A public shooting range in Boulder County is inching closer to reality after the county commissioners last week approved setting aside $1 million to help develop a facility adjacent to the private Boulder Rifle Club.
The county funding coincides with almost $1 million in grants the Rifle Club has received to build a gun range that will allow the U.S. Forest Service to close 70,000 acres of land to sports shooting.
The funding is welcome but still short of the $5 million needed to build a full-fledged shooting range that can attract sport shooters from the region, including younger gun owners interested in honing their skills, said Boulder Rifle Club president Ben Holmes.
“I understand that guns are a controversial topic but this tells me the commissioners have the political will to see this through,” Holmes said. “But there is still a lot more that needs to be done.”
A safe, sanctioned shooting range would also seal off portions of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests to recreational shooters, whose activities often jolt nearby residents, said Teagan Blakey, who lives next to the forest.
Blakey said she and her neighbors often hear the crack of rifles near their homes. They fear a stray bullet will hit them or their property, Blakey said.
The shooting could also spark a dangerous wildfire, said Blakey, who approves of efforts to get a gun range built in Boulder.
“I think it’s just pure luck no one has been killed yet,” Blakey said. “Sometimes you can’t really tell where the shooting is coming from. It’s dangerous for anyone whether they know the area or not.”
The commissioners last year approved the first phase of the Rifle Club’s plans which includes the building of 25-meter, 50-meter and 100-meter ranges and other amenities, said Garry Sanfacon, who was appointed by the commissioners in 2013 to help move along plans for a shooting range.
The Rifle Club is also proposing two more outside shooting ranges of 200-and-300 yards and an indoor range to be built near the club’s property at 4810 N. 26th St., in Boulder, he said.
The county must approve any gun range construction and more funds will need to be raised to meet the club’s goal of $5 million, Sanfacon said.
“It’s a long journey but it is a start,” he said. The new county funding also helps meet the requirements established by the Forest Service, which announced in 2019 it would close sections of Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests as local counties developed their own shooting ranges, Sanfacon said.
Gun owners in the past would often trudge into local forests to target shoot without much kickback from people because there was so little residential development, said Sanfacon. He was appointed by the county commissioners to the Northern Front Range Recreational Sport Shooting Management Partnership in 2013 to develop safe shooting areas in Boulder, Gilpin, Clear Creek and Larimer counties.
Gun owners today also respond to calls on social media to go to a spot on national forest land to target shoot, Sanfacon said. “Word gets out that you can come up there and shoot and it’s really not safe for anyone,” he said.
Holmes said the Boulder Rifle Club volunteered to place a public shooting range near its own facility because the nearly 100-year-old club promotes safe, recreational shooting. “In all that time, we’ve never had any crime or any incident attached to us ,” he said.
“We want to establish a place where people can get out of the woods and train to be responsible gun owners,” Holmes said.
