A vets perspective

A letter of advocacy that was sent to legislators in Connecticut pleading for a solution to the epidemic of unregulated shooting ranges in our state:

I am a veteran who did two tours overseas in the infantry. When I moved to Connecticut for my wife's job I was horrified to discover the lack of regulations surrounding target shooting in residential neighborhoods and even in VERY close proximity to schools.

• In our semi-rural neighborhood with an average lot size of 3.5 acres there were fourteen shooting ranges.
• Our house was hit by an errant bullet from one of our "neighbors" shooting ranges.
• Our backyard was being used by our neighbor for his range's impact area.
• Several of our neighbors were actively shooting towards a nature preserve with hiking trails.
• There was shooting morning, noon and night sometimes lasting as long as nine hours.
• Several of our neighbors were shooting fully automatic weapons.
• The noise from the gun fire was routinely up to eighty (80) decibels inside our home.

With little to no guidance from the state the laws regarding this hobby are all over the map. One municipality requires a 250' distance from a home, another 500' from any structure, while yet another does not enforce any distance. The one law that could be applied to this issue is aimed at hunters. A solitary hunters likely won't shoot 50,000+ rounds in a weekend while trying to harvest a deer though. The same cannot be said for target shooters...

That is why this bill has been drafted. Taking input from veterans, gun reform activists, medical personnel - your neighbors this idea for a bill https://common-sense-sport-shooting.vercel.app/docs/intro came into existence. It is in response to the madness that is happening all over Connecticut.

Now is the time to stand up and tell your legislators to regulate backyard target shooting ranges... Before it is too late.