A Hockinson shooting range whose neighbor said she was hit by a stray bullet has been inspected by an expert, who gave it a positive report.
Clark Rifles, 25115 N.E. Rawson Rd., was the subject of a long-overdue inspection by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
On the afternoon of Jan. 26, 56-year-old Linda Sperling was working in her yard east of the rifle range when she heard what sounded like an explosion. She put her hand to her head and pulled it back to find blood.
She was treated and released at a hospital, but she continues to suffer from a concussion, memory and vision problems, and a constant headache.
The Sperlings say the object that hit her was a stray bullet from the 300-yard rifle range that points toward the Sperlings’ property.
Clark County Sheriff’s Office major crimes detectives investigated the incident, but couldn’t find the projectile on the Sperlings’ 5-acre property, which abuts the range.
Detectives ultimately concluded that they couldn’t definitively say what the projectile was, nor could they determine if it came from Clark Rifles. They also said they didn’t find any signs of recklessness, negligence or criminal intent and so the investigation was suspended.
During the investigation, however, the sheriff’s office learned that it hadn’t inspected the gun club in 19 years. Clark County code indicates that shooting ranges “shall be subject to periodic re-inspection by the sheriff every five years.” The firing range holds a permit granted through Clark County Community Development and was last inspected by the sheriff’s office in 1996, according to county records.
The sheriff’s office readily admitted the oversight and inspected the range on Feb. 2.
For the inspection, a sheriff’s deputy brought along George Pitts, the founder and chairman of the Oregon Association of Shooting Ranges.
Pitts said he founded the organization 15 years ago as a way to ensure member gun clubs, currently totaling 29, are safe, are environmentally sound and comply with local and state rules and regulations.
In an interview Friday, Pitts said that he looked the range over top to bottom and assessed Clark Rifles as above par.
“My sense of this was (Clark Rifles) has been very, very cautious and very responsible,” Pitts said. “Everything I saw looked like these guys were bending over backwards to be good guys.”
He went on to say that Clark Rifles was “probably as safe or safer than 80 percent of the ranges in Oregon. They’re right up there in the top.”
With that review, legal options for the Sperlings are dwindling.
The family continues to argue that the range has grown and now uses every inch of its property, which makes their property unsafe.
Mike and Linda Sperling have reached out to representatives to find a solution.
The couple asked County Administrator Mike McCauley for a hearing on the shooting range’s license.
“We believe that despite the good safety improvements and precautionary intentions by Clark Rifles over the years, the areas downrange from the shooting range are not safe,” Mike Sperling wrote in a letter to McCauley.
McCauley met with the Sperlings and extensively reviewed county code, which uses terms like “reasonably safe.”
Based on advice from the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, McCauley said, the county doesn’t have cause to hold a hearing.
McCauley said it’s hard not to feel for the Sperlings, but the evidence so far collected doesn’t indicate any code violations.
“I don’t know if we have a solution to this issue that will satisfy the Sperlings,” McCauley said.
Mike Sperling said that with other avenues exhausted, he plans to fight the shooting range in civil court.
“We can’t seem to get the government agencies that let it happen in the first place to react to the fact that my wife was shot,” Mike Sperling said. “My property is not safe, it still isn’t safe.”
