Quoted: Is there somewhere to find some background info on this? Were the original complaints ostensibly about noise?
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I'll start by stating that I am a Cavalier member but I am NOT a club officer. I know a good deal about what's happening, and it's way more complex than I could really type into a post here. The following is a brief rundown of the situation, but should be viewed as my educated opinion, not an official club statement.
The complaints by a few of our neighbors - at least the complaint that they are making public - are indeed about noise. For my part it is exceedingly hard to believe that someone 2 miles away "can't hear themselves talk outside in the yard" while others who live much, much, MUCH closer "can't hear a thing". I guess it depends on whether you grew up in the suburbs or in the country to some degree. Regardless, the trouble we find ourselves in as a club isn't really because of any perceived "noise problem", it's because we - in the view of the county, anyway - violated our original operating permit by building multiple range
S as opposed "
A range" as our original permit apparently stated. Of course - you could argue for days about the definition of "a range". Then there is the fact that we built ranges over the years on or extending onto club-owned adjoining land that was not part of the original permit. These otherwise minor zoning/operating violations, of course, could have been easily corrected if those against us hadn't become involved, but instead those violations have given those opposed to the club's continued existence some traction with the county. And now they seem to want to turn it into a full anti-gun circus.
I'm not going to start on the rumors about how the county found out about the infractions to begin with - you folks are certainly bright enough to figure out how that could have happened.
As a Cavalier member, I'd love to see a big showing of support at this meeting. I hope, however, that any ARFCOMmers - Cavalier member or not - that come to the meeting let our opponents show their asses, not the other way around. We are the righteous, the reasonable party in this and I'd hate to see anyone give the county or our opponents any reason to think otherwise. They wanted a circus - let them be the clowns.