There is one true thing about guns—they are dangerous things. Whether you are an expert gun safety person or trained military personnel, the nature of a gun is to hurt, kill, or maim things. That’s not a disputable fact. We believe that people have the right to own and use guns as long as you don’t use them to hurt or kill or maim people (self-defense laws aside for now). One of the important ways for people to both learn how to be proficient and more safe with firearms, as well as have “safe” fun with those firearms, is to use them at a gun range. But what about the people not inside of the gun range, who don’t want to be a part of the “fun” going on in the gun range? In Indiana, residents living across from the Precision Gun Range are having their homes hit with stray bullets.
“The neighbor’s daughter and I were outside and we heard the bullet whizz by,” said Spencer resident Kathy Wise. “It went whirr, thump.”
The homeowners brought in investigators and ballistic experts to figure out where these bullets keep coming from, and of course they were coming from the Precision Gun Range. The issue in this case seems to be that the gun range’s berm or baffle or backstop (a essential backstop, erected to catch stray bullets) is not doing its job. The gun range, for money some reason, is being super oblique about all of this.
Ballistics professionals have flagged bullets throughout the tree line separating the gun range from the homes and beyond, on the residential side of the woods. They’ve told the Wises and other neighbors that the woods should stop any bullets from leaving the property, but, in a Facebook post, also claimed any bullets that clear the berm—used to stop bullets that miss targets—would clear residential houses as well.
Wise said that’s problematic for two reasons. First, the woods aren’t owned by the range – but bullets shot by the customers have torn up the trees, leaving the owner unable to log the timber for money.
The second issue, Wise said, is that if bullets are clearing their house, the range is still acknowledging bullets are leaving their property.
That’s how logic works. The gun range says they have “experts” who say those bullets the residents’ homes are experiencing are coming from some other magical bullet place, while residents say they have voicemails of the range owners offering to pay for bullet damage and the range has pulled in its walls. But that hasn’t stopped the bullets from hitting this community’s homes.
Owen County Sheriff Leonard Hobbs told WXIN he recommended Precision shutter the rifle range portion of the business until the investigation is over.
Wise said that she and her husband won't sleep peacefully until Precision can guarantee "100 percent" a bullet won’t come through their home. “Every time he comes out to the garage, I now say a little prayer to keep him safe,” said Wise. “It’s like, you shouldn’t have to pray for your husband’s safety in your own house in Spencer, Indiana.”
Please keep it closed until you fix that.