Friday, April 25, 2008
Gun range endures legal wrangling
License Commission puts decision on hold
By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
WORCESTER— A city gun range that Police Chief Gary J. Gemme wants to shut down for allegedly allowing some patrons to target shoot without a firearm license will remain open for now, after the city License Commission put off any decision on the chief’s request for at least two weeks.
A lawyer for the Boston Gun Range challenged the basis of the proposed license suspension at a hearing yesterday, arguing that under state law, a person may handle and shoot a firearm at a gun range if he or she is with someone who has a valid Firearm Identification Card.
The lawyer, James P. Ehrhard of Worcester, also argued that the undercover police officers who rented guns, and bought and fired ammunition at the Route 20 range while posing as civilians without FID cards in a sting operation late last month, are licensed to carry firearms by virtue of being sworn police officers.
“We may not have seen the licenses, but the ordinance doesn’t say we have to,” Mr. Ehrhard said. He later added, “There’s been no violation. Four licensed police officers fired guns.”
After a back-and-forth legal debate between Mr. Ehrhard and Capt. John J. Ryder, head of the Police Department’s Licensing Division, over city and state laws governing firearms, the License Commission voted to put off its decision on the suspension request until at least its next meeting, May 8.
“This is a very complex issue. There’s been a lot thrown at us. I need to absorb this a little bit more,” said Chairman Kevin O’Sullivan.
Commissioners Peter Lukes and Karon Shea agreed.
“It’s confusing to me,” said Ms. Shea of the flurry of legal arguments and counterarguments advanced by Mr. Ehrhard and the three police officers who testified at the hearing. “I’m really at a loss as to the right direction.”
Chief Gemme has asked the License Commission to suspend Boston Gun Range’s city license to operate what city law classifies as a “shooting gallery.”
Mr. Ehrhard told the commissioners that while he didn’t want to see that happen, such an action would not shut down Boston Gun Range. He argued that the business could continue to operate as a gun range under state laws.
The business holds other licenses — to rent firearms, sell ammunition and to operate as a gunsmith — issued directly by the Police Department, not the License Commission.
Those licenses have been suspended by the chief, but the suspensions aren’t being enforced while Boston Gun Range challenges them in Worcester Superior Court.
Those suspensions stemmed from an investigation into a suicide in October 2006 at the 317 Southwest Cutoff range.
In another incident in February, a handgun fired by a customer at the range malfunctioned and exploded in his hand, inflicting a minor injury. Police investigated the accident and found that of the four men who were shooting in the injured man’s group, only two had firearms licenses.
Police said that’s a violation of a city ordinance. The range maintains it’s allowed under state law.
Mr. Ehrhard, sitting beside range owner Mark Tashjian, said during yesterday’s hearing that Chief Gemme has seemed bent on closing the range ever since the suicide.
“I understand the chief doesn’t like the Boston Gun Range, but he’s not the Legislature. He’s not the City Council. He’s not even the License Commission,” Mr. Ehrhard said in one of several comments seeming to question the chief’s motivation in seeking the license suspension.
Chief Gemme, who was away at a police conference in Florida, said in a telephone interview yesterday afternoon that the notion he is out to get Boston Gun Range is a “worn-out legal tactic.”
“I don’t have any personal issues with them. My issue is public safety,” he said. “When you look at known gang members and violent offenders using that range to develop expertise, and when you look at injuries to a suicide, not their first suicide, it’s my obligation to make sure we investigate that.”
Mr. O’Sullivan, the commission chairman, said during the hearing that he hadn’t spoken to Chief Gemme about the Boston Gun Range, but the police allegations represent a licensing matter worthy of the commission’s attention.
“It’s a serious issue,” he said.
![[thinking]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/010.gif "Thinking [thinking]")
