Garland gun range target of media smear campaign

[Keith B]

FYI, the city of Rowlett has restricted shooting at GPSR to .30 caliber and lower. I just went to shoot my Mosin and Buddy gave me the bad news.

A city can't do that. The owner of the range may have made the restriction on it, but the city can't enforce that rule.

I think right now the owner will be looking at implementing any changes they can do to keep the range open and limit any downrange collateral until they can get modifications made to prevent overshooting the berm by raising it and adding baffles.

[Charles L. Cotton]

FYI, the city of Rowlett has restricted shooting at GPSR to .30 caliber and lower. I just went to shoot my Mosin and Buddy gave me the bad news.

That's interesting. I didn't know a city could do that.

As of Sept. 1, 2011, they can't regulate shooting at a sport shooting range. It's part of SB766.

Chas.

[The Annoyed Man]

FYI, the city of Rowlett has restricted shooting at GPSR to .30 caliber and lower. I just went to shoot my Mosin and Buddy gave me the bad news.

The Mosin shoots a ".30 caliber" cartridge. If they literally mean ".300" inches, then they would be eliminating .308 Winchester (7.62x51mm NATO), .30-'06 Springfield (also a "7.62" cartridge), as well as the 7.62x54 Russian and the .303 British. That would even eliminate my little ".30 Carbine," which shoots a bullet of .308/7.62 diameter and is only slightly more powerful than a .357 magnum. That would pretty much limit rifle shooters to .270 and under. The legal niceties aside, I can't believe that they would eliminate a whole battalion of legitimate hunting calibers.

And speaking of .357 magnum, and .45 ACP, and .45 Long Colt, and 9mm Parabellum, and .38 Special, and .380 ACP, and .32 ACP—among others—are all cartridges which are over ".30 Caliber."

....Just sayin'.......

[Commander]

It's been documented that people shoot at the power lines that run right behind the range, as well as birds in the area. The problems are definitely not with the 99% of responsible shooters. It's the odd knucklehead that screws things up and could possibly kill someone.

It's the combination of raising the berm and improved overhead barriers that we hope will put an end to this.

It was my understanding that Oncor had reported no problems with damage to any of the power lines behind the range.

That could just mean they missed. A decent shooter would not likely do something that stupid. The kind of jerk that would do something like that, would likely be something less than a good marksman and most likely lacking intelligence.

If Oncor has no records or any reported damage, who is it that is "documenting" people shooting at the power lines? And if these are witness accounts, have the witnesses offered their information to the Range owner or Garland and Rowlett PDs? I would assume that the Range owner would ban such shooters from using his range as it is having such a negative effect on his business. I've shot at this range before and observed the Range Officer enforcing very strict standards. My assumption is that if the Range officer observed someone intentionally shooting at power lines or over the top of the berms, the shooter would be ejected on the spot. (if this has been discussed before, I missed the thread on it and I offer my apology)

[RottenApple]

FYI, the city of Rowlett has restricted shooting at GPSR to .30 caliber and lower. I just went to shoot my Mosin and Buddy gave me the bad news.

A Mosin is 7.62 x 54R - it's .30 cal

I realize that, Andy. But as I was told by both Buddy and CJ, the 7.62 is .308 which makes it larger than .30. There was no leeway given.

[RottenApple]

FYI, the city of Rowlett has restricted shooting at GPSR to .30 caliber and lower. I just went to shoot my Mosin and Buddy gave me the bad news.

A city can't do that. The owner of the range may have made the restriction on it, but the city can't enforce that rule.

I think right now the owner will be looking at implementing any changes they can do to keep the range open and limit any downrange collateral until they can get modifications made to prevent overshooting the berm by raising it and adding baffles.

As I was told, the city instructed them to restrict it or they would be shut down. I don't know if they owner will fight it or not. Buddy did say that the restriction should be lifted when they get the new berms built.

[RottenApple]

FYI, the city of Rowlett has restricted shooting at GPSR to .30 caliber and lower. I just went to shoot my Mosin and Buddy gave me the bad news.

That's interesting. I didn't know a city could do that.

As of Sept. 1, 2011, they can't regulate shooting at a sport shooting range. It's part of SB766.

Chas.

I pointed that out to Buddy. But he's not the owner and couldn't do anything about it. He didn't know if they will challenge it or not.

[RottenApple]

FYI, the city of Rowlett has restricted shooting at GPSR to .30 caliber and lower. I just went to shoot my Mosin and Buddy gave me the bad news.

The Mosin shoots a ".30 caliber" cartridge. If they literally mean ".300" inches, then they would be eliminating .308 Winchester (7.62x51mm NATO), .30-'06 Springfield (also a "7.62" cartridge), as well as the 7.62x54 Russian and the .303 British. That would even eliminate my little ".30 Carbine," which shoots a bullet of .308/7.62 diameter and is only slightly more powerful than a .357 magnum. That would pretty much limit rifle shooters to .270 and under. The legal niceties aside, I can't believe that they would eliminate a whole battalion of legitimate hunting calibers.

And speaking of .357 magnum, and .45 ACP, and .45 Long Colt, and 9mm Parabellum, and .38 Special, and .380 ACP, and .32 ACP—among others—are all cartridges which are over ".30 Caliber."

....Just sayin'.......

Just don't shoot the messenger (that would be me).

[The Annoyed Man]

Just don't shoot the messenger (that would be me).

Actually, you're safe. It's your buddy who's the messenger.

Anyway, since most ".30 cal" cartridges are of .308" diameter (except the .303 British, but then they're deficient in a few other things too. ), I would assume that they are OK with it since their apparent objection is to cartridges "larger than .30 caliber." Not to put too fine a point on it, but if they are going to be semantically vague like that, then they are tacitly allowing a liberal definition of the term.

Again, my beef isn't with you. It's not even with your friend, if what he's saying is the word for word truth. And I'm not saying he's lying either. I'm only saying that I think something has gotten lost in translation between the range owner/manager, to your friend, then to you, and then to us.

I'm going to phone them today and see if there are any caliber restrictions, and if so, what they are.

Edited to add: I just went back to look, and you said "Buddy," not "your buddy." Now I guess I'm the one being semantically vague. Anyway, is "Buddy" the owner of the place? I just now went and looked at their website, and there is no mention of this restriction on it. Also, the next time you talk to him, try pointing out that a .270 firing a 140 grain bullet is going to hit a piece of power line equipment probably harder than a .308 firing a 150 grain bullet......and the .270 is well under ".30 caliber." I'd be real interested to see what he says....

[Oldgringo]

FWIW, I was googling something in Nashville and came across the story on a Nashville TV station. The Garland Gun Range is famous.

[Millerman]

The .30 restriction is in place as part of the agreement that the Owner (James Day) signed with the City of Rowlett. The city did not "force" the range to do anything. It is a 30 day restriction, or until all the other safety measures are in place that were part of the agreement, which include raising the rifle range berm and turning it into a "no blue sky" shooting position. Once those are all in place and the agreement is fulfilled, it will be opened back up to the way it was before. There should be no ill effects that come out of this, as long as the necessary safety measures are put in place. Who would complain about making a range safer for all those around it?

[jason237m]

The .30 cal restriction is a strange rule.

.30 carbine is not allowed but my 7mm Rem Mag is good to go?

[H6RBW]

Millerman is, mostly, correct. But, when he says that "it will be opened back up to the way it was before", the City hasn't agreed to that. In fact, the only thing the City's attorney explicitly agreed to do was "to postpone the hearing on the application for temporary injunctive relief" if the range made the requested changes within thirty days, weather permitting. In fact, the City's attorney explicitly stated that this was "only an interim agreement. The City will continue to investigate other possibilities."

[Keith B]

Millerman is, mostly, correct. But, when he says that "it will be opened back up to the way it was before", the City hasn't agreed to that. In fact, the only thing the City's attorney explicitly agreed to do was "to postpone the hearing on the application for temporary injunctive relief" if the range made the requested changes within thirty days, weather permitting. In fact, the City's attorney explicitly stated that this was "only an interim agreement. The City will continue to investigate other possibilities."

If the owner wants to push the issue, then the city can't place a legal injunction on them for any restriction on caliber, etc. Right now, I am sure the owner is working to try and keep the peace with all involved and the caliber restriction is only an olive branch to appease them while the berm is raised and they can complete the baffles on the rifle range positions.

Bottom line, I do feel the range needs to do what it can to make it virtually impossible to shoot into blue sky above the berm from the range line. However, the if city is trying to force any unreasonable requirements on the range, then they need to back off.

[jadearcher]

The range has been granted a 150 day extension since they ran into permitting issues. They need a floodway permit, a grading and drainage permit, and a tree removal permit. Raising that berm is going to be a lot more work than they anticipated.

So have any of y'all shot there in the last couple of weeks? I'm wondering if they put the 1/8 steel plate and foam in on the rifle side. I keep hearing conflicting stories on that and don't dare step foot there to look since I'm persona non grata there. I was just at Gibson's in Mesquite this weekend and the owner's son had told me he heard nothing's been done. But when I was out at Targetmaster a few weeks back they had heard the range was down one weekend to put the steel plate in.

On a completely unrelated note, while I was out at Gibson's shooting the Sportsman's Team Challenge match over on the steel range, a man came in and claimed he did the investigation on my house and you could see where we stuck a screwdriver in the roof to make the hole. I'm amazed at what people will say. He never did come talk to me though. I can't imagine why not since he was quite the expert on the situation. He didn't look a thing like the 2 policemen who did come over for the ballistics investigation.