HIGHGATE, Vt. -
A debate over backyard firing ranges in Highgate, VT will hit its boiling point on Town Meeting Day when residents vote on whether they should be banned in certain town areas.
Saturday some property owners who have gun ranges took town select board members and Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs president Clint Gray on a tour of where they shoot to see if there are any safety concerns.
"This is just about gun safety in neighborhoods," Highgate resident Vern Brosky said.
Brosky proposed the ordinance because he says some of his neighbors share his concern about noise and the potential for stray bullets.
The ordinance would regulate firing ranges within 1000 feet of Highgate Elementary School and MVU as well as on properties accessed or bordering Monument Road, Tanglewood Drive, Jedware Circle and Penny Lane.
But the proposal has some gun owners upset at Brosky, including Beth Libbey and her husband who have a backyard firing range.
"This is silly," Libbey said addressing Brosky.
"We've been doing this for fifteen years and you brought this up."
That wasn't the only confrontation Brosky had on the tour. Some residents accused him of scare tactics to get the ordinance passed and called him a liar after they claim he said he would no longer pursue the ordinance.
Brosky says he is also a gun owner and member of the NRA but that he has concerns that properties nearby, and the people who live in them, could be in danger.
"Everybody was upset with the amount of shooting that was going especially when we found out that houses were getting hit," Brosky said.
But people with firing ranges say they take their responsibility of gun ownership very seriously.
On the tour Saturday, two locations were visited that had suspected bullet damage. One, a silo more than a thousand yards down range from one firing location, had holes that Clint Gray said he wasn't sure if they were bullet holes or not. At a house on Tanglewood Drive what Brosky thought could be shotgun bead holes turned out to be from the installation of a satellite dish on the house.
But of most importance was the inspection of the backyard firing ranges, which Gray gave an opinion on.
"They could have higher backstops," Gray said.
"This here (referring to one range backstop) is not as high as it should be."
There will be even more opinions at the Town Meeting Day vote but the ordinance is non-binding. All of the recommendations wouldn't take affect if residents voted in favor it. Instead, changes in regulation would still be up to the select board.
We asked selectman Brian Rowell if the vote made a difference to him.
"I guess I'd have to say I'd like to see what the feeling is of the people," Rowell said.
If anything was proved Saturday it's that no feelings will be held back in this debate.
