The owner of an area shooting range has amassed a veritable arsenal of internal documents and public records in an attempt to debunk allegations that critics of his business recently shared with Alamance County’s commissioners.
Rudy Cartassi, the proprietor of Rad Range Training and Event Center, ultimately presented his case to the county’s governing board on Monday in order to counter the “misinformation, false statements, and outright dishonest comments” that he said his detractors had fired his way when the commissioners met on November 18.
As his opponents had done two weeks before, Cartassi availed himself of the board’s designated public comment period to lay out his defense of the gun range on Monday. In particular, he used his allotted time at the podium to challenge the claims of excessive noise and errant gunfire that his detractors have repeatedly lobbed at the gun range since he took over the business in 2022. Cartassi also presented some check-in times from his gun range’s electronic logs to dispel a charge leveled by the minister of nearby Deep Creek Baptist Church that gunfire from Rad has been breaking out on Sunday mornings.
Cartassi says pastor spreading misinformation about Sunday shooting times
“These are facts. It is not subjective,” he added. “I also have camera footage to show that no one is shooting until 12 [noon on Sunday]…So, I don’t know why the pastor is saying that. It is complete misinformation.”
Cartassi went on to present decibel readings that he said demonstrate that the sound generated by gunfire from his range is substantially diminished by the time it reaches his neighbors. According to this data, he said the noise shouldn’t exceed about 70 decibels, which he compared to the sound “of a toilet bowl flushing.”
Cartassi also flourished some publicly-available air traffic data in order to turn the tables on one of his critics, whom he didn’t identify by name. Cartassi said that this individual repeatedly flies his Cessna over the range, creating a ruckus that’s hard for his patrons and staff to ignore.
“This is one of the same people who was here complaining about the noise,” he added, “and he circles the range over and over again…disrupting my business.”
While Cartassi didn’t call out this amateur pilot by name, Richard Clark, a patron of Rad Range, outed him as Butch McKenzie, one of Rad’s most inveterate critics, when he, too, strode to the podium during Monday’s public comment period.
Clark went on to suggest that the critics of Cartassi’s business are motivated more by vindictiveness than any genuine imposition on their peace of mind.
“I have more right to complain than anyone,” he told the commissioners. “I own the three buildings closest to the range…One of my employees has lived there for two years with no complaints and no shattered windows.
“Everybody has likes and dislikes, and we need to tolerate others’ interests,” he added. “Some people like guns. Some hate hearing guns. Some own guns only for protection and don’t understand the fun part…I watched a video of last month’s meeting on this matter – incredible exaggerations to say the least. It reminds me of mob mentality. Some idiot claimed that the range affects his wireless transmissions.”
Cartassi also took issue with the apparent absurdity of some of the claims that were previously presented to the commissioners.
“The record we heard last week is not only dangerous,” he went on to declare, “we might as well go back to the Salem Witch Trials.”
