Horry county site for public gun range shot down

The county will not build a gun range on Solid Waste Authority property along Highway 90 near the Hillsborough and other local communities, Horry Councilman Johnny Vaught announced Tuesday.

The decision came as nearly 50 local residents packed a small hearing room of the Infrastructure and Regulation Committee that Vaught chairs that planned to discuss moving forward with the public-private partnership gun range near Conway.

Instead, Vaught asked county staff to explore another location, and pledged that as long as he was a member of the council, a shooting range would not be constructed on that location.

Residents who turned out for the hearing complained that the proposed site was too close to several large neighborhoods including Hillsborough, Glenmoore, and Avalon, and that the noise from the range would lower property values and disturb residents.

James Galantino, who moved to Hillsborough 18 months ago, gathered support against the proposal and said he was pleased that location was eliminated from future discussion.

“The noise would have affected the community,” Galantino said. “The constant noise would have been incredible, because it would have lasted for hours on end, and multiple days during the week — especially when it geared up and turned into sport shooting with competition with people coming in from all over the country.”

“It would have driven property values down, and we have a lot of veterans in our community with PTSD,” Galantino said.

The issue first arose in June after a county resident complained that a neighbor was firing weapons too close to his house. County officials are contemplating whether to create an ordinance that would ban the firing of weapons in certain clustered neighborhoods, rather than issuing a county-wide ban on shooting guns on private property.

The complaint also prompted the Horry County Council to revive plans abandoned several years ago to build a public shooting range for gun enthusiasts to use rather than target shooting on their property.

“When we raised the issue again, it’s because we were having an issue with people in Horry County who do not exhibit common sense and are firing rifles and pistols and other kinds of guns too close to neighbors,” Vaught said.

“We don’t want to infringe on people’s rights to fire their weapons on their property because of the fact some people are not using good common sense,” Vaught said. “We’re having to take some kind of consideration into how to handle the problem and one of the things we feel strongly about is having a firing range in Horry County, we feel it’s a good thing.”

The council focused their attention on the site off Highway 90, which had been vetted for that purpose two years ago, and adjusted their plans to operate the range as a public-private partnership with another business.

“That process was carried out without any input from you people,” Vaught told the crowd gathered Tuesday.

“We are not doing this with blinders on, we are not going to do this without input from the community,” Vaught said.

Vaught directed county staff to find a different location for the proposed shooting range that will not impact nearby neighborhoods.

“As long as I’m on County Council, it will never come up again,” Vaught said about the Highway 90 location. “I can give you my promise right now it will not happen on solid waste authority property.”

“This is what democracy is all about,” Vaught said.