LETTER: What to do with vacant Fred Meyer building

To the editor:

I am writing concerning plans for the vacant Fred Meyer store in Palmer Alaska. Plans for this building may include leasing for a shooting gallery, and I understand a noise permit has been approve by the Palmer Council. Alaska has a long history of shooting clubs, shooting as a sport, and shooting as a social outlet. I am not a gun owner, but I can appreciate man’s history with guns.

The USA has carried gun ownership to the extreme, with 50% of the world’s weapons here. We need to pull back and get control of this phenomenom. Alaska is a powder keg of guns and ammunition which our current lawmakers are failing to control reasonably. Individuals have no penalties for failing to store appropriately their weapons or ammunition, background checks are insufficient and not shared, and there is little control over type of weapan. Anchorage is the 17th most violent city in the United States. We are overdue for a serious mass shooting.

Although I do not oppose a shooting range, I would like to see The leasor or the community put restrictions for safety within the use permit or lease. My suggestions include

1. NO ASSAULT RIFLES

2. No automatic weapons.

3. Limit number of guns and quantity of ammunition available to any one individual.

4 No walk in use, users must join and pass a background check.

5. Safe gun use classes should be offered by qualified instructors.

6. My preference would be that there is no NRA involvement. That organization’s hijacking of the American political system is ruining our democracy.

— Linda Olson

Palmer