Gaston Gazette:

Public access to an outdoor pistol range near Rankin Lake Park has officially been shot down after a five-year run.

Gastonia leaders say low interest in the amenity, combined with the cost of staffing the facility, led to the decision at the city’s Firearms and Tactical Training Center. Cutting off public use of the pistol range will maximize the use of all the amenities there, including a neighboring rifle range, said City Councilman David Humphries.

Humphries chairs a public safety committee that reviewed recent trends at the range before making the recommendation to do away with public pistol range access. City Council members voted unanimously in favor of that decision this month.

The facility at 1000 Tulip Drive features a public skeet and trap range, as well as a pistol and rifle range that are heavily used by law enforcement officers for training purposes. In 2013, the city opened things up and began allowing residents to fire handguns on the range from 8 a.m. to noon, and rifles from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays. The fee for 30 minutes of handgun time was $5 for Gastonia residents and $10 for non-residents. Rifle rates were the same, though on an hourly basis.

The public access to the pistol and rifle ranges has never been advertised on the city’s website, relying mostly on word of mouth for people to know about it.

Minimal public use of the pistol range prompted the city to cut back the hours of operation there beginning in 2017. Humphries said at the time that maintaining time for public use of the range had taken away opportunities for law enforcement officers to train on the grounds. And Gastonia Police Chief Robert Helton said keeping track of handgun users requires more oversight, because it’s easier for a careless person to inadvertently point a loaded handgun in an unsafe direction.

After the cutback, the pistol range was generally only open to the public for four hours a month – generally on the first Saturday of each month. Humphries and Councilman Jim Gallagher said at least two city staff members had to man the pistol range during those times, and few people ever showed up.

“I think the average was one to two (people) per session,” said Humphries. “With rifle shooters, a lot more of them show up at different times of the year.”

The change will enhance the more popular public use of the rifle range, he said. Because of the 90-degree configuration of the training center, the rifle and pistol ranges cannot safely be used at the same time.

Maybe if the ranges were open more often than they are – both of them – and maybe if the folks who run them weren’t jerks, both would be more popular and well used.

Here’s the thing, officer.  I’ve shot at so many ranges I’ve lost count and couldn’t name them all.  At every one of them, folks managed to shoot pistols without pointing them in an unsafe direction, whether we had ROs with us or not.  Some of the safest shooting I’ve ever done is when shooters were self-policing.  I don’t buy your argument.

As for your rifle range, the folks who run it are obnoxious.  I won’t go back there again.  And I’ll have to say that South Carolina has North Carolina beat by ten miles on this front.  South Carolina has free ranges associated with the DNR.  North Carolina doesn’t.