Golf Club Owner Says Gunshots Are Too Loud

Gunshots from neighboring shooting ranges are disrupting golfers and residents alike at the Londonderry Country Club, the club's owner told the Town Council Monday night.

The country club abuts the Musquash Conservation Area. The Londonderry Fish and Game Club's shooting range sits across that conservation land to the south of the country club. Londonderry police have also begun shooting on town-owned land nearby in recent years. 

And country club owner Tom Kimball says the gunshots are so loud it sounds like they are ringing out from just feet away.

"It's disrupting the peace and dignity of the residents," Kimball said at Monday night's Town Council meeting. He said some residents report the gunshots to police, not realizing they are coming from the nearby ranges.

Councilor Joe Green said he heard gunshots from the shooting ranges over the weekend.

"I was on the soccer field Sunday and there was loud banging. Kids there said, 'What's going on?' and I said there was a firing range pretty close," he said. "It's an education process. Maybe people just don't realize it's there until they hear the gunshots, but it was like a cowboy shoot-out Sunday."

Council Chairman John Farrell proposed moving an upcoming Town Council meeting to the grounds of the club to hear first hand the impact that gunshots have. Councilors and staff agreed to schedule a meeting soon.

"We'll ask the police department if they could go out and use the firing range so we could all understand what Mr. Kimball's business is facing and see if we could all put our heads together," he said Monday. "...I don't know the answer, but what I do know is that I'm not going to find it sitting in this room."

Kimball said he'd like to see the shooting moved to an indoor firing range – either at an existing location, like one he mentioned just over the town line in Manchester, or at a facility to be built in Londonderry.

"Now that we have more and more police and there's over 500 members of the Fish and Game Club out there, it seems reasonable that either they go and support that (Manchester) business or build a new facility to compensate all this shooting that has to go on," he told the council.

Twelve years ago, Kimball put forward an ordinance that would have banned outdoor shooting in Londonderry. But that measure failed at town meeting in 1990, he said.

"I have been through this before with Town Council and with police chiefs, not you guys, but back in 1990," he told the councilors. "... You have known you have a problem here for over 20 years and now you're just getting around to it."

Londonderry Police Chief and Acting Town Manager William Hart said the police department would be ready to participate in the test.

"We look forward to assisting you in helping you find some answers to this problem," he said Monday.

No special meeting has been scheduled, but Farrell said the public would be notified and invited to attend.