Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bill Protects Shooting Ranges

Shooting ranges shouldn’t be threatened just because neighborhoods grow up around them, according to Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Coeur d’Alene.

Alltus has proposed legislation to protect shooting ranges. “I kind of see it as a private property rights issue,” he said.

“People move in there knowing there’s going to be noise from shooting,” the freshman lawmaker said.

Alltus’ bill would:

Exempt sport shooting ranges from any new noise ordinances. They would be exempt from both civil liability and criminal prosecution relating to new noise ordinances;

Forbid cities from ordering shooting ranges to limit or cut back shooting because of noise ordinances, if the ranges opened before the ordinances were enacted;

Prevent anyone from suing over noise from a shooting range near their property if the range was there before they were, or if the range has been operating for five years or more.

The bill would also make shooters, not the range operators, responsible for accidents or injuries at the ranges. And it states that cities or counties can still regulate new shooting ranges or those that substantially change in use.

Alltus said he’s a member of the Coeur d’Alene Rifle and Pistol Club. “The neighborhoods have encroached on it,” he said. “There are houses around, not in the direction that people shoot.”

Another range in the Fernan area has received complaints that Alltus saw as unjustified.

He said the range he shoots is at a lower altitude than the surrounding area. “You hear the ‘boom, boom boom’ in the distance, but it’s not real loud,” he said.

Alltus said he worked with the National Rifle Association and the Idaho Wildlife Council, a sportsmen’s group, to draft the bill.

Ed Lehman of Laclede, regional chairman of the council, said, “As more and more people move in, these existing ranges need to be protected, and this bill would do that.”

Alltus submitted his proposed bill to the House State Affairs Committee, which will consider introducing it.

, DataTimes