Debating shooting ranges

The Matanuska Valley Sportsmen’s Range is hosting a gun show at Raven Hall on the State Fairgrounds in Palmer February 8 & 9. This is their 11th Annual Show. I would expect admission will run between $5 to $7 for adults. We’re in the middle of the yearly gun show schedule, so enjoy.

I didn’t attend the big “protest” at the Borough building last week, but, according to both television and newspaper reports, hundreds of other folks did. From the TV news reports, it would sound like the Borough is trying to restrict gun ownership in some manner, based on the sound bites played with the video report. Supposedly, the protest was about the proposed regulations the Borough is developing to regulate the construction of new, public use shooting ranges in the Valley. It sounded more like a protest against government regulation of gun ownership.

I’ve read the proposed ordinance and I wonder if some of the construction setbacks, berm locations and heights, and other requirements might not be a little bit much. I’m glad to read, as Tim Rockey reported in the Frontiersman story this past Sunday, that National Rifle Association outdoor range guidelines were used in developing this ordinance. I’m not familiar with the NRA guidelines and, perhaps, they are the ones making the recommendations I wonder about.

From the story in the Frontiersman, it sounds like the ordinance has a long and probably rocky road ahead of it before a final ordinance will be voted on by the Assembly. I understand the concerns about public safety and potential lead contamination, but I think a lot of public angst over shooting ranges is misguided and based on misinformation.

I remember attending an Assembly meeting several years ago where the YES – SCTP youth shotgun program was hoping to get property for a shotgun range in the Big Lake area. One young mother testified that, if this range was built at the proposed location, she could not let her kids play outside for fear they would be injured by falling shot from the shooting. As I recall, her house was a half-mile or more from the proposed range and didn’t lie in the line of fire, but rather, off to the side.

Noise might have been a real consideration for her, but step outside anywhere in the Borough and listen; chances are you will hear gunshots, especially during the various hunting seasons.

At that same meeting, I believe it was the public works director who testified, when asked, about the availability of suitable property locations to develop an outdoor shooting range in the Borough. His commented that anywhere one looks, suitable and accessible property lies within the realm of probable noise concerns for local neighbors.

There are ways to reduce noise. Being surrounded by stands of trees greatly mitigates noise and serves as a potential “bullet trap” for any wayward shots that might occur as a result of a new shooter or a potentially thoughtless one. The outdoor range at the Mat Valley sportsmen’s facility near Palmer uses baffles above and berms alongside of and at the end of the firing range to trap any potential wayward shot and to reduce noise.

I just reread a column I wrote about fifteen years ago about the Upper Susitna Shooter’s Association range and the timeline for it to come into existence. Several years and several required permits had to happen before any significant development occurred and that didn’t happen until after the property was acquired from the Borough to begin with. A lot of money was invested in the construction of the actual shooting ranges and those developments and improvements continue to this day, twenty years after the initial efforts to get the range established.

As far as I know, public shooting ranges in the Valley are relatively few and far between. The USSA range in located at mile 94 of the Parks Highway. The MVS range is on the Glenn Highway south of Palmer. The Kenny Barber range is located near the Knik Public Use Facility east of Palmer. The Grouse Ridge Shotgun Facility is located north of Wasilla. Those are the only publicly accessible ranges of which I am aware.

If you want to drive toward Anchorage, the Birchwood Facility is off the Glenn in Birchwood and the Rabbit Creek Facility is south of Anchorage in Potter’s Marsh.

At this point in time, any new commercial, public use shooting ranges will be costly to develop and consume a lot of time and effort to construct, even without Borough regulations.