Carson City is going to shut down the range because of money!!
Here is what is going on, to the best of my knowledge.
There was a private meeting between Jennifer Budge, CC Parks/Rec. Director; Nancy Paulson, City Manager; Darren Schulz, Public Works Director; J. Daniel Yu, Chief Deputy District Attorney; Randall Brooks, CR&PC President and Mark Possin, CR&PC Secretary.
In that meeting, these individuals decided that the range should be shut down Monday-Friday with restrictions set for Saturdays and Sundays. These restrictions are as follows: no large ("scary") calibers, no full autos, and no one can use the bays - with the exception of "friends of the club" (that subject is more complicated, but this is what it essentially implies).
A friend of mine sent me a picture on November 16th of a sign that was being put up on the range, announcing that it was closed. My friend asked the Parks rep, what was going on, and the latter ignored the question and left.
The next day, I read in the back of the newspaper, that there was a proposed development near the range.
I messaged CR&PC and asked them, what was going on with the range. They never messaged me back. Not until the open meeting with the club was I able to open a line of communication. I was able to calm things over with the president of the club. We did have some conflict when the range was closed in September, and I think we are now working together to get the range reopened.
For complete transparency: the president of the club and I spoke after the public meeting on December 12th. He did inform me that we was instructed by a City Supervisor to not speak during the meeting. This is understandable; I'd assume one wouldn't want their potential scapegoat to speak and remove doubt.
To be clear, I am not directly attacking anyone, and especially not the president of the club. It seems like he was under pressure at the time, and did what he thought was right. However, the president of the club - who also owns a gun shop in town - said that he was not going to be involved in the range assessment. After speaking with him, this is NOT true. He performed the initial assessment and sent his findings to the NRA. This is a conflict of interest.
As to the assessment. The City has said that they are reaching out to the NRA and that NDOW is reaching out to the NSSF. Neither of those organizations determine if there is a current safety concern. What they do is give feedback on range development and improvements, and then grant money for those. This is not at all what we want. We want the range to go back to normal operations! We want an expert to determine if there is actually a safety issue or not.
To be clear, the landfill is encroaching on a public park! They have created an issue and have openly stated that they will move in 1-3 years. Why do we need to make a permanent change for a temporary concern?
Today, we have evidence that the City is not just building 270 houses with 5,000 feet of the range!! They have also planned 18 acres of multi-family apartments at that location!!!
I have heard people say that it is in the City Charter, that the City must supply a range. I have read the entire City Charter, and in only one section do they say anything about the range, and it is only in description. If anyone has evidence that the City has stated that they must supply a range, please forward that information to me.
What seems to be happening is... The City owns the land for the proposed development and wants to build illegally within the boundaries of a shooting facility. The City owns the landfill, and are using them to promote a non-existent safety concern. The City has a club that is involved in the range, and is using them and their current president as scapegoats for this whole thing. Which is causing a rift in our shooting community and making us weaker by doing so!
This is nepotism (a felony) and overreach of local government. They have done this during this time of the year hoping that no one notices.
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