HomeMy WebLinkAbout026 GaleGun ordinance
Good day.
As a 25 year resident and landowner in Jefferson County, I've seen a lot of gun use and changes to the restrictions
upon that use. As these ordinances will affect all of the county, into the future, I am very concerned by the ordinance
now being considered for adoption.
I am not against people owning guns and using them responsibly. I am for training users and law enforcement
personnel. Location, location, location is the issue, and large scale militia training gun ranges are not a good fit with
our rural and wild spaces in Jefferson County. I would urge restraint in sizing future facilities here.
I do not support people who are not engaged in the training/practice being exposed the distressing noise that
accompanies large caliber munitions and rapid fire weapons. This exposure is every bit as insidious and harmful as
second-hand smoke, to heart rates, blood pressure, and stress.
Please, through the ordinance, require and ensure that noise levels are kept to a minimum, leaving these facilities, by
requiring that weapons be fired in a suppressed mode, or with silencers, or kept entirely indoors. Neighbors,
livestock, and wildlife who live within sound range of these facilities do not deserve to be adversely impacted by
these activities.
Further, the range of hours during which any noise should be allowed to leave gun range facilities should be limited
to 9am - 7pm. People and animals need time to relax and sleep, without the intrusion of such noise.
Past experiences have resulted in exposure to gunfire raising my anxiety level tremendously. It literally threatens my
health and wellbeing. I don't believe that anybody should be subjected to the sounds of gunfire without choice. For
those living without such noise, the imposition of gunfire upon their lives would be unconscionable.
The technical means to abate this noise is now available, and should be part of the cost of doing business for future
gun range operators. Whether confining discharge of weapons to an inside environment, using baffling, suppression
or silencers, please ensure that gun noise does not become an additional pollution to our county's environment.
It makes more logical sense to locate this type of activity indoors in an urban industrial/warehouse area. This would
give the most access to the highest number of users, and cost municipalities and counties less for sending their
officers to be trained, than sending them to rural Jefferson County. Adequate airfields and highways access urban
areas, rather than bringing helicopters into the forests of the Olympic Peninsula.
Further, no stray bullets would threaten others, nor potentially pollute our watersheds.
The Sportsmen's Club is a fine facility that has appropriately met the needs of our county responsibly for many years,
and could for many more. I hope that their present activities would be "grandfathered" in, but that the new ordinance
Karen Gale <karengale.aloft@gmail.com>
Thu 11/8/2018 3:22 PM
To:Planning Commission Desk <PCommissionDesk@co.jefferson.wa.us>;
Page 1 of 2Gun ordinance -Planning Commission Desk
11/13/2018https://owa.co.jefferson.wa.us/owa/
apply to new constructions of gun ranges, to mitigate the concerns of noise, emotional health, physical safety,
watershed pollution, and inappropriately scaled weapons ranges in our county.
~ Karen Gale ~
360.765.0134 home
360.775.5764 cell
Coyle, WA
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