Shooting range aims at 2018 opening
Panel approves plan to develop two old factory buildings as indoor firing range
WOONSOCKET – The only indoor public shooting range in northern Rhode Island is now poised to open here by 2018 after the Zoning Board of Review approved a Massachusetts businessman’s application for the facility on River Street Tuesday night.
The shooting range at 1158 River St. is one component Martin Dean Chapman’s plans to renovate two old factory buildings situated next door to each other near the Blackstone line. The zoning board approved his proposal for a retail gun shop at 1174 River St. nearly three years ago.
Aformer Green Beret who operates the Pheasant Ridge Gun Shop in Seekonk, Chapman says he expects to meet all his renovation deadlines for River Street Tactical despite his full-time commitments to the existing firearms outlet. He says the retail component of the new business will open well in advance of the shooting range and he expects to invest nearly $1 million to get the multi-facet project off the ground.
“At this point there shouldn’t be any surprises,” said Chapman. “I’m very particular about what I do and I’d rather do it right than do it twice. I’ve already made a lot of improvements to the building and I’m continuing to do so, but everything is now coming together.”
Tuesday night’s meeting marked the third time the firing range had been on the agenda of a zoning board meeting since July, but two other meetings were canceled for lack of a voting quorum.
Scott Maclennan, a second alternate member of the board, said Chapman’s proposal was unanimously approved Tuesday. Including himself, first alternate Paul Pierannunzi, Roland Michaud – filling in as chairman – Normand Frechette and Roland Masse all voted in favor of the plan,
Maclennan said. Chairman Alan Leclaire was absent and Kathryn Dumais recused herself, citing a possible conflict because her husband is a friend and business associate of Chapman.
Several members of the City Council spoke in favor of the proposal and a letter from Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III expressing support for the firing range was entered into the record, according to Maclennan.
“All in all it’s a piece of property that was underutilized and now we have something in its place,” said Maclennan. “Hopefully this is a catalyst for other opportunities to come about and to see that Woonsocket is businessfriendly.”
One glitch that kept zoners from considering the firing range earlier was the absence of any regulatory framework for shooting firearms in public, an issue the city council addressed earlier this year. Previously, local lawbooks prohibited the discharge of firearms in the city under any circumstances except by law enforcement.
In February, the city council passed an ordinance carving out an exception for discharging firearms at an indoor range. The measure also establishes operational standards and a procedure for licensing such facilities.
Daria Bruno, a firearms instructor and host of Lock Stock and Daria, a gun-related radio talk show carried by WPRO-FM 99.7 and AM 630 on Sundays, is predicting River Street Tactical will get a warm welcome from shooting enthusiasts.
Bruno says there are a number of private shooting ranges and gun clubs in the region, but investors are increasingly catering to firearms enthusiasts looking for the no-strings experience of a public range. Private clubs generally come with membership fees, worksharing responsibilities and hierarchical forms of governance that some shooters find off-putting.
And there’s a dearth of public shooting venues – especially in the northern part of the state, according to Bruno, who attended Tuesday’s meeting of the zoning board.
“All of the public ranges are south of Coventry,” she said. “They’re all in the southern part of the state. The thing that’s really going to work for River Street Tactical is that it’s in the northern part of the state.”
A new public shooting range has opened in the state during each of the last three years, and two more are expected to open soon, but none are in the Greater Woonsocket area, she said.
Chapman said he’ll need to crank up his marketing thinkcap, in particular for the retail store, due to something gun suppliers have taken to calling the “Trump Slump.” Because most gun enthusiasts perceive President Trump to be an ardent supporter of the National Rifle Association and gun rights, many consumers think there’s plenty of time to purchase a firearm they might have previously felt pressured to buy sooner in a potentially more gun-regulated political climate.
“People are comfortable now,” said Chapman. “We all wanted Trump to get in, but his presidency has killed business.”
Chapman said he has already begun talking to Provo, Utah-based Action Target to design the shooting range, which he envisions as a state of the art facility with a commercial bullet-collection system and anti-ricochet walls made of sound-buffering materials.
The two buildings Chapman is renovating represent a combined 22,756 square feet of space, including some 16,556 in the largest of the two buildings – a two-story at 1174 River St. that would house the retail store. The buildings were previously owned by Cardinal Chemical Company and had lain vacant for some time before Chapman acquired them several years ago.