RANCHO CORDOVA—
Residents in Rancho Cordova are upset a combination shooting range and gun store is opening up in their neighborhood between a church and a school, and across the street from a park.
“They’re building a gun range right across the street from a park, where it’s peaceful,” said local resident Teresa Murphy. “You want to come out and read a book or whatever and then you hear gun shots going off. Even though it’s inside you’re still going to hear it.”
At Lincoln Village Community Park, news of a new shooting range and gun store opening up across the street has spread.
The Sacramento Bee reports the building is being remolded to house the new Sacramento Gun Club, complete with a store and range.
Many people FOX40 talked to are not happy the facility is being built in their backyard. “If some bullets went flying we could have some children that could get hurt, and possibly get killed. That’s not right,” said Kathy Moore. “Being here in a residential neighborhood, a park, I don’t think it should be here,” said Timothy Anderson.
While it is close to homes, the gun range location is also walking distance from Mayhew Community Baptist Church, as well as George Washington Carver School of Art and Science.
After recent mass shootings, parents say this hits too close to home. Moore went on to add, “What if some of the older children found this out and they asked some adults to buy some of those guns, and they were in gangs or something this is not a good thing.”
California law does not prohibit shooting ranges from being located near schools or parks, and the building is zoned for commercial use. “I mean they could have put a shopping center there and it would have been better than a gun range,” said Anderson.
Those FOX40 talked to say they feel city council needs to get involved. “Get like a petition going and present it to this council,” said Moore. “Tell them this is absolutely a bad area for them to be putting that gun range in. They need to put it somewhere else.”
FOX40 put a call into the gun range’s owners, Fite Development Company, but did not hear back due to the holiday weekend.
Meanwhile, other local residents shared that there are other gun stores in Rancho Cordova, and one more won’t make a difference. Some say they’d rather people be shooting guns at a range rather than out on the street or in a back yard.
