OPINION: Albuquerque Shooting Range Park: A crown jewel in disrepair

To firearms owners and shooters in the Albuquerque area, the Albuquerque Shooting Range Park probably needs no introduction. But for those of you who are neither, please allow me to acquaint you with the park.

The park is an amazing, permanent municipal facility that offers all manner of shooting sports. There is a public range for target shooting out to 750 yards. There are trap and skeet fields, and wobble trap, too. There are metallic silhouette and cowboy action ranges for competitions. And there are classrooms (and outdoor shooting bays) that allow instruction for those wanting to obtain concealed carry permits, and to introduce women to firearm-safety and self-defense training.

The park’s employees are wonderful. Those “on the firing line” are all National Rifle Association-qualified instructors who are extremely helpful. They are friendly and courteous, but very, very safety conscious. Whenever I introduce young friends to the shooting sports, I first take them to the park to show them how a proper range is run, and how to conduct themselves properly when shooting.

However, I fear that because of deferred maintenance, the park seems to have fallen on hard times. Here are my observations:   

• Target frames: The wooden frames that hold cardboard and paper targets are badly shot up and covered with splinters and staples that pose a danger to shooters. Layers of badly shot up and torn cardboard make the frames almost unusable.

• Shooting lanes: Each shooting bench is assigned a number. At different distances — 15, 25, 50, 75 yards — there are holes for target frames and distance markers that should correspond to the shooting benches, showing the shooters where to place their targets.  The number markers at each distance are shot to pieces, making it difficult for shooters to determine where to place their target frames. 

• Road conditions: The road from the registration office out to the trap and skeet fields is in deplorable condition, filled with axle-busting and tire-flattening potholes. When the potholes are filled, the patches are quickly destroyed, and the shoulders are in an equally wretched state. The road does not merely need repairs. It needs complete repaving.

The park should be a crown jewel of the Albuquerque Parks and Recreation Department. Instead it has fallen into disrepair, presumably because of a lack of funding. This must not be allowed to stand.  Even people who are critical of firearms and their owners — which may include some in the Keller administration — should be truly grateful for the existence of this excellent facility.

Why? Because the Park provides an environmentally friendly place for gun owners to pursue their various hobbies. (Though for some of us, myself included, firearms and the shooting sports are not mere hobbies — they are a way of life.). It also offers a very place to shoot, instead of shooters going off into the desert or hills to shoot bottles, cans and  even old appliances, leaving spent cartridge cases and shotshell hulls — and lead — everywhere.

In my opinion, it is imperative that the Keller administration and our City Council find the funds to bring the park back up to a condition that the city can be proud of.

David Zeuch is an Albuquerque resident and frequent visitor to Albuquerque Shooting Range Park.