Parents Fight Gun Range Next to School

[jpak]

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Parents-Fighting-Gun-Range-Next-to-Elementary-School-124829799.html

Just feet away from Sprague Elementary School in Waterbury, a shooting range is slated to open, and parents and school officials are not happy about it.

“We teach our kids to stay away from guns and to never play with them, now they are going to put in a shooting range next to a school,” Lisa Lessard said. “We are giving our kids a mixed message."

The Waterbury Zoning commission recently approved plans to put a firing range in the basement of a building next door to the school.

Outraged parents are now firing off rounds of e-mails and letters to the city about it.

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Backlash

yup

[baldguy]

1. When I was in high school we had a shooting range inside the school.

Thankfully sanity prevailed and it was removed during the last remodel, after being unused for 20 yrs.

[rhett o rick]

6. Shortly after i graduated (yes i did) they put a gun range under my high school.

It was in a big crawl space and used for 22 cal only.

[gejohnston]

7. define sanity

[DonP]

10. How many were killed there?

I'm assuming that there must have been a horrendous death toll if it was in the school itself.

So how many were killed or injured that made it "insane"?

[one-eyed fat man]

27. Many big city schools had rifle ranges

Virtually very high school built between 1909 and 1949 had a rifle range in it as part of its design. Programs established by Congress included a National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice and every secondary school in the country was encouraged to have shooting teams. My high school had an active rifle and pistol team in the Fifties.

Nobody got shot in the 40 some years the school had a rifle team. That kind of violence didn't occur until 20 some years after they closed down the team and even took the fake rifles away from the band color guard.

It is almost as if it took the draft dodging, dope smoking, aging hippie generation to take over as school administrators to come with policies that engendered real violence.

[Howzit]

32. My high school had one and no one had any accident because they were taught to

respect gun and to respect each other back then.

[dmallind]

47. Me too. Still there, still used and still injury-free for IIRC 120 yrs

Since that's when it was added. It's the reason I can shoot long guns, but only prone.

[GKirk]

2. The only question is of safety...

...the 'mixed message' comment is crap.

[Hoyt]

3. Apparently the parents don't think so.

[DWC]

24. Apparently some of the parents simply don't think. n/t

[Hoyt]

26. It's their kids, and they apparently don't want them near guns or other bad influences.

[GKirk]

28. Guns are bad influences?

That's interesting how you can add something like that to an inanimate object.

I have to assume that the people who would be at the indoor shooting range next door are
just everyday people enjoying their hobby. Not unlike a bowling alley. Are bowling balls a bad influence?

[ileus]

30. If they want to keep the kids away from bad influences...they'd better avoid half the other students

[WatsonT]

40. I wonder how many of the parents let their kids play video games

and how is it going to influence them? Do guns have a magical aura, taking over the minds of those in close proximity?

[SteveW]

48. What "parents" think is not always by the grace of God...

You should see what some of your buddies think. Or mine. Or the ones down the street. Wanna legislate on the basis of all that?

The problem with the school's attitude is the don't-look-at-'em-or-they-will-fall-off approach. Kids SHOULD be experienced in the use of guns as their level of maturity, intelligence and physicality allows. And who doesn't agree with the notion that one should never "play with guns."

I don't "play" with mine, and I own seven.

Lead (the metal). Really. I think these parents are looking for anything which will stick to a subterranean wall.

[Abq_Sarah]

35. I could see legitimate concern

If it were an outdoor range. But an indoor range? Used by citizens exercising constitutional rights? Oh the horror!

[Marlowbc]

4. We need to teach kids about guns not hide them from guns.

I thinks it's far better that an adult teach children about guns, most importantly all the important safety rules that go along with them. Better that,then running into guns on the street and learning about them from another stupid kid. Eventually these kids will see a gun at sometime, would you want them be to uninformed and unsure, or confident and informed of gun safety rules.

[elehhhhna]

5. Preferring a gun range not abut your child's elementary school is not

"hiding them from guns".

Other than that I agree entirely.

[benEzra]

22. It doesn't really abut. When the fearmongers say "feet away", they mean "a thousand feet away",

judging from Google Maps.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

37. So more antis lying? No surprise there

[spin]

8. Having a gun range that close to the school would provide an excellent opportunity to teach ...

the students about firearms.

[benEzra]

20. It's not that close; it looks to be a thousand feet away, and underground.

I posted a link to Google Maps downthread.

[elehhhhna]

29. well that's a horse of a different color. gracias!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. welcome to DU

:hi:

[JackintheGreen]

9. Until recently, the local HS had a gun club

and this is in suburban Philadelphia. Of course the club was nixed because somehow teaching teens how to handle guns safely is a safety hazard.

Still fighting to keep the archery club.

[gejohnston]

11. Let me guess

They still have football, a sport that puts more kids in the hospital and mourge than the other two combined. Critical thinking at its finest. :sarcasm:

[JackintheGreen]

12. It's true, but

the team is too terrible to pose much of a threat to opposing teams so they usually only half play, resulting in fewer injuries to our kids. Totally works out for all.

[gejohnston]

18. sounds like the high school my kids went to

They finally broke their three year losing streak during my son's senior year.

[krispos42]

14. Irrational backlash, and thus without credit or merit.

This is marginally less sane than the "ground zero mosque".

[petronius]

16. Every school and every neighborhood has people like these parents - if it wasn't

the range I'm sure they'd find something else to get into a tizzy about. It's probably only a small group, but unfortunately the 'for-the-children' types are generally born with extra-loud and shrill voices (principals can't tune them out)...

[gejohnston]

34. I don't think anything could be as inane as the "ground zero mosque"

nonsense. But then, as soon as I say I have seen it all, something will come along that will top it.

[Straw Man]

15. The real "mixed message" is ...

... denying kids real-world information and practical knowledge of firearm safety while they are being bombarded with false information and dangerous examples via television, movies, and video games.

[benEzra]

17. The range looks to be hundreds of yards away, and UNDERGROUND.

If parents who hate guns and gun owners want to shield their children from knowing that other citizens actually (gasp) own guns, this range shouldn't change that. Their parents' sense of moral outrage may be offended knowing it exists, but that's about it.

To cut through the fearmongering a little, here's Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1443+Thomaston+Ave++Waterbury,+CT+06704
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1495+Thomaston+Ave++Waterbury,+CT+06704

The entrances to the two properties (the school and the former factory that will house the underground range) are down the street from each other, but the buildings look to be a thousand feet apart on the map, separated by roads, trees, parking lots, a canal, and a couple of fences.

This is just another example of people with a pet agenda pushing the "The Children" button in order to make other people obey their pet morals. It has nothing to do with exposing children to guns, gun ownership, or stray bullets.

A local news channel checked up on the range and their conclusion seems to be that this is a nothingburger.

[gejohnston]

19. answers my question

I was going to ask if it is outdoor, noise issue. I know people that would have freaked about the tatoo place.

[S_B_Jackson]

21. This will be an INDOOR range, located in the basement of an adjacent building

what is the source of the concern?

I shoot at an indoor range, which is across the street from a local highschool - it's actually been there since before the school was constructed about 15 years ago. There's never been a shot which somehow escaped the building (which was constructed to prevent such an occurance). The guy that runs it is a bit creepy, remnds me of Jack Elam, but other than that........

[Tuesday Afternoon]

23. un-rec for non-issue

yup.

[PavePusher]

25. Stupid parents, stupid article....

I think I see the attraction for the poster...

[ileus]

31. There's no better way to assure more accidental deaths than not teaching kids.

firearms safety and how to handle each type of firearm....

[Tejas]

33. Why did Supt. Snead leave Detroit?

Brian Griffith, who owns the range, has assured the city the shooting range will be underground and the walls will be lined with steel plates.

Simple, adult, logical, concise.


“Despite the developer’s assurances that the range will feature a state-of-the-art air handling system, I am still concerned that students may be exposed to lead or other hazards through the potential failure of the system, human error, or human carelessness,” Snead wrote.

WTF?

[eqfan592]

36. Wow, talk about grasping at some serious straws there on Sneads part! Nt

[Tejas]

38. Surprised he hasn't demanded solar-powered school buses,

do it, for the children.......

[brendan120678]

46. He's gone next month anyways. Retiring (finally).

[WatsonT]

41. The exhaust from the school buses are a more likely health hazard

than "lead" in the air.

But tell the parents that and they will stare at you dumbly.

[WatsonT]

39. Best to protect those kids from learning anything about guns

I don't suppose they allow drivers ed classes there either, in the parking lot after hours or what not. You know how many kids die in car wrecks?

[Remmah2]

42. The parents have some uninformed opinions.

Looks like the media assault on the Second Amendment is working well.

[jeepnstein]

43. Ignorance is a powerful political weapon.

You take uninformed, but well-intentioned, people and load them with half truths and outright lies. You can make the facts anything you wish as long as the truth isn't relevant. It's easy to build up true believers that way. Ignorance is easy and people like easy.

[Remmah2]

44. Seems it's the same as propoganda. nt

nt

[brendan120678]

45. I live in Waterbury, and it really is silly outrage...

by the parents.

Within walking distance to the school, there's a strip club, tattoo parlor, a couple liquor stores, and some public housing projects that have some serious criminal activity problems.

And they are concerned because their kids may be exposed to guns?