TexasCHLforum.com

An Army Ranger is relying on an as-yet-untested Texas law to challenge a lawsuit that has shut down his gun range in Kaufman County citing safety concerns.

Charles Cotton, the Houston-area lawyer who is representing Morgan, is an NRA board member and the gun-rights activist who wrote the language that became the law to limit lawsuits against gun ranges.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/articl ... 382214.php

Where exactly is this range? Got an address? Or a range name?

sjfcontrol wrote:Where exactly is this range? Got an address? Or a range name?

Info from the time of the initiation of the Kaufman County injunction here: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=55891" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

More information in a Dallas Morning News article from last Sunday. The range remains closed as a commercial enterprise, and the matter won't be addressed again until a September 9 court date.

Records show that Kaufman County DA Mike McLelland hired Richard C. Whiting, a firing range design and safety expert from West Virginia. Whiting visited Morgan's range a year ago and observed that there were no earthen berms or other protective measures to keep bullets from straying off the property.

If what's above is correct, then I agree the range is unsafe.

JJVP wrote:

Records show that Kaufman County DA Mike McLelland hired Richard C. Whiting, a firing range design and safety expert from West Virginia. Whiting visited Morgan's range a year ago and observed that there were no earthen berms or other protective measures to keep bullets from straying off the property.

If what's above is correct, then I agree the range is unsafe.

It may not be geographically necessary, if the terrain itself acts as a berm. There may be other extenuating circumstances. But knowing Charles Cotton, and his commitment to the promotion of gun safety, education, and rights, if he is familiar with the particulars of this case, then I seriously doubt that he would tarnish his well-deserved reputation by trying to defend an unsafe shooting range. And since he is not going to discuss any of the particulars here, at least not until AFTER the case is settled, the best we can do is hope that he and his client prevail and we get access to another shooting range in the region.

And what........there were no range safety experts in Texas? McLelland had to find one in West Virginia to back him up? Please.

And I add this quote from the DMN article:

The district attorney filed his lawsuit on May 4 and attached Whiting’s report as an evidentiary exhibit.

“If allowed to open, the sport shooting range or ‘private shooting club’ will immediately threaten the lives of men, women and children in the immediate vicinity,” the district attorney wrote.

Cotton said the Whiting report, as a matter of law, is irrelevant because it seeks to impose a national standard on Morgan’s firing range. SB 766 requires expert witnesses in such cases to base their opinions on industry standards in Texas.

“I’m not sure a guy from West Virginia knows much about Texas,” Cotton said.

Despite Whiting’s scathing report, some of Morgan’s neighbors still support the former Ranger’s plans for a shooting club.