In the wake of city council’s decision to temporarily close the Lethbridge Fish and Game gun range, residents situated along the coulee edge on Stafford Road directly above it are relieved they won’t have to listen to the crackling of gunshots, at least for a while.
The range will be closed until the origin of the stray bullet, which struck a family’s minivan on April 10, can be determined. Mayor Bob Tarleck, in announcing the temporary measure at Monday’s city council meeting, said the range could be closed for good if it’s found to be the source of the latest wayward bullet.
“It’s going to happen again. They didn’t fix it last time, if that happened supposedly,” said Ed Williams, of the possibility the shot was fired from the river valley range.
Williams lives on the ridge directly above the range. He recalls the 2005 incident, where it was determined a bullet from a police training exercise at the range came through the window of a nearby apartment. Despite that incident, he’s not convinced the latest bullet came from the range.
“Where that van was parked, how could they have hit that?” he questioned.
Gun range officials, meanwhile, say they’re confident the investigation will determine the bullet couldn't have come from the range. They recently added safety baffles to provide barriers over the shooting lanes so bullets can't be fired into the air and in the direction of residential areas.
Sharla Kerr, whose vehicle was struck by the stray bullet, said they’re happy to hear about the measures taken. She declined to comment further at this point, adding she’d like to let the police continue their investigation.
Williams isn’t overly concerned about being in the line of fire, although he did suggest the range be positioned facing away from the residential area. In the meantime, he’s happy he won’t have to listen to gunshots for a while.
“It sounds like you’ve got a popcorn maker in your backyard sometimes.”
Some neighbourhood residents question the safety of their children, especially with a playground almost directly above the range’s position.
“It never was (a concern) until I started to bring the kids here,” said Darcie Carpenter. “I don’t know if I would necessarily stop coming to the park because it’s a fear. If they could prove to me that’s what it was — that it was definitely a bullet from that gun range — then yeah, that would be 100 per cent different.”
Sherry VanderGriendt runs a pet-sitting company and walks several dogs along the coulee edge every day. She too was relieved to hear about council’s decision.
“It is loud, you definitely know. That’s when it kind of scares you more. When you’re walking and you hear that (shooting), you always think, ‘what if it come this way.’” She suggests the range might be relocated further down the river valley and away from people’s homes.
Range operator Allan Friesen said Tuesday he’s been in full co-operation with Lethbridge regional police as well as city council while the investigation is underway.
“Council is acting to look after the safety interests of the citizens of Lethbridge and we’re certainly in agreement that has to be done. We think the action will prove to be unnecessary as we’re convinced that projectile did not come from the range,” he said. “In the meantime, we’re very disappointed because we have a lot of programs we deliver there every night of the week and we can’t do those at this time. So be it, we’re waiting patiently and in the meantime doing some work on the range in anticipation of getting it re-opened and resuming the delivery of our programs.”
Friesen said they have provided a surveillance video to the police and is confident it will show the range is being used in a safe manner.
In my opinion if they shut the range down for good I would request that the city of Lethbridge refund my range dues not the LFGA...
Knowing the LPF no conclusion will be found...is my assumption
City of Lethbridge should refund LGFA range fees
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