Reid joins effort to create public shooting range

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2000 | 10:45 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has formally joined the effort to create a public shooting range for Southern Nevada gun owners.

Reid on Monday sent a letter to Robert Abbey, U.S. Bureau of Land Management director in Nevada, seeking his help in the search for a parcel of land to serve as a Clark County shooting range.

Officials pushing to establish a public range may need Nevada's lawmakers in Washington -- only Congress can set aside federal BLM land for a shooting range. Clark County last month enlisted the help of Reid, the Senate minority whip and the highest ranking Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Reid said he is willing to introduce legislation on the issue, if necessary.

"With the strong demand for undeveloped lands in Clark County, I recognize that locating a shooting facility will require significant work," Reid said in a written statement.

Clark County has private shooting ranges, but no public ones. Some of the estimated 100,000 gun owners in the Las Vegas Valley use the ever-shrinking desert outside the city for target practice, which is illegal.

The Clark County Commission supports a public shooting range. So do Metro and the North Las Vegas police departments, which would also use the range for training. Police now use ranges near the base of Sunrise Mountain, which are slowly being squeezed out by residential development.

Others who support the public shooting range include Sen.-elect John Ensign, R-Nev., the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Sheriff Jerry Keller and area shooting clubs.

Clark County Parks and Recreation Director Glenn Trowbridge has become a point man for the project and says he will work with Reid and the BLM to find a good site.

Trowbridge already has six parcels in mind. The 2,500- to 5,000-acre range could cost an estimated $10 million to $15 million over 10 years, paid for in part by the county.

The shooting range would be modeled on the 1,650-acre Ben Avery Shooting Range in Phoenix, the largest publicly operated range in the nation. Sixty percent of the 120,000 shooters who used the range last year are public shooters. The range is also used by 19 law enforcement agencies.