Have you noticed how firearms ranges law enforcement or sportsmen's are coming under scrutiny? Environmental activists, aided by the anti-gun organizations, contend that range lead contaminates the environment, kills birds, and poisons our children. Indoor ranges come under scrutiny from environmental and occupational safety authorities (with good reason), and from neighbors who don't want such an unsafe activity near them. New neighborhoods spring up around long-standing ranges and proclaim they never knew there was a range there; it makes noise, and bullets may fall from the sky on their homes and children. Plus, as communities grow outward, the political fathers see the once-desolate locations they deemed satisfactory for ranges to now be prime land they can sell to developers for profits.
Of course, the law enforcement community is especially pressed by these developments. Firearms are a high liability field for the police administrator; wayward shots come back to haunt their budgets. Officer safety is of greater import to the practicing cop ensuring that one can place those shots on target if that fateful time comes. What is a blue suit to do?
My "alma mater," Florida's Martin County Sheriff's Office, is facing this challenge. In about 1989 the old range, a former National Guard range that was basically little more than a pasture with a berm dug out, providing a 50-yard range that could be stretched to 200 yards by crossing the fence and going deep into the uncut grass, was shut down so the county could sell it to a developer. Surprise to the county, one year later the developer came back seeking the county to "clean up" the lead from the range, a project the county's Utilities Division undertook successfully.
The new range was located on a tract of land adjacent to a shut-down section of the county land fill. For us, it was state of the art the landfill section of County Utilities provided MCSO tremendous support in setting up a real 25 yard handgun range. Newly educated by the problems from the former range, Utilities worked closely with the SO Training Section to keep on top of lead issues. Annually, the range would close for up to a month, during which time an outside reclamation firm came in and mined the berm for lead. With the use of the range by multiple agencies, 400,000 projectiles are annually deposited there. The reclamation firm would average about 9,000 pounds of lead recovered from this relatively small facility.
However, the intervening approximately 20 years have seen many changes, as civilization has crept west, inter-county connector roads have appeared, and the landfill's operations have changed significantly. The Sheriff's Office has also grown, with over 600 total employees. Further, it offers support to other local police agencies, police academy, and public outreach programs of the local school system. Thus the county has provided the Sheriff's Office a much larger footprint of land on which it is now planning the future training site.
Lt. Robert Wright is the Training Supervisor for MCSO. Into his lap has fallen the lion's share of planning for the range. Unlike 1989, there is no intense need to vacate the existing range. Instead, Lt. Wright has the time to plan a versatile facility that will reflect safety, environmental concerns, and the needs of a growing agency serving a county of 150,000 today, to grow to over 200,000 in the not too distant future. At the operational level, Deputy Darryl Stokes of the Training Section and the agency's rangemaster, has been looking at the physical needs of the facility. Between the two, the county has been able to learn a great deal about planning a range to serve the future.
One area Lt. Wright learned is that standards and ordinance codes are inconsistent. For example the NRA, with all of its background in range design, recommends a six foot berm for ranges. However, he encountered a local ordinance stating there would be a 20 foot berm. Imagine the footprint that a 20 foot berm would require. Then he encountered a skeet club, planning a range, being told by a local authority that it had to have berms. If the skeet club wanted to raise rice part time this might be a good idea, but it's inapplicable for clay pigeon shooting.
Lt. Wright learned that first, one must collect all applicable local ordinances, codes, state laws and rules, and federally applicable laws and rules. Wary of the prior range's history, he sees that one must start development by looking to the future and the closing of the range. The NRA, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and other organizations have materials that address these considerations, and give the range developer considerations to look at in planning a range that will eventually closed with the smallest financial impact.
Second, develop a plan. What type firearms will be used? What local politics will be encountered? How will routine maintenance be accomplished? What maintenance issues, such as cleaning of the backstop, will be encountered? There is also the need to look to the long term stewardship of the range, including provisions for the site's closure.
The manager of the range is much more than a rangemaster. This individual is responsible for all aspects of operations. Where 50 years ago the only question was ensuring the projectiles would land safely, today the manager must consider many other aspects. Environmentally, can copper, tungsten, frangible, or other bullet technologies be substituted for lead? As with the Martin County ranges, noise issues impacting on neighbors must be considered. Can the range function with creeping civilization, or will it be forced to relocate yet again?
As rangemaster, Darryl Stokes is interested in the day-to-day, nuts-and-bolts function of the range. For him, important aspects include a major connector road being paced along the edge of the range's new footprint. Recognizing the potential impact, he sees layout of the facility as crucial ensuring ranges are not tangential to the road. He is also concerned with providing the agency the best use of land, to include dedicated 25 yard handgun ranges, 100 yard rifle ranges, 500 to 800 yard sniper ranges, and even shotgun ranges.
Because of his close relationship with County Utilities, Stokes is able to use their heavy equipment to move soil about, and even to bring in soil to help build the site up. Part of the master plan is to have a range that, as population encroaches, will permit construction of an indoor range facility, permitting the agency to move almost all shooting indoors in the future. How? By planning today, building a strong foundation, and having land that can be converted to an indoor facility with the least cost imaginable.
There are a number of resources available, ready to help the range officer charged with developing a new range, or making an existing one more friendly. They are interested in working with the range developer and manager, to ensure safe ranges that provide access and use to their constituent populations.
The National Rifle Association is probably the first organization to come to mind. They offer a variety of assistance to ranges. Although their focus is on sporting ranges, they have long been supporters of law enforcement as well. One program that is annually available to range officers is their Range Development and Operations Conference, this year held in Las Vegas in September. This annual conference brings together a variety of speakers on safety, environmental, operational, and other aspects of range function.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is home to the National Association of Shooting Ranges. The NASR acts as a professional organization for ranges. Its website maintains access to many documents of value to range development, as well as links to many outside sites of great value.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection was an early researcher into firing ranges and their effect on the environment. They have produced a number of documents to aid the range manager in developing an environmentally friendly facility, and in maintaining the facility to ensure its long term life.
The Environmental Protection Agency has materials detailing lead management at the Region 2 website. These materials deal with protection of the ground and its waters, as well as information on maintenance of facilities.
OSHA has entered into an alliance with the National Shooting Sports Federation (NSSF) and SAAMI, the Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturers Institute. They address the hazards of lead and other encountered heavy metals on the user, especially the staff at ranges, and address considerations one should look at in developing range protocols.
The criminal justice field will not, in any near future time, be void of firearms. Thus training must be conducted. However the nature of ranges has already been forever altered; in the future managers must consider environmental, occupational, and other aspects in locating, building, and operating ranges. What we do today will determine both tomorrow and the next generation's range facilities.