Gun enthusiasts wait

Tecumseh’s firearm enthusiasts are one step closer to having their firing range back, but the guns will have to stay in the holsters a little while longer.
Headway was made this week when Tecumseh City Council members narrowly approved the existence of a firing range within the city limits. The next step is for members of the Tecumseh Shooting Club and member of the city council to reach common ground on the criteria to be enforced at the range.
“I know one of the concerns some people have had is safety,” said Charles Price, a member of the shooting club. Price has been affiliated with the Tecumseh gun range since its inception in 1966, and has repeatedly touted the range’s flawless safety record.
“To our knowledge, there have been no accidents at that range since 1966,” Price said at an earlier city council meeting.
Tecumseh Mayor John Collier made an emergency decision in June to close the range pending a decision by the city council. It was pointed out to the council at that time that civilian use of the range was in violation of city codes.
“We’re violating our own ordinance,” Collier said in his decision to shut down the range, which is located on the south side of Tecumseh Lake. “We need to take action, right now.”
Resolution 628 of the Tecumseh city code reads that “every person who willfully discharges any pistol, rifle, shotgun, airgun or other weapon within the city limits is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
The only exception is law enforcement officials. No exception was written into the resolution for the gun range, which is in the city limits.
Members of the shooting club have addressed the council a handful of times since the range’s closure in an attempt to have the resolution rewritten to include the range. Price and other club members have been willing to go along with the council’s demands for a new list of rules and regulations governing the range’s operation.
“We would be very happy to work with the city,” Price said this week.
Ward 4 council member Willis Faye Motley told Price earlier this summer that she visited the range and felt it was “unkept.”
“I didn’t find it to my satisfaction,” she said. “The burms behind the firing range are what concern me. They don’t look high enough.”
Burms are earth embankments at the end of a firing line, and are what projectiles are fired directly into. Price told Motley he considers the burms at the Tecumseh gun range to be at a safe height.
Dale Schuster, vice president of the Oklahoma Rifle Association, told council members earlier this summer that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has suggested guidelines for firing range operations. He suggested the Tecumseh City Council incorporate those guidelines into any literature they prepare concerning Tecumseh’s range.
Ward 1 council member Trace Brown agreed with Schuster’s suggestion, and said it was not the shooting club’s fault that the range “slipped through the cracks” in the creation of city code.
“We continually harp on safety at every meeting,” Price said of shooting club members.
Price admitted to council members this week that the Tecumesh run range cannot meet the NRA’s suggested “optimum” guidelines. He went on to say that no range in this area can achieve that; not even the range operated north of Shawnee by the Shawnee Police Department.
The closest range that operates at “optimum” standards, Price said, is an NRA range in Raton, N.M.
Ward 3 council member Linda Praytor suggested to Price this week that he and other club members present the council with a list of criteria they feel the club can enforce.
“I can do that,” Price said.
Several lengthy discussions have taken place this summer between council members and shooting club members about the fate of the gun range. Tecumseh City Manager Jim Thompson reiterated this week that unless the council was willing to even allow a range to exist, the two parties were just wasting each other’s time.
Collier agreed, and asked council members, “Are we in a mood to entertain a firing range?”
Brown made a motion to approve the firing range at its present location, provided a set of guidelines be established before the range begins operations again. Collier seconded the motion, which carried with a 3-2 vote.
After saying he would prefer having all rules and regulations in place before reopening the range, Ward 2 council member Jimmy Jordan joined Praytor in casting the nay votes.
Thompson said he will contact the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, among other entities, “to get us some type of criteria.”
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Jason Smith may be reached at 214-3932.