The Shooting Ranch
Outside of Austin there’s a place called Creedmore, which is dangerously close to the thriving metropolis of Buda. It used to be a quite, rural area.
Not so much now.
The day after Christmas, The Shooting Ranch opened. It’s not so much a ranch as it is a berm with crazy people on the other side.
Enjoy a day of unlimited shooting! We offer a special shooting package starting at a flat rate of $19.99 for an entire day. Kids ages 6-16 shoot for half price, just $10 for all day. Little ones under age 6 shoot for free. Golden shooters ages 75+ shoot for $13 all day. Our single flat rate is a bargain when you consider that many ranges charge by the hour to only offer paper targets.
Okay, so you can go shoot a gun without a license or any sort. That’s a big deal. Until …
Karla Gray says bullets have been whizzing by her home and office which sit about 3,100 feet away from the range.
“We covered up the hole in this window, but the bullet continued across the desk and embedded in these folders,” Gray said. “If someone had been sitting here, it would not have been good.”
“Not good” is a bit of an understatement.
And there’s the noise.
Martha Scott was born on her property in 1935 and says the noise spooks her and her animals.
“We have to wait between machine gun fire to hear each other talk,” her son Craig said. “It’s normally very tranquil here.”
But, the right of gun owners trumps Karla Gray’s right to be safe in her own house. They are fighting to keep their gun range.
I’m figuring that we need to open a gun range fifty feet behind The Shooting Ranch. Anybody game?
Thanks to Jason for the heads up.
If we still had our 22 and shotgun I’d be glad to donate them to your project. Sheesh. This reminds me of when I went out around Hamby, another similar metropolis, north of Abilene. I heard one of those whompin’ big guns you only need to shoot, uh, well, in my opinion you don’t need them for anything, but that’s me. I asked my friend if it was safe out there. She just laughed, said oh yeah, he’s just doing target practice.
1Seriously, considering the almight gall of these my Second Amendment rights are mighter than anything else on earth, I surprised there aren’t more of these scams literally everywhere. Here in my county in the Commonwealth, there is a very strict law about firing guns for practice or hunting (very special licensing needed) cuz this county is so dang crowded. Decades ago when we moved into our house, someone had built a hunting deck high up in a mighty tree in the easement between our property and the horse farm. Hunting never picked up after we moved. Seems as if the deer got the word out and never showed up in our neighborhood again. The easement is now even smaller and way less dense, providing every so less cover for hunting, and the horse farm is now a development of overpriced McMansions. How times do change!
2Maggie, I hate to show my ignorance but where are you?
3Glad the city is behind the ladies’ right to life and limb. And if that shooting gallery opens again, they should be required to carry a significant insurance policy for wrongful death.
4With the elderly, toddlers and idiots armed to the teeth, the unintended consequences are bound to occur.
We get more self-centered by the minute. See also next post. Reference made to priest in NYC who thinks God likes to hear the church bells every hour on the hour (the neighbors, some of whom are lifelong parishioners certainly don’t; I await a smiting of some sort). This place, some cheating spouses, and the reverend all fall under the heading of “public nuisance”!
5Look up Bagley Cartoon: A GUN RIGHTS CHRISTMAS. Shows advent calendar with shootings. Have fun wandering through the Pat Bagley cartoons.
6Last time someone put a bullet within a few feet of me I took away his expensive new rifle, broke the stock and chamber, bent the barrel and told him I’d give him 100 feet head start before I started shooting. It worked for me.
BTW: This was in Colorado, but the ‘hunter’ was a Texan.
7Not particularly funny since those bullets have to go somewhere, and it would appear that it’s into the neighbors’ homes, cars, pets, children, etc. I grew up in a home where guns were kept, a home in which I learned basic gun safety, was given a single shot 22 rifle. I believe in responsible gun ownership and use. I do not believe in these irresponsible, reckless, feckless, and ignorant people who are out firing multi-rounds into people’s yards, homes, bodies, etc., and then yelling about their Second Amendment rights. They do not have a right to injure, damage, or kill anything or anyone at all. None. Nada. In my opinion, they should be using one another for target practice, which might cut down the numbers of these wretched people somewhat.
8Now THAT’S an idea, Ellen.
9Well, they DID promise more than paper targets. They have the neighbors for targets.
10“Little ones under 6 shoot for free.” Well, that makes me feel better. Nothing like a 4 or 5-year old with a deadly weapon.
Besides assuming that every gun is loaded, not pointing it at something unless you intend to shoot it, not putting your finger near the trigger unless you’re about to shoot, you also need to look PAST your target at where the bullet may go, especially if it’s someone’s house or back yard.
Is it too onerous to ask gun buyers to get a license which says they at least learned these rules once?
11“God, guns and glory” is a popular bumper sticker around here. (Corpus Christi area.) That, and a whole slew of anti-Obama slogans. Still have my “Obama/Biden 2012” sticker on mine. Gotta get me a “Wendy Davis 2014″…
12I think the city needs to assure the neighbors that insurance has been secured by these nimrods. Gun as tool is way different from gun as ersatz golden calf.
13“We are very close to downtown and the Airport”
Yeah buddy, sounds like a prime location for “fun with guns.”
14Texas Ellen–
Insurance may not save lives, but I’m all for getting the insurance industry in on the gun bidness. If that industry decided every state needed liability laws like we have for cars, they could make it happen, and the rest of us might be a whole lot safer.
15At one time I had a wild idea to purchase a home out in the country, in rural Buda. I’m glad that insane idea went by the wayside.
16Angelo Frank– not to mention you, your kids, your dog, etc. having to wear blaze orange or stay indoors away from windows during hunting season, however long that is.
17on header of this shooting ranch.
18Great news today: Travis County clears the range of wrongdoing in the Gray/Creedmoor case. Also the city council meeting was overwhelmed with supporters who showed up in force to be heard.
…………………………………………………….
If I weren’t afraid of getting shot I’d join others to go protest.
Re: Marge Wood @10:06 pm
I saw that too. People showed up “in force”.
They do seem to love violent metaphors, don’t they?
19Open a gun range fifty feet behind The Shooting Ranch? But that would interfere with my plans to open a drone target testing range.
20Second Amendment fanatics often forget about any one else’s rights. Theirs are the only ones that count. Not to mention other folks’ life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
21Marge Wood, I am right outside D.C. and down near Mt. Vernon south of Old Town Alexandria, VA. My county is unusually strict, damn near Puritanical, about 2nd Amendment stuff and more. We have genuinely tough county mounties and more and more of them are women. We also have the first woman head sheriff in 271 years which means “ever”! Blue state getting even blue-er as the population in the northern part is well over a million. Now, aincha glad you asked!
22Rhea,
23Regarding your question about whether gun-toters should have training, here in Iowa we ain’t burdened with none of them onerous restrictions. The Republicans have freed us from things like that. We can get our training for a concealed carry permit in the comfort of our homes by taking an online course. We don’t even have to go to a range and prove we can shoot.
Do I feel safer knowing we’ve got nimrods packin’ heat as they walk down the Mall?
Nope.
djw – Best idea I’ve heard in a very long time!
24I’m not speechless over this but I am blithering.
Shooting IS changing. My dad taught all of his kids in the late 50s and early 60s to shoot handguns rifles and shotguns. He did this when we were quite young. Times changed and my brothers and I taught our kids, 4 boys 4 girls total, to shoot but as mid to late teens. My grandboys are too young by 2014 standards yet to shoot. If my kids who are the youngest cousins teach their kids to shoot likely it too will be in their teens as well. Yet having said that I would add than none of the other cousins have taught their kids to shoot. In our family at least hunting and marksmanship may end as my brothers and I pass.
I’m curious if that is a trend outside my immediate family.
25Every commercial shooting range should have to be licensed and prove its safety procedures by military standards. The berm behind the targets: measured, certified. The management of the range: certified firearms instructors at a military level, in sufficient number to adequately supervise shooting practice. (One for every two shooting stations, for instance.) Safety rules posted at each shooting station and enforced by range managers. All firearms not in owner’s hands to be in locked containers at the shooting station (while owner is shooting) or in owner’s locked vehicle, if owner is not at a station and shooting. No walking around with unlocked weapons. No walking around with loaded weapons. When switching weapons at a firing station, the just-used weapon will be unloaded to the satisfaction of the range manager and immediately put into a locked case or a locked car. No children under twelve. Minimum of one adult per child, and that child must stay with that adult. If a teenager needs the toilet, adult walks with kid to toilet area. There cannot be “play areas” for kids where they are not supervised at a ratio of one adult to one child.
Mandatory records kept: a register of customers, so that those who persist in unsafe behavior on the range can be banned. “Incidents” including unplanned discharge of a weapon, customer demonstrating unsafe handling of firearms, open container of alcohol at shooting station, shooting under the influence, injury, “horsing around”, shooting other than as directed. These records inspected monthly. Any incident of this type is cause for immediate removal from the premises, with a penalty ban for one, three, or five months…except that accidental discharge of a weapon or aggressive behavior is cause for permanent ban.
Range loses its license if any round exits the intended target area: if citizens complain that this is happening, a serious criminal investigation is done to determine the source of the rounds that struck a house, tree, animal, etc. That’s evidence of dangerous lack of supervision of shooters. Range loses its license if any inspection finds an open container of alcohol or other signs of alcohol and drug use on the property. If children are wandering around. If people are standing around, walking around with unsecured weapons, loaded OR unloaded.
It is the total responsibility of the range to ensure that no harm comes to person, any property, any wildlife, any vegetation.
People who are not shooting have rights too. They have a right not to have bullets come onto their property. They have a right not to have the sound of automatic firearms dancing on their PTSD (since there are a lot of people for whom the sound of firearms nearby–especially sustained shooting–is traumatic due to their having been on two many rotations overseas.) They have a right not to have their horses, dogs, cats, cattle, sheep, goats, llamas, emu…whatever…injured by “accidents.” They have a right to the peace and quiet for which they bought their property, or grew up on it as the case may be.
26…As the sad coda to this, I see that the shooting range won their case. They get to stay and shoot.
27They have not won, the restraining order is still in effect however the tiny town of Creedmoor (212) people need help fighting this absurdity. Can anyone help us? The big “guns” are helping the range.
28The owner of this place is a real idiot. First, he builds several buildings and moves around a bunch of dirt without even applying for a building permit. Then when the City of Creedmoor gets wind of it he meets with them and tells them that he didn’t know he was in the city limits (lie #1) and that he already cleared it with Travis County (lie #2).
29After the bullets start flying (literally onto the neighboring property) and the machine guns start blasting like a war zone, the fool gets shut down – only to rally the 2nd amendment troops – who are all too eager to stand behind this moron.
If they only knew that this isn’t a 2nd amendment issue but instead a zoning and property rights issue. Or if they’d do a little homework and see what an idiot they’re endorsing – I’m sure they’d reconsider their fervent support.
Here’s an actual video of what this idiot considers acceptable within the city limits of Creedmoor…
Copy and paste this link to your browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avZjrQUwFvk
30What you guys failed to mention is that the City Mayor Wilhite set up a BBQ booth to sell brisket at a profit on the premises and the City Manager Crandal brought his family on opening day to “shoot for free”. At their TRO hearing Crandal admits that he considered the range safe and stayed for two sets of targets with his wife and kids. Their claims that the owner had no permission to be there are totally bogus as evidenced by their participation that day. Other area landowners have also come forward now to claim that they were not annexed either. This case is far from over, and it looks like Creemoor will likely lose. Additional highlights from the TRO hearing were that John and Karla Gray allowed their 15 year old son to wander the property with a loaded shotgun during the “war zone”, and even left him in the “war zone” alone while they left for an out of state vacation to wander the land with his teenage minor friends. This fact alone leads me to believe that there is no truth to their claim of stray rounds striking their property from this range. I read the articles as an unbiased observer thinking this owner was a maniac, however after reading the TRO heading minutes, I am starting to believe that I smell a Rat.
31You sure have a funny way of connecting the dots. So and so sold BBQ there so it must be legitimate?? Pretty clever that you labeled your response “Roger” so it would look like it was me and that I had changed my opinion. Of course that would be after I read the “heading” minutes. Just another example of the the deception that permeates this case from the range owners.
32There is a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things. This property owner has a well documented history of trying to lie and cheat his way to prosperity. Hats off to the folks in “Creemoor” for fighting back. In the meantime, if you think something smells… well we all know where that’s coming from.
This place was a private shooting club long before they went public. You are more likely to get shot by bird and hog hunters and target shooters that use private land in that semi rural área of Travis Co. that have no protective berms and backstops. I predict the Ranch will win its case and if they do sue the “city” of Creedmor for restraint of trade and 3x the lost revenue for not being able to do business for 9 months PLUS damages, Creedmor will not have the resources to fight this case and will cave under the economic pressure. Also this was blessed by Travis Co. who has its fingers in every regulatory pie in the county….much more so than any county in Texas.
33Yes I heard that you’re trying to get the range grandfathered. I’m sorry that you got caught up in this mess. All I can say is don’t believe much of anything he tells you. I know this will be an expensive lesson.
34I guess you have to ask yourself what is the price tag you put on your integrity. Your business may open back up (although I doubt it), but if it does, how do you reconcile the lying and scheming it will take make that happen vs the Christian principles you claim to embrace?
35Pretty sure Roger P is actually a guy named Roger Fehr who lives down the road from the range on Williamson in an rv on the left hand side. But ill have to check on that intel.
Roger P, can you confirm that for us?
36@ Ronnie, I havent hear anything about Travis County blessing any suit against the range. I went to one of the first hearings and before stepping up to encourage the owner to continue his fight, a Travis County lawyer walked up and beat me to the chase. I observed the owner James shake hands with said lawyer, who then said something to the effect that Travis County wasnt too concerned about the range however they had major legal issues with Creedmoor infastructure. IDK, maybe you can convince me that Travis county was against it? Not denying it, just saying the lawyers for TC seemed to be at the hearing bc they wanted to hear the riff raff, but not due to pending concerns.
37Ryan, I don’t know you so I have no reason to believe that you are anything but honest. Unfortunately, you have teamed up with a compulsive liar. There are two things I know to be true about compulsive liars, 1) they are clever but lazy individuals, 2) they are always revealed in the end. My last piece of advice before I shut up and watch from afar… reach into your back pocket, grab your wallet and hold on to it tightly.
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