Safety Must Come First

It’s looking more and more like the Wainscott neighbors of the Maidstone Gun Club, on East Hampton Airport property, were correct that errant bullets shot by gun enthusiasts and members of the club were escaping the confines of the shooting range and ending up in their backyards.

It’s literally a tragedy waiting to happen.

Or it would be, if a State Supreme Court justice hadn’t ordered the club temporarily closed in late November — club officials had voluntarily shut down the rifle range after an incident in August — while a lawsuit filed by Merchants Path neighbors, who claim their homes have been hit by stray bullets on eight occasions over nearly 20 years, is decided.

Officials at the gun club have maintained that safety measures at the club’s shooting range would have prevented any stray shots from escaping the club, and that, more likely, the bullets had been fired illegally from guns located along electrical power line right-of-way clearings.

But an East Hampton Town Police report, released this week as part of the lawsuit, details the results of an investigation into an incident in early August — the last time a home in the neighborhood was struck — and concludes that it came from an assault-style rifle fired at the gun club.

The incident in August was caught by security cameras at the home. Audio on the recording captures a high-pitched zing of one or two bullets coming out of the woods and striking the home, as terrified workers at the property, close to the line of fire, drop to the ground and scramble for cover.

While the shooting range at the club is outfitted with safety measures, police determined that in the August incident at least one of those measures — shooters are required to sit and rest their guns on a table and shoot through concrete tubes — was not followed, as the shooter stood and fired his gun instead. It also concluded that a wooden baffle lining the range to absorb misfired bullets was supposed to contain stone, but it did not, and there was evidence that bullets had passed cleanly through the wood, on an upward trajectory.

Neighbors, understandably distraught, want the club shut down permanently, and that may, in fact, be the safest course of action, guaranteeing that no stray bullets will ever again strike the nearby homes.

But the gun club — which rents the space from the town in a lease that is set to expire this year — has been in operation for years, allowing gun enthusiasts a place to exercise their hobby in what was thought to be a safe manner.

If they wish to continue, a number of things must happen. The safety of the surrounding community must be ensured. That means newer and reinforced baffles, a check of the concrete tubes that the guns are fired through, and inspections of berms surrounding the property. And, most critically, the end of an honor system at the club, whereby members are allowed to simply sign in to use the facilities. It’s clear that shooters must be supervised at all times.

And town officials, if they plan to renew the club’s lease, must require as part of the lease that the new and better safety measures will be implemented.

There’s room for a solution that will satisfy both sides — but not if there remains the slightest chance that the Merchants Path homeowners, their workers or visitors will ever have their lives put in danger again.