Wednesday, March 21, 2001

In response to Mrs. Buchanan's letter about the Fayette County 4-H Shooting Awareness, Fundamentals and Education (S.A.F.E.) range, let's get the facts straight.

The 4-H range is used about two hours on Tuesdays (quitting by 7:30 p.m.) and four or less hours (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) most Saturdays from mid-February to mid-May. The only exception is the week or two prior to our state qualification match and state match when we practice Monday through Thursday for two hours a day. From mid-May through June, the range will be used only for a few hours Saturday mornings. From July through November, it will be used just one Saturday each month. The range is not used in January, most of February or December.

Sound level readings taken in the area indicate the decibel levels to be higher from the traffic on Ga. Highway 85 than from our activity. This rural location has one of the highest levels of traffic and traffic noise south of Fayetteville.

It is not a public range. The range is used exclusively by our 4-H S.A.F.E. program participants. The only other time any other person can utilize this range is for our few fund-raising events. This is the only time anyone else is allowed to use the range.

Using a commercial shooting range is not a solution. The state 4-H Shooting Awareness, Fundamentals, and Education (S.A.F.E.) program is modified trap. This involves a hand-operated clay target thrower and 90 mm size targets. Commercial shooting facilities do not offer this. Also, Fulton County facility is not a 30-minute drive from our location especially during our shooting times at rush hour. I wonder how many of our Fayette County parents would be willing to drive their children into Fulton County every time their kids had soccer, softball, baseball or basketball practice.

The adult leaders in our 4-H program make numerous sacrifices to provide a community service by providing instruction and mentoring to these students. It is something that we believe in. We have a conviction to spend time with not only our own children but also the children of others, to pass on a family tradition, to teach our children about safe firearm use, and enjoy our recreational activity.

Finally, to be a considerate neighbor, our program has made numerous concessions to reduce noise in the neighborhood. We will continue to look for ways to improve noise control. Some examples include: we have limited our range use times and dates; we have denied other youth organizations and individuals permission to use the range for other events; we offer low noise ammunition to students; and we have constructed structures to direct sound away from housing areas.

To those people who have supported our program and the fund-raising activities at the range, which includes families from the surrounding neighborhood, our children and adult volunteers thank you.

Denny Kuhr

Fayette County 4-H

S.A.F.E. Coordinator

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