To: East Bay Regional Park District Directors
End operating an outdoor gun range in Anthony Chabot Regional Park
EAST BAY REGIONAL PARK DISTRICT DIRECTORS: End operation of the outdoor Gun Range in Anthony Chabot Regional Park, which is polluting the soil and runoff water with lead, and invading the space of nature-seekers and park neighbors with sometimes-constant gunshots destroying their peace and quiet.
Eliminate any possibility of subsidizing the Gun Club with taxpayer dollars by ending its operation when its lease expires at the end of this year.
Why is this important?
Do not allow yourselves to be bullied by the NRA's support for continuing the gun range.
The Park District has allowed operation for over fifty years of an outdoor Gun Range in Anthony Chabot Regional Park—which is otherwise made up of over five square miles of hills and streams, open space and wildlife habitat, trails and campsites. It provides an experience of nature to the masses of people living near San Francisco Bay—except for the gun noise and lead pollution which often shatter their peace and quiet.
Dramatic population growth in the San Francisco area in the last fifty years and the central location of this regional park have led to thousands of people seeking an experience of nature here. They are often cheated out of that experience by the explosive sound of rapid gunfire.
The Gun Club lease expiration at the end of this year provides a natural endpoint for operation of the Gun Range. Recent independent professional studies commissioned by the Park District reveal that the buildings and other facilities used by the Gun Range will need to be replaced soon and drainage reconstructed, at a cost of about $1.5 million.
This is on top of the cost of complying with current State and Federal environmental regulations and reducing the gunshot noise pollution, which will cost about another $1.6 million. Add the two costs together, and you get over $3 million, and that is not even counting the $2.5 million to $20 million it will cost to remove the lead contamination from the soil.
The Park District receives $40,000 net per year from the Gun Club, but if the Gun Range were to continue to operate, required cleanup would cost between $62,000 and $166,000 every year, which would require the taxpayers to subsidize the operation. This is unthinkable.
Live up to the Park District’s Mission Statement, which says it will provide open space, parks, trails, safe and healthful recreation and environmental education. Let the many other gun ranges in the San Francisco area meet the need for gun training and practice.
Restore this park to the thousands of hikers, horse and bicycle riders, campers and other nature lovers, who need it as a place to retreat into nature, to maintain their quality of life and their sanity–end the Gun Range operation.