VA: Prince William County BoS Meeting Indoor Shooting Range

[308Mike]

From NRA-ILA

[center]Virginia: Prince William County Board of Supervisors to Consider Indoor Shooting Range at Tomorrow’s Meeting[/center]

Monday, November 17, 2008

[center]Please Stand-Up and Make Your Voice Heard![/center]

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 18, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing at 7:30 PM to consider an application for a commercial indoor shooting range in Woodbridge. The meeting will be held in the County Board of Supervisors’ Chamber located at One County Complex Court in Prince William.

It is vital that Prince William County’s shooters and hunters participate. There is little doubt that non-shooters and anti-gun forces will be active in this public input process.

Please attend tomorrow’s meeting and sign-up to speak in support of this range. If you are unable to attend, please contact the Board of Supervisors and respectfully urge them to approve the request to build a new range that law-abiding firearm owners may practice safe and supervised shooting. Contact information can be found below.

Chairman At-Large
Corey A. Stewart
McCoart Administration Building
1 County Complex Court
Prince William, VA 22192
Phone: 703-792-4640
Fax: 703-792-4637
Aide: 703-792-5626
cstewart@pwcgov.org

Brentsville District
Wally Covington
9248 Lee Avenue
Manassas, VA 20110
Phone: 703-792-6190
Fax: 703-792-5707
Aide: 703-792-6191
wcovington@pwcgov.org

Coles District
Martin E. Nohe
4360 Ridgewood Center Drive
Prince William, VA 22192
Phone: 703-792-4620
Fax: 703-792-4610
Aide: 703-792-4621
mnohe@pwcgov.org

Dumfries District
Maureen S. Caddigan
Dr. A.J. Ferlazzo Building
15941 Donald Curtis Drive, Suite 145
Woodbridge, VA 22191
Phone: 703-792-4645
Fax: 703-792-4622
Aide: 703-792-4648
mcaddigan@pwcgov.org

Gainesville District
John T. Stirrup, Jr., Vice Chairman
Sudley North Government Center
7873 Ashton Avenue
Manassas, VA 20109
Phone: 703-792-6195
Fax: 703-792-7664
Aide: 703-792-6196
gainesville@pwcgov.org

Neabsco District
John D. Jenkins
4361 Ridgewood Center Drive
Prince William, VA 22192
Phone: 703-792-4668
Fax: 703-792-4669
Aide: 703-792-4667
jjenkins@pwcgov.org

Occoquan District
Michael C. May
2241-B Tackett's Mill Drive
Woodbridge, VA 22192
Phone: 703-792-4643
Fax: 703-792-4833
Aide: 703-792-4644
mcmay@pwcgov.org

Woodbridge District
Frank J. Principi
Dr. A.J. Ferlazzo Building
15941 Donald Curtis Drive, Suite 140
Woodbridge, VA 22191
Phone: 703-792-4646
Fax: 703-792-4993
Aide: 703-792-4647
fprincipi@pwcgov.org

[Ben Rumson]

The VCDL has been sending out emails about it as well. The VCDL had a strong turnout for the previous Planning Commission meeting.

The supervisor for the that area of the county is probably going to come out against it even though the new range owner will give them space for a substation.

The range that was at the proposed location burned down due to materials in the back stop catching on fire. It's my understanding the fire department wouldn't enter due to ammunition concerns. All they did was apply water from a distance. The range was a total loss plus the stores on each side were partially destroyed.

Too far south for me to go on a Tuesday, maybe Morsetaper will be there.

[Ben Rumson]

Update from the VCDL

Tonight (Tuesday) at 7:30 PM is the Board of Supervisors (BoS) meeting
in Prince William County. The BoS will be deciding on whether to
approve the new range in Woodbridge.

Mr. Andresen, the range owner, called to say that all of the open-
carry restrictions and ammunition restrictions that the County had in
its requirements for the range HAVE BEEN REMOVED by the County Attorney!

The County Attorney basically agreed that the County has no authority
to regulate such things.

Your previous emails and calls helped make it happen!

So tonight we really just need to turn out in numbers and indicate we
support the range and urge the BoS to approve it.

County can't regulate open carry and ammunition restrictions? Must be the state preemption laws.

[morsetaper]

Too far south for me to go on a Tuesday, maybe Morsetaper will be there.

Unfortunately, I couldn't. I just now rolled in from work.

I seriously hope that this works out. We could really use another good range in this area. I rarely patronized the old Shooters Paradise (the one that burned), as I almost felt like the invisible man when I walked in. They would look at you, but if they didn't know you, or you weren't waving a wad of cash, it was like pulling teeth to get any attention. Management at the range I currently have a membership with is much more congenial.

At first, I was surprised that the NRA had latched on to this one. But after thinking about the contentious points in this issue, I suppose that I shouldn't have been.

[Ben Rumson]

APPROVED! Information received from the VCDL>

VCDL - your efforts paid off!

Last night the new range proposed for Woodbridge was approved by a 7
to 1 vote by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors (BoS)!

About fifty gun owners, mostly VCDL members from the Prince William
County area, showed up for the hearing. Everyone was given a "Guns
Save Lives" sticker.

When the time came for the range to be considered, pro-gun BoS member
and Chairman At-Large, Corey Stewart, said, "And now for the good
stuff!" Laughter broke out from all parts of the room!

The objectionable language from the County had all been REMOVED
(banning loaded guns being carried to/from the parking lot, no
cleaning of guns except for law enforcement, and ammunition
restrictions).

Sixteen or so gun owners chose to speak.

There was only one person who spoke against the range, citing that the
range was near a church and a school. (The church had given its, er,
blessing, to the range already, BTW).

There was an interesting exchange during the question/answer session
between the BoS and the range owner, Jack Andresen.

BoS member Frank J. Principi, who was fully against the range from the
beginning, started pressuring Mr. Andresen to commit ON THE SPOT to
put in a bunch of restrictions in his rules for the range. The
pressure and tension in the room were palpable. The rest of the Board
was clearly uncomfortable with what Mr. Principi was trying to do.

Finally, Mr. Stewart had had enough. He asked the County Attorney to
confirm that the County could not require, nor enforce, the range
doing ANY of the things that Mr. Principi was asking the range to do,
even if Mr. Andresen were to agree to any of the items there at the
meeting.

The County Attorney confirmed that to be true.

Mr. Stewart then ***dressed-down Mr. Principi*** for Principi's
attempts to intimidate and pressure Mr. Andresen into making
commitments, both under pressure and on the spot, that were not
enforceable anyhow!

I have NEVER seen such a dressing-down of a BoS member by another
before in a public meeting! But, Mr. Principi deserved every bit of
it for acting like a tyrant. I wanted to cheer, quite frankly, but
sat quietly along with everyone else during that exchange!

Good job, Mr. Stewart!

To show the mood in the room last night, BoS member Martin Nohe went
so far as to correct one speaker who had said that the Second
Amendment was a Constitutional right. Mr. Nohe said that the Second
Amendment was a God-given right, not a Constitutional Right.

The room broke out in applause!

The one woman on the BoS, Maureen Caddigan, then moved quickly and
proudly to make the motion to approve the range, much to the
disappointment of other BoS members who wanted to do the motion, but
were not as fast as she was!

If only the Norfolk City Council had even one person who was one-tenth
as good as that!

The motion was seconded and passed, with all but Mr. Principi, voting
in favor of the range.

Mr. Princi's reason for not supporting the range? He said because of
all the gang members that hang out around the mall area, that the
range being at that location would be a bad idea!

WHAT????? With a police substation at the range, lots of police
training there, and lots of law-abiding citizens armed in the area???

Oh, sorry, my head almost exploded for a second there. Hopefully your
head is OK, too. I should have warned you to get out the duct tape.

My fault: I accidentally tried to apply logic and reason to the
statements of an anti-gunner.

With the vote over, the room all but cleared out.

GOOD NEWS FOR VCDL MEMBERS

The range should be completed around the March 2009 timeframe. Mr.
Andresen told me that when the range was ready, that VCDL would be
invited to be the first group to have a shoot at the range, giving the
staff a chance to work out any bugs before the official opening!

I will, of course, let you all know once we have a firm date for the
shoot and what, exactly, the rules of the shoot are going to be!

[308Mike]

Ben, thanks for the update!! Good news indeed!

EDIT:

This is from NRA-ILA:

[center]Virginia: Prince William County Board of Supervisors Approves Indoor Shooting Range![/center]

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

[center]Thank You for Standing-Up and Making Your Voices Heard![/center]

On Tuesday, November 18, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted 7-1 to approve an application for the construction of a new commercial indoor shooting range in Woodbridge. The new range will be located in the Marumsco Plaza in Woodbridge.

Thank you to all of the NRA members who answered the call in support of this range. Without you, this victory could not have been possible. Thanks to your efforts, Prince William County’s law-abiding hunters and shooters will have a place to learn and safely practice their Second Amendment freedoms.

[mekender]

http://www2.vcdl.org/cgi-bin/wspd_cgi.s ... 41&FILTER=

DUPLICATE INFORMATION OF BEN'S POST ABOVE SNIPPED
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BREAKING INFORMATION

Jack Andresen just sent me this to be passed on to you:

"As of last night, Northern Virginia has a new indoor shooting range,
The Shooters' Range, Inc.
This came about as the result of a lot of hard work by a good group of
people, not the least of which were the members of VCDL.
To just say thank you never quite seems enough, but, THANK YOU!!
To those of you who were able to come to speak on our behalf I want to
convey a special thanks. Your presence was appreciated more than can
ever be said.
Over the years, I have learned that you never forget a friend. Thank
You, VCDL!

Jack Andresen"




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