MAGNOLIA -- Magnolia City Council members and shooting-range advocates say they will work together to address safety concerns at the Columbia County Firing Range.
Options include renovating the facility or finding a new place to build a shooting range.
The city-owned facility -- located just west of Magnolia's city limits -- is closed. The City Council shut it down in January for 90 days, citing safety concerns. Since then, the city has tried to find a solution.
On Monday, council members heard from residents about the issue.
One firing-range advocate, Steve Rogers, told the City Council it needs to keep the area open for well-meaning firearm enthusiasts such as himself. He said that permanently closing the public range would have an adverse, negative effect on the community and its responsible gun owners.
"When I was a boy, we did not have a shooting range," said Rogers, owner of outdoor and sporting goods retailer Steve's Outdoor Sports. "People at that time would go out in the country and find an old road or gravel pit to shoot with no regard for what was behind their targets or what might come up that road, or whose property they were on. This was unsafe and certainly inconsiderate to the landowner. But that's just the way it was.
"Is it acceptable to send the public back to the old way of shooting randomly across the countryside? If the range is closed permanently, you are sending citizens back out in the countryside to randomly choose a place to shoot."
Rogers also expressed empathy for a nearby landowner, Reese Lewis of Magnolia. Lewis' complaint in January alerted the City Council to many of the range's safety concerns -- including irresponsible, unsupervised shooters, resulting in numerous stray bullets striking and landing on his farm property. That sparked the range's temporary closure.
Magnolia Mayor Parnell Vann said that the city sees the range as a "much-needed" asset, primarily due to non-local tax dollars that flow into the city by recreational shooters.
Rather than make renovations to the range, the mayor stressed the need to relocate it.
"We need a spot," he said. "We've got to find a place to put it."
He later said: "I don't see how it can stay where it's at because Mr. Lewis has voiced opposition, and I don't think Mr. Lewis and his family are going to allow it to stay where it's at. ... I just think it's better for us as a city to hunt it a new home."
Metro on 03/31/2019