Campaign to Silence the Cranston Police Firearms Training Range Falls Silent — for Now

For five years a small number of Cranston residents have rallied to have the Cranston Police Gun Range shut down. They enlisted noise experts and psychology experts to explain to rotating City Council and Ordinance Committees why this was an urgent matter.

Never in the arguments did they address identifying the funds to take the step they so urgently sought, nor how other communities may have dealt with similar issues. Local legislators, even Sen. Reed tried to identify funds to help insulate and soundproof (as much as can be done with a shooting range), but no effort was successful.

This week “good neighbors” provided personal testimony about the range, followed by a psychologist on PTSD. No students from local schools testified. No teachers. No parents who had children at the school in the past. No person who had attended the school and is now an adult who told their story of psychological harm.

The group talked about the impact of gunshot noise on their homes, on being outside in their yards, etc. One neighbor who lives in the very same area talked about how he is not bothered at all.

Everyone agreed that when the range began weapons were primarily pistols but now the departments train with all the weapons they have and they may encounter in the field – that includes rifles, and automatic weapons.

The meeting – and hopefully the issue – ended this week with a new resolution submitted by Councilman (and former Mayor) Traficante – meeting its fate as undoable. The room where people provided testimony had numerous police officers in attendance, but none testified. The ordinance was not acted upon, and seems to have met its final demise.

Colonel Michael J. Winquist – Chief of Cranston Police testified. Point by point he respectfully and professionally explained the reasons why the ordinance had fatal flaws and could not be adopted. He handed out documents for the committee to look at which talked about suppressors, costs, and data. As he testified one testifier held a large sign up, which the Col. acknowledged. The sign said, “Pass the Ordinance. Our Neighborhood is Not a Gun Range”.  Here is his the Colonel’s testimony:

Many have held that the issue began as others such as opposition to almost any attempt to rebuild the Budlong Pool, or put in a Splash Pad, or just about anything a Republican Mayor wanted to do. There’s no confirmation of this, but time may have taken its toll on the gun range issue.

Everyone would like to see it perfected. But hundreds of thousands for equipment and literally millions for a rebuild (which would still not completely deafen the sounds) is undoable, especially at this time.

Col. Winquist’s description of how the officers of the Cranston Police were in Providence at a moment’s notice during the Brown University shooting with maximal training and equipment was a compelling perspective. One which ended the argument right then, right there, for nearly all the Council members. Albeit some members are new – even Mr. Traficante – and may not have known the long and winding history of the issue.

The Col. said he would be willing to continue to talk about the gun range – and “in a perfect world I’d have $5 Million to enclose the range”, but…

The full Council meeting – nearly 4 hours long is HERE: