On the close of April 10, 2002, Santa Anita Firing Range [url]http://www.santaanitafiringrange.com/[/url] of Monrovia, Calif(17 miles east of L.A.) in the San Gabriel Valley near the base of the San Gabriel mountains will stop shooting will close its doors after 18 year of business. This is a close of an era for me. This was my home for the past 12 years. They will be liquidating their stock of hoslters, knives, and other whatnot in approximately 10 days(I suspect sooner, because most of the stuff is  already gone) and they will close permanently. I have met lots of friendly people, and many of their past employees has gone on to careers in law-enforcement. The interior of the building is to be gutted and cleaned of lead, and later converted into an office building.

This range was the site for the famed "smilly face" scene in the movie Lethal Weapon 1 with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The owner of the range was given the "bullet proof" vest and the smiley face target allegedly shot by Mel. I rolled up to the range that day, and their was a big sign in the window "CLOSED," and I returned the next and found out they were shooting a movie a that location.