Lesson from shooting range: Don't forget the neighbors

The Capitol City Shooting Sports Alliance appears to have made just one mistake in their proposal to develop a multi-use shooting sports facility - they didn't involve the neighbors in their plans.

Members plan to take care of that now after being stung by comments from nearby residents of the 305-acre site east of Sedge and Deer Run roads during a Parks and Recreation Commission meeting last week.

Those residents brought up several issues - that a shooting range would preclude other recreational uses of the public lands and that it would create noise and potential danger from ricocheting bullets. One commissioner doubted whether the access road was adequate to handle the traffic that would be created.

Alliance members probably considered all of those things when they settled on this site as their top choice, but failed to realize their biggest task would be convincing those living nearby.

The basic idea for the range is a good one - it would combine shooting sports from other locations into one. There's nothing inherently unsafe about well designed shooting ranges and shooting sports are a viable recreation pursuit enjoyed by millions of Americans. That competitions at the range could actually bring in a little money to the community is a bonus.

But the bottom line is the residents need a thorough explanation why this won't impact their lives. If they can be assured that this site will operate only during agreed-upon hours, that there's no chance for safety violations, that it would be adequately policed and cleaned, that it would be an asset rather than a liability to the area ... then maybe this will prove to be the right site.

If not, the Alliance should start looking at their second choice. And if they do, step one should be knocking on doors of anyone living nearby.