their members say, work hard to be good neighbors, minimize noise and maintain rigid safety standards.
They also heartily believe in a tradition of sport shooting that's been part of the American fabric since the 1800s.
"Many of our sons and daughters are going off to war," Gig Harbor Sportsman's Club member Guy Skeer said during the recent debate. "Many of them are taught by their fathers, brothers and uncles how to shoot and shoot safely" at local ranges.
More than 77 percent of ranges that responded to a survey by the National Shooting Sports Foundation said they either "need help now" or "expect to need help" with environmental challenges from neighbors or local government, according to an article in the March/April 1999 issue of The Range Report. In Olympia, some lawmakers are pushing legislation designed to provide that help by protecting shooting ranges from litigation and local regulation.
The sportsman's club was unable to head off such limits in Gig Harbor. The 53-year-old club was established when its site was on the rural outskirts of Gig Harbor. It now boasts 700 members, who come to the range to target practice with rifles, shotguns and handguns.
Sportsman's club members point out that Avalon Woods residents received legal notice of the gun club's proximity when they bought their houses.
But residents counter that much has changed over the years. The gun club has more members shooting more often and a buffer of trees that once lay between the range and their homes is now gone.
A divided Gig Harbor City Council sided with the neighbors in passing an ordinance Feb. 10. It gave the club six months to comply with some provisions, such as those that would require the firing to cease at 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The council imposed a two-year deadline for some more costly safety measures, because the club is trying to arrange a new home in Kitsap County.
In recent weeks, the club has spent more than $2,000 on equipment to dampen the noise, president Doug Tenzler said.
He and fellow members maintain Gig Harbor's new ordinance won't stand up in court because state law already governs such things as the hours for sport shooting.
But Gig Harbor City Attorney Carol Morris said the ordinance, which requires the gun club to get a business license and abide by the same kinds of operating standards applied to other businesses, is within the city's purview.
Club members haven't decided whether to appeal the new ordinance, Tenzler said.
Jeff Daily, a field representative for the National Rifle Association, worries the ordinance will set an unhappy precedent for shooting ranges.
"In my opinion, it's dangerous because other cities can look at this, and who knows what they'll do," he said.
Washington is one of only six states without a so-called shooting-range protection law, according to a fact sheet from the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. Such laws are designed to keep gun ranges open and insulate their members from civil lawsuits, criminal prosecution and local laws based on noise levels, hours of operation and other issues.
The range laws were spurred by hundreds of lawsuits and complaints filed by newcomers against range owners, according to the NRA.
State Rep. Lynn Kessler (D-Hoquiam), a trap shooter herself, hopes to give Washington range protection, too. House Bill 1657, which she introduced Feb. 4, would exempt shooting ranges from civil liability or criminal prosecution for noise or noise pollution if the range meets noise laws that existed when it was built.
University Place City Attorney Tim Sullivan is among local government officials who believe existing state law, which allows lawful shooting between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m, supersedes local authority. University Place is home to the Tacoma Rifle & Revolver Club, established long before Washington Territory became a state in 1889.
Sullivan advised city officials against any ordinance to curtail the noise, despite a stream of residents' complaints.
Safety is another issue, though, University Place City Manager Bob Jean said, explaining there are a number of steps cities can take if "bullets go flying off the range."
The Issaquah Sportsmen's Club near Redmond was closed last September after a bullet escaped the range and landed about 3 feet from an employee at a nearby business. King County sheriff's officials want more supervision at the range before it gets its license back, according to the King County Journal.
Not all of the 10 or more ranges in the Pierce-Thurston County area attract complaints.
In Pierce County, spokesman Dick Ferguson said there are no records of citizens beefing about noise from area gun clubs. Thurston County Commissioner Diane Oberquell said there have only been a few complaints in her area.
Still, South Sound homeowners have vigorously opposed the prospect of new clubs.
Cries from residents in Yelm and Olalla have turned back gun club proposals in recent years. A plan to build the Olympic Sportsman's Club 13 miles from Port Orchard is in litigation. That's one proposed relocation site for the Gig Harbor range.
Kathleen Ottarson, president of the Bear Lake Community Association, and her neighbors oppose plans for the range nearby.
"We have eagles that rest on snags in our lake, we have osprey and ducks, and that kind of wildlife wouldn't fit in with a gun club," she said.
"We moved out here because we wanted peace and quiet. We enjoy the tranquility."
Sport shooters are not unsympathetic to neighbors' concerns. But they point out that as the countryside disappears, ranges provide an important service for urban and suburban gun owners.
If shooting ranges are forced out of existence, Skeer and others ask, where will people learn to shoot safely, or police officers go to maintain their weapons skills?
More than 750,000 Washington residents have taken hunter education and safety courses, most of them at area shooting ranges, since 1957, said Mik Mikitik of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
When neighbors hear annoying bangs and booms, sportsman's club member Skeer hears something else.
Guns make "a good noise, a good sound," he said.
"It's the sound of American youths, American citizens learning to protect our freedoms."
http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/2670963p-2711755c.html
KRIS SHERMAN; The News Tribune
Doug Nesbitt and his Gig Harbor neighbors are among growing numbers of Americans who think cracking rifles and booming shotguns are ruining their peaceful days and restful nights.
"I've got two kids. I try to put them to bed by 8 o'clock, but it's impossible to put them to bed with gunfire going on around them," Nesbitt recently said during debate on an ordinance to regulate the Gig Harbor Sportsman's Club.
"Don't dump your noise on my neighborhood," the Avalon Woods resident pointedly told the gun club members.
But as newcomers seek regulations on hours of operation and noise levels at shooting ranges from West Coast to East, gun enthusiasts fire back, "We were here first."
Shooting ranges, their members say, work hard to be good neighbors, minimize noise and maintain rigid safety standards.
They also heartily believe in a tradition of sport shooting that's been part of the American fabric since the 1800s.
"Many of our sons and daughters are going off to war," Gig Harbor Sportsman's Club member Guy Skeer said during the recent debate. "Many of them are taught by their fathers, brothers and uncles how to shoot and shoot safely" at local ranges.
More than 77 percent of ranges that responded to a survey by the National Shooting Sports Foundation said they either "need help now" or "expect to need help" with environmental challenges from neighbors or local government, according to an article in the March/April 1999 issue of The Range Report. In Olympia, some lawmakers are pushing legislation designed to provide that help by protecting shooting ranges from litigation and local regulation.
The sportsman's club was unable to head off such limits in Gig Harbor. The 53-year-old club was established when its site was on the rural outskirts of Gig Harbor. It now boasts 700 members, who come to the range to target practice with rifles, shotguns and handguns.
Sportsman's club members point out that Avalon Woods residents received legal notice of the gun club's proximity when they bought their houses.
But residents counter that much has changed over the years. The gun club has more members shooting more often and a buffer of trees that once lay between the range and their homes is now gone.
A divided Gig Harbor City Council sided with the neighbors in passing an ordinance Feb. 10. It gave the club six months to comply with some provisions, such as those that would require the firing to cease at 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The council imposed a two-year deadline for some more costly safety measures, because the club is trying to arrange a new home in Kitsap County.
In recent weeks, the club has spent more than $2,000 on equipment to dampen the noise, president Doug Tenzler said.
He and fellow members maintain Gig Harbor's new ordinance won't stand up in court because state law already governs such things as the hours for sport shooting.
But Gig Harbor City Attorney Carol Morris said the ordinance, which requires the gun club to get a business license and abide by the same kinds of operating standards applied to other businesses, is within the city's purview.
Club members haven't decided whether to appeal the new ordinance, Tenzler said.
Jeff Daily, a field representative for the National Rifle Association, worries the ordinance will set an unhappy precedent for shooting ranges.
"In my opinion, it's dangerous because other cities can look at this, and who knows what they'll do," he said.
Washington is one of only six states without a so-called shooting-range protection law, according to a fact sheet from the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. Such laws are designed to keep gun ranges open and insulate their members from civil lawsuits, criminal prosecution and local laws based on noise levels, hours of operation and other issues.
The range laws were spurred by hundreds of lawsuits and complaints filed by newcomers against range owners, according to the NRA.
State Rep. Lynn Kessler (D-Hoquiam), a trap shooter herself, hopes to give Washington range protection, too. House Bill 1657, which she introduced Feb. 4, would exempt shooting ranges from civil liability or criminal prosecution for noise or noise pollution if the range meets noise laws that existed when it was built.
University Place City Attorney Tim Sullivan is among local government officials who believe existing state law, which allows lawful shooting between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m, supersedes local authority. University Place is home to the Tacoma Rifle & Revolver Club, established long before Washington Territory became a state in 1889.
Sullivan advised city officials against any ordinance to curtail the noise, despite a stream of residents' complaints.
Safety is another issue, though, University Place City Manager Bob Jean said, explaining there are a number of steps cities can take if "bullets go flying off the range."
The Issaquah Sportsmen's Club near Redmond was closed last September after a bullet escaped the range and landed about 3 feet from an employee at a nearby business. King County sheriff's officials want more supervision at the range before it gets its license back, according to the King County Journal.
Not all of the 10 or more ranges in the Pierce-Thurston County area attract complaints.
In Pierce County, spokesman Dick Ferguson said there are no records of citizens beefing about noise from area gun clubs. Thurston County Commissioner Diane Oberquell said there have only been a few complaints in her area.
Still, South Sound homeowners have vigorously opposed the prospect of new clubs.
Cries from residents in Yelm and Olalla have turned back gun club proposals in recent years. A plan to build the Olympic Sportsman's Club 13 miles from Port Orchard is in litigation. That's one proposed relocation site for the Gig Harbor range.
Kathleen Ottarson, president of the Bear Lake Community Association, and her neighbors oppose plans for the range nearby.
"We have eagles that rest on snags in our lake, we have osprey and ducks, and that kind of wildlife wouldn't fit in with a gun club," she said.
"We moved out here because we wanted peace and quiet. We enjoy the tranquility."
Sport shooters are not unsympathetic to neighbors' concerns. But they point out that as the countryside disappears, ranges provide an important service for urban and suburban gun owners.
If shooting ranges are forced out of existence, Skeer and others ask, where will people learn to shoot safely, or police officers go to maintain their weapons skills?
More than 750,000 Washington residents have taken hunter education and safety courses, most of them at area shooting ranges, since 1957, said Mik Mikitik of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
When neighbors hear annoying bangs and booms, sportsman's club member Skeer hears something else.
Guns make "a good noise, a good sound," he said.
"It's the sound of American youths, American citizens learning to protect our freedoms."
http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/2670963p-2711755c.html
