Gun range has had its study

Some ideas deserve to be revisited, and some do not.

The proposal to build an indoor gun range, brought up again last

week by Councilman Gil Coerper, is one of those ideas that does not

need to be rehashed at this time.

It is an idea that has been studied at length by the City Council

and others. A feasibility study already determined that there was no

money and no room in Huntington Beach for a gun range.

That is not to say Surf City’s finest do not deserve and perhaps

even need such a range. City police officers drive out to Norco and

other cities in the Inland Empire for rifle and pistol training. But

the two factors that took the proposal off the table in the

not-so-distant past are undeniable.

The old outdoor gun range operated from the late 1960s until

January 1997, when the council shut down the facility because of

safety concerns. In February 1996, a stray bullet fired by a police

officer in training whizzed through a sliding glass door at a home on

Ford Drive. No one was hurt.

In 1999 a city consultant determined that a gun range proposed for

the 17000 block of Gothard Street would cause budget deficits of

$200,000 to $400,000.

After a three-year effort to study whether a gun range in Surf

City would be feasible, a council subcommittee, in 2000, concluded

that the city doesn’t offer an adequate location for the range.

While new blood on the City Council is often refreshing and offers

a new perspective on things, members need to respect work done by

previous councils.

The study has been done, the verdict is in: Surf City does not

have a suitable location or the money to support a gun range at this

time. Council members who fought spending time and money on studying

the issue were in the right.

While Coerper may be bringing forward the issues of those who

elected him, and admittedly has an intimate knowledge of the need for

such a range, he needs to let the topic drop and move on.