Posted: Tuesday, December 6, 2016
It is silly to believe there will never be an accident at the paramilitary firearms training facility (Ridgeline Rifle Range) proposed for Winchester; especially since, by the Department of Defense and State Police organizations’ own admission, the two groups that experience the highest incidence of accidental shootings (of themselves and others) are military and police personnel in training.
I shudder to think what the police and rescue response time will be, considering our police chief is already fond of saying that he doesn’t have enough time, resources and officers (and the money to keep those officers) to adequately cover our town’s needs.
The number of people expected to frequent this range (19 ranges with 40 program spaces) means the possible need for life-or-death response times will also increase. And that’s just for accidental shootings.
Possible calls about stray bullets, camouflaged people mistakenly trespassing outside of the range, unrelenting noise, increased road traffic endangering local pedestrians and bikers, spooked horses and dogs that bolt from the noise, and trespassing by curious local youth onto the rifle range’s property will add to our police force’s already overloaded daily duties and severely curtail their availability to the rest of Winchester.
But perhaps, the greatest burden our town will bear is the one of attitude and perception — especially among our young people and children.
Let’s be clear: This is not a video game and there is no reset option if you mistakenly shoot the wrong person. These will be real bullets and real guns used on a property with no safety buffers between it and the surrounding residential zones. In fact, that’s one of the reasons this company is before the ZBA — part of one of their ranges will lie in a residential zone.
None of their presentation materials show the surrounding houses or how close the range is to the Ashuelot Covered Bridge, the village of Ashuelot, or Pisgah State Park. They have assured us that people walking, hiking, riding horses or recreational vehicles on the roads and paths that abut the range are in no real danger (as long as they stay off the range’s property) because there will be posted warning signs; and besides, there are “scopes on these guns that won’t allow for stray bullets.” Bullets don’t read signs and real bullets and shooters don’t always behave like those in video games where the program mitigates the human factor. I am galled by this company’s casual attitude about the dangers this range poses to me, my family and pets, and to my neighbors.
There is nothing benign about this project and I don’t want my community’s children thinking it is just another fantasy world where there are no real-world consequences to their actions — or mistakes.
This project is nothing more than a proposed playground for New England Rambo-aspirants. They will come, spend a lot of money at the range (but not in Winchester itself), over-burden the town and its resources, then leave to go back to their peaceful little towns where they don’t have to worry about getting shot by an errant bullet from the rifle range next door. Hardly seems fair.
Thank-you.
JENNIFER MARIE BELLAN
Ashuelot
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