Take Me To Post Comment Form We are both blessed and cursed by the presence of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources shooting range located just south of Mansfield in Jasper County. It is known alternately by two names, the Charlie Elliot Shooting Range and the Clybel WMA Shooting Range. It is a very nice facility, open six days a week and free to the general public.

Blessed because it gives gun owners like me a safe place for recreational shooting. We probably have a lot fewer rural traffic signs shot full of holes by virtue of having a designated range.

Cursed because the range is adjacent to the Charlie Elliot Wildlife Center where families go to fish, hike, camp, birdwatch, picnic, ride horses and otherwise peacefully enjoy the abundant gifts of Mother Nature, all to the bone-jarring sound of semi-automatic weapons fire.

Saturdays are the worst, when visitors to both facilities are at their highest. I have been in Central American war zones where fewer munitions were expended than at the shooting range this past Saturday. And from the sound of things, our recreational forces also out-gunned both sides in the war.

I am not against guns, gun owners, or recreational shooting. I do think the size and type of weapons used at this public firing range should be limited so as to reduce the noise. I also think user-fees should be instituted to fund a range master position to supervise use of the facility. The military, law enforcement, and even the Boy Scouts recognize the necessity of a range master to ensure safety at firing ranges. So should the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.