Residents complain, again, about problems at Rad gun range

A perennial struggle between a gun range and its neighbors on the outskirts of Burlington has exploded back into the consciousness of Alamance County’s elected leaders.

The county’s board of commissioners was forced to reopen this veritable powder keg on Monday when a group of residents approached its members for the third time in three years to protest the indignities they’ve allegedly endured from the Rad Range Training and Event Center along Jim Barnwell Road.

Several of Rad’s neighbors had originally confronted commissioners in 2021 in response to the excessive noise that they believed was emanating from this firearm-themed venue. The commissioners went on to modify the county’s noise ordinance, only to have Rad claim a grandfather exemption that has deterred any enforcement action against it. In the meantime, the venue’s owner Rudy Cartassi, made a bid for the board of commissioners that generated lots of attention despite its eventually demise in the 2022 Republican primary.

Within a year of this initial clash, Rad’s neighbors were back on the offensive – and this time, their primary target was the spray of stray bullets from the gun range’s grounds. The county’s leaders responded with a proposed ordinance that threatened criminal charges and fines for anyone who deliberately fired a gun onto a neighbor’s property without their permission. Although a majority of the commissioners initially voted in favor of these regulations, a subsequent show of strength from Cartassi and other 2nd Amendment advocates eventually convinced them to withhold a second nod of approval that state law demanded.

The inglorious end of this proposed ordinance might’ve seemed like the coup de grace in the on-again off-again battle between Rad and its critics. But the neighborhood’s willingness to leave well enough alone has apparently fallen victim to what the residents consider further provocations from Cartassi and his cohorts.

By the time that the commissioners convened their latest regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday, nine people had signed up to address them during the meeting’s designated public comment period. All but one of them planned to address the subject of excessive gunfire – and seven of these had their sights set directly on the activities at Cartassi’s gun range.

Among those who blasted Rad’s operations was Lee Hicks, who told the commissioners that he lives roughly seven tenths of a mile from the gun range’s grounds.

IT SOUNDS LIKE A WAR ZONE

This community. . . was once a peaceful place. But now with the gun range operating here, it is being forced to change. . . The shooting happens seven days a week, often into the evening, and many times well past the sunset. It’s not just shooting; there have also been multiple instances of loud explosions, which rattle our homes and disrupt our lives. . . The constant sound of gunfire and explosions has made our once quiet neighborhood sound like a war zone.”

– Alamance County resident Lee Hicks

“I have lived in this area for nearly 25 years,” he went on to recall. “This community, which is made up of homes, farms, and churches, was once a peaceful place. But now with the gun range operating here, it is being forced to change.”

Hicks proceeded to tick off an inventory of insults and injuries that he attributed to the gun range’s patrons.

“The shooting happens seven days a week, often into the evening, and many times well past the sunset,” he explained. “It’s not just shooting; there have also been multiple instances of loud explosions, which rattle our homes and disrupt our lives…The constant sound of gunfire and explosions has made our once quiet neighborhood sound like a war zone.”

Hicks’ account received a vociferous “amen” from Tommy Fargis, the pastor at Deep Creek Baptist Church, which is situated within earshot of the gun range’s location.  Fargis conceded that Cartassi’s seemingly cavalier attitude about his church’s repeated complaints have tested even his own capacity for Christian forgiveness.

Pastor: GUN RANGE OWNER KEPT HIS WORD FOR ONE WEEK

“He promised me on two different occasions that ‘we’ll stop shooting on Sunday until after your service. That lasted one week.”

– Deep Creek Baptist Church pastor Tommy Fargis

“He promised me on two different occasions that ‘we’ll stop shooting on Sunday until after your service,’” Fargis went on to recall. “That lasted one week. And I don’t take kindly being lied to because as pastor of Deep Creek Baptist Church, I represent Jesus Christ.”

Butch McKenzie, whose property adjoins Rad’s premises, presented the commissioners with a series of photos depicting the outrages that he said have occurred on the grounds of the gun range. One set of photos reportedly depicted the damage that errant gunfire has done to the home of a neighboring couple, who didn’t personally address the commissioners that evening.

“We need some laws to be enforced that already exist.”

– resident Butch McKenzie

“This is a 50-caliber bullet that was pulled out of the Allison’s bedroom wall,” McKenzie elaborated as he hovered over the image, “[which was] shot by a gun on the next page called ‘the neighbor hater.’”

McKenzie went on complain about the gun range’s use of Tannerite, which produces colored smoke and an explosive sound when it’s shot, as well as the sweeping gunfire that he said has been directed at trees on another neighbor’s property. In the meantime, he bemoaned the sheer lack of results that he and his neighbors have seen from their previous attempts to intercede with Cartassi.

“We went to mediation and agreed to pay half the fee to have a gun range professional make it a safe gun range,” he went on to recall. “Rudy Cartassi refused…We need some laws to be enforced that already exist.”

Meanwhile, Mark Terry, a relative newcomer to the neighborhood, admitted that he was well aware of the gun range’s presence when he and his wife decided to make their home right next to the venue. He added, however, that he was under the impression that the county would do something to restrain the gun range – a hope that he admitted has since proven in vain.

“You know what scares the hell out of me?  My wife mowing the grass in the front yard, and I can see muzzle blasts coming from the gun range. – resident Mark Terry

“You know what scares the hell out of me?” Terry went on to inquire rhetorically: “My wife mowing the grass in the front yard, and I can see muzzle blasts coming from the gun range…I heard you ask for prayers for the community, and I heard you ask for prayers for safety.”

The neighborhood’s complaints about Rad were ultimately bolstered by Alamance County’s sheriff Terry Johnson, who offered an unsettling account of the recent goings-on at the gun range.

SHERIFF’S ASSESSMENT: IT’S REALLY A MESS

“It’s really a mess: Trees shot up. Berms splitting the property. . . they’re moving the property lines themselves. There was a fire on the range that burned about two acres. . . . And I can tell you that [owner rudy cartassi] will never listen to a doggone thing.”

– Alamance County sheriff Terry Johnson

“It’s really a mess,” Johnson told the commissioners: “Trees shot up. Berms splitting the property…they’re moving the property lines themselves. There was a fire on the range that burned about two acres…And I can tell you that Rudy will never listen to a doggone thing.”

Yet, the county’s recourse in the face of this intransigence seemed limited, at best, to Alamance County’s attorney Rik Stevens.

Stevens reminded the commissioners that they had previously rejected an ordinance that would’ve restricted errant gunfire from the gun range’s grounds. He added that, in the absence of such local rules, the only appliable state statute addresses gunfire that damages buildings or vehicles but does nothing to keep firearm enthusiasts from shooting up trees.

Stevens also observed that Rad’s operations would be exempt from any new local restrictions, like the modified noise ordinance which the commissioners adopted in 2022. He nevertheless conceded that the commissioners could enact a set of rules to regulate things like noise levels and setbacks at gun ranges that are set up in the future.

“If the county were to entertain that ordinance, it would be an option for ranges that open after the ordinance it adopted,” he stressed. “It wouldn’t apply to any range that exists at the time the ordinance is adopted.”

Meanwhile, Henry Vines, a member of the county’s planning board and a one-time candidate for the board of commissioners, encouraged the current crop of commissioners to revisit another contentious proposal as they grasp about for ways to lessen the potential impact of gun ranges.

Vines, who is presently a contender for a Republican Party appointment to fill a soon-to-be vacant commissioner seat, insisted that the board’s current members shouldn’t discount the possibility of county wide zoning as a solution to their dilemma.

“We’re the only county in the state that doesn’t have county wide zoning,” Lashley insisted, “and I do believe we would have less issues [with zoning outside the county’s cities and towns].”

The prospect of some sort of planning-based rules also seemed like a viable option to Steve Carter, the vice chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners.

“One of the things we can do is to look at an ordinance requiring gun ranges to be approved by the planning department,” Carter said as he reiterated the county attorney’s proposal. “The problem with that is that it isn’t going to affect any existing gun ranges…Another option we’re really seriously going to have to look at is zoning.”

In the end, an appeal to the county’s planning board seemed like the best way forward to John Paisley, Jr., the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners. Although Paisley didn’t endorse the idea of county wide zoning, he did feel that the resident experts on planning would be able to advise Rad’s detractors on their best course of action.

“I have talked personally to planning board members and asked them to address this issue,” he said. “The planning board will hopefully look at that in the future.”

The commissioners ultimately continued their conversation about the gun range near Burlington during an hour-long closed session that concluded their three-hour meeting on Monday. The board’s members were initially slated to hold this closed-door confab to discuss a staff level appointment. Even so, they agreed to add in some attorney-client deliberations about the gun range at the behest of commissioner Craig Turner.

Stevens initially resisted Turner’s suggestion, arguing that in the absence of current litigation, the board’s conversation may not meet the statutory requirement for a closed session. He relented, however, when Turner led him to infer that the commissioner wanted to game out the county’s legal liability in the event of a lawsuit.

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