2017-01-17 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

Home

Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – January 17, 2017 JO: Let me tell you a little bit about my background –I’m the former president, two-time president – Big Island Gun Club – I’m an NRA certified chief range safety officer – I am an NRA certified training counselor – I teach firearms instructors how to teach safety and skill and pistol-rifle-shotgun range safety, firearms safety and a couple of others. I joined the effort for the Puuanahulu Range back in, I think it was 2004-2005 – Dick can correct me if I got a year off, but, as part of the advisory group at the time – was out for little while and came back in 2011 as part of On-Target, Inc. Three of the four members of On-Target, who have been to the NRA’s Range Development and Operations Conference on the mainland – it’s a four-day affair - are any present tonight: Glennon Gingo in Kona, Dick Hoeflinger and myself. We have a fourth who’s not with us. In addition, Mr. Hoeflinger has – is one of – one or one of two NRA certified range technical training advisors. When Coco Head had a problem with bullets escaping the facility and landing on neighbor’s yards and windows, he was the one that got the call to get over there and diagnose and help them correct that problem. So and that sort of brings up some of the challenges we have in building, developing and maintaining a range so that it stay in operation for many years to come... Let me explain the challenges of developing a new shooting range by telling a little bit of background in what we’re going through with the Puuanahulu facility and contrary to the wishes of some of the people that have stood up to oppose it. That is not dead – it’s stalled right now and we need some pressure to push that forward and in, invested in this whole process is about a million dollars in Pittman-Robertson funds, state funding and in-kind contributions over these years so it’s not an insignificant expense to develop a new facility - part of that money was putting together consultants to develop environmental assessment, an EA for that, which included surveying the land for water, yeah, water, you know, how much water does it get – where does the water go – hydrology – weather: what’s the weather like – is it gonna be a good facility? Cultural resources – are there cultural sights, you know, there or nearby that could be at-risk from something like this going on. Are there fire hazards? A couple of big ones: safety – and I mentioned the Coco Head incident there – safety is paramount with any shooting range – so you need a big enough footprint to safely capture every projectile that leaves every firearm – every single one. No exceptions and should one still manage to escape – you need sufficient area behind that to make sure that it lands safely, if not, on your property, which is still a very hazardous thing to have. One of the biggest things that challenges shooting ranges across the country today is the issue of lead and lead if not managed is considered a toxic substance and subject to stringent, strict and punitive EPA regulation both federal and state agencies do that. Many shooting range has been in operation for decades if not for over 100 years – have been shut down because they did not have the lead management plan – 19