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Trainees will stop using South Mills River shooting range, officials say

Law officers use a shooting range in Mills River for training. After complaints from neighboring property owners, the sheriff's office said it would stop gun training there.

By Lightning Reports, Published: March 30, 2021

Responding to complaints from neighbors about a shooting range in the South Mills River area, law enforcement cadets will move to a new location for their training, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office said.

The sheriff's office has "received multiple inquiries regarding law enforcement firearms training in the South Mills River area over the past few months," the agency said in a statement issued Tuesday night. A Blue Ridge Community College Basic Law Enforcement Training class had been using the range but after a last round of qualifications scheduled for Tuesday night had agreed to pull out. "Discussions have taken place and future training for BLET will be moving to another location outside of Henderson County," the sheriff's office said.

The statement said that while other area law enforcement agencies have been using the shooting range for annual firearms qualification, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office is not one of them. The sheriff's uses an outdoor range in Rutherford County for the annual certification, Maj. Frank Stout said. The sheriff's office had used the indoor firing range at the North Carolina Justice Academy when possible for qualifying, although that facility has been unavailable for a year because of Covid-19 restrictions. Frank Stout said Wednesday that the sheriff's office had been inundated with complaints about the shooting range. One new deputy had been sent to the Mills River range to qualify, Stout said, but other than that the sheriff's office does not use it.

"We were (using the range) for basic law enforcement, yes," Philip Hosmer, dean of Public Safety Training and the Basic Law Enforcement Training program at Blue Ridge Community College, said Wednesday. He referred follow-up questions to BRCC's communications director, Lee Anna Haney.

"Blue Ridge Community College’s Basic Law Enforcement Training Program has completed training requirements for its current class at the firing range located in South Mills River," Haney said in a statement. "Twenty-four cadets trained there on March 25, 26, 29, and 30. Our BLET program utilized the range for portions of the required firearms training. We are currently assessing all options for future firearms training."

The range, near the Homestead at Mills River development, has drawn complaints from homeowners who say the shooting is frequent and noisy.

"When we moved to this neighborhood seven years ago, it WAS used as a typical back-yard range," a Homestead homeowner told the Lightning in an email, "but for the past 18 months has been extremely active. When they are shooting automatic weapons it sounds like the finale of a fireworks show. We have many lots for sale in my neighborhood. This past weekend some potential buyers driving in our neighborhood asked me about the shooting and then said 'not for us' when I admitted the racket pretty much never ceased. So not only can we not eat on our porches or have our windows open, we have property devaluation as well."