After a nearly two year legal battle, a 34,000 square foot facility with 24 shooting lanes opened last week in Atlanta, Georgia. Stoddard’s Range and Guns is now the first commercial indoor shooting range within the city of Atlanta.
In the spring of 2013, the city wanted to create a gun range ordinance. Fortunately the owners, Michael Halbreich and Ken Baye, who are former legal real estate attorneys already had their permits to open the range, so the city was only able to prohibit future ranges from opening in the city.
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The facility is comprised of 24 shooting lanes, sixteen of which run 25 yards long, and another eight lanes that run 25 meters, accommodating both handguns and rifles. There is also a 6,500-square-foot retail section, which carries a variety of brands of firearms and firearm accessories as well as a 1,000-square-foot Beretta-branded store.
One of the owners’ original ideas was to create a place for Atlanta police to come practice their target skills, in the hopes of making the city a safer place. Halbreich and Baye wish to be a positive part of the community, bringing guns and gun safety to the neighborhood.
Thus far, there have been no complaints from neighbors about the range. The eight-foot deep concrete surrounding the range has clearly worked to minimize noise for the neighborhood.
