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Residents upset about police gun range expansion

By Ben Garbarek - bio | email | Twitter

OWENSBORO, KY (WFIE) - Some residents in Daviess County said they don't understand why the Owensboro Police Department would expand its firing range near Utica.

"The noise won't kill you," nearby resident Norman King said. "But the safety will, the guns going off, the bullets ricocheting off, that could hurt somebody real bad."

"I think there are better locations," Nancy McCormick said. "They could pick a larger area with less residential homes around it for safety issues. The neighbor can't walk through his woods while they're shooting because there are bullets hitting the trees."

Many residents at the meeting Wednesday night said they want training, but not in their backyard. The Owensboro Police Department said the new facility would be the only of its kind in western Kentucky.

"There's not a training center like this west of the I-65 corridor," Police Chief Glenn Skeens said. "Officers often throughout western Kentucky and throughout the region have to travel to Richmond, Kentucky and other locations to conduct reality-based training."

Police said using the former landfill as a firing range is a good use of taxpayer money, and the site meets all safety regulations, but that's little consolation to some.

"My grandson is six, 700 feet away," King said. "Brand new house, wants to play out in the yard and there's guns going off, bombs going off. The property, it couldn't be a worse location."

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