How can you have your picture-perfect Grimes County country home, turned into a nightmare? Well, as nearly 20 Todd Mission residents told Grimes County Commissioners, you open a shooting range next door.
Each told a story more heart-wrenching than the one before.
From people who can’t sleep, like retired serviceman Wallace Fountain who claimed that while he did not have severe PTSD, the machine gun fire, the 50-caliber rifle fire, and the explosions bring memories back from long ago. He said it’s difficult to bear and the range should be gotten rid of because there are others who suffer like him.
To Mary Hurley, whose kids won’t bring her grandkids around for fear of a stray bullet.
She told the court that another issue she’s very concerned about is when do we know the gunfire IS the gun range and when people may be getting shot at. She said she can’t continue to call the police, because they just say that the gun range is open today. “How can we know it IS the gun range,” she asked, with no answer.
County Attorney Jon C. Fultz explained Texas counties can only do what is permitted by law. He then cited a Local Government Code that seriously limits the county’s options.
“To promote the public safety,” he read aloud, “The commissioners court of a county by order may prohibit or otherwise regulate the discharge of firearms and air guns on lots that are 10 acres or smaller, and are located in an unincorporated area of the county, and in a subdivision.”
He then observed the Renaissance Shooting Club in question is on a 12 acre lot, not in an incorporated area and not in a subdivision.
But the commissioners promised to fully examine their legal options in a special workshop that will soon be scheduled. And when it is, you’ll hear about it on Navasota News.