Work To Do

The Maidstone Gun Club appears poised to reopen soon, under a new lease with East Hampton Town, and with terms based on settling a lawsuit filed by neighbors. It is, ultimately, a win, if only because a major threat appears to have been removed: an outdoor shooting range that was being used not just for rifles but at least in one instance by someone shooting a high-powered “assault-style” weapon.

It’s important to note that the safety concerns are not exaggerated: There have been eight known incidents of houses being hit by stray bullets from the range over less than two decades. Some defenders have blamed hunters in nearby woods, but there’s plenty of evidence that the shots, at least in some of the instances, came from the gun club range. It should go without saying: A safe shooting range should pose no such risks to neighbors, some located a sizable distance away.

Closed by court order since 2022, the 200-yard outdoor rifle range had an enclosed shooting area with five stations, each with a seat and a shooting table. Shooters were supposed to sit and stabilize their weapons while firing into a 20-foot concrete tunnel, designed to keep the shots in a tight pattern. A pair of wooden baffles above and a 40-foot earthen barrier were designed to stop errant bullets.

But an investigation in the summer of 2023 found evidence of ricochets off the inside of the concrete tunnel, and signs that some rounds were not stopped by the wooden barrier. There also was video evidence showing shooters not following the club’s rules, standing instead of sitting, and, as a result, struggling to handle the weapon safely.

That report said the bigger concern was that the rifles used by two shooters were an AR-15 and an AR-10, both .30-caliber medium-range rifles. Both were capable of firing a round that could travel a mile — the distance where one .30-caliber shell was dug out of the shingles of a home on Merchants Path.

The town appears committed to keeping the facility open, a nod to East Hampton Town’s long hunting history, and there are elements of the Maidstone Gun Club’s operation that are not problematic: Skeet shooting, for instance, does not pose the same danger as a rifle slug. If reasonable steps to ensure safety for all are taken, there’s no reason to think it cannot operate for a new generation of gun owners.

And if the new lease agreement takes care to lay out the safety measures that must be followed, along with reasonable enforcement and penalties for violation, the club can try again to win the trust of the town and its residents. But it must be made clear: There is work to do on that front.