Reprint courtesy of

November 12, 2004

Gunning for gun clubs

Our Opinion

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With hunting season in full swing, we thought it'd be a good time to look at an issue that has long languished in the Legislature and is sure to come up in the next session: gun range protection.

Former city dwellers who have moved to the country have learned — GASP! — there's a shooting range down the road. Some have filed nuisance suits against the ranges, which, we'd point out, were there long before the encroaching neighbors. Range owners have been trying to get legislation through the Legislature in anticipation of more problems as formerly rural areas become increasingly more suburban.

Frankly, we're no more sympathetic to people who want to shut down gun ranges than we are to those who want to close smelly pig farms or slaughterhouses. Just because an existing business shatters someone's vision of country idyll doesn't mean it should be sent packing.

We thought DFL Rep. Rebecca Otto offered a good solution. She proposed that homebuyers moving near gun ranges sign a disclosure statement stating that they know who their neighbors are.

"It's a no-brainer," Otto said. "It's like moving next to a gravel pit."

We agree. Unfortunately, the real estate lobby managed to sideline this sensible proposal. A gun range protection bill made it through the House last session but never made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Fed up with the legislative process, range owners are hoping to reach some sort of compromise with municipalities. Les Bensch, owner of the Viking Valley Hunt Club in Ashby and one of the principal spokesmen for range owners, will host representatives from the Minnesota Association of Townships, the League of Minnesota Cities, and others later this month. Among the topics they'll discuss is a noise standard for ranges.

"If someone files a nuisance suit, that's hard to fight," Bensch said. "But a noise ordinance takes it out of the nuisance category and puts it into the control category."

Bensch said range owners have developed a standard that holds noise to a level lower than the state's industrial standard, which regulates highways, heavy trucks and manufacturing plants.

Range owners also are proposing a set of operational standards based upon the NRA Range Operation Handbook, a national standard. Under the range owners' proposal, the DNR will fine-tune the regs for Minnesota.

Range owners also want protection from lawsuits as long as they're in compliance with noise and operating standards. This could be a tough sell.

"We have to modify this to make it palatable to both sides," Bensch admitted. "We can do that. Will do that."

Having spoken to both sides, it's clear to us that the range owners and municipalities aren't that far apart.

We'll be watching this one closely. Not because it's do-or-die legislation for the state, but for what it will say about the climate in a new Legislature that's nearly equally divided. If legislators can't reach a compromise on a common-sense issue like this, we're in big trouble when it comes to finding common ground on more contentious issues, like education, transportation and the budget.