Public sounds off in support, opposition of Dededo firing range

Homeowners who live within a hundred feet from Sportsland Shooting Range shared their concerns during a roundtable discussion held by the Guam Attorney General’s Office Thursday.

“This is my family’s property and my house is right here. We own all this land. So what happens when a stray bullet hits me and I die? who's responsible,” said Jake Charfauros.

The two-hour-long discussion included a back-and-forth between those who feel unsafe with the range and those who feel safer with it, like Lisa Ungpinco.

“You guys probably know the most the crime rate on Guam. The severe crime rate on women,” she said to the panel. “This shooting range provides a safe environment for people like me. to practice proper gun handling. Without that, what happens to me if an intruder comes in and I die?”

The island’s only outdoor shooting range was forced to close its doors last week after its business license renewal application wasn’t approved.

 

The Department of Revenue and Taxation ordered them to cease and desist after the Department of Land Management found that the range violated certain conditions.

The business sits on agriculturally zoned land and was granted a zone variance for a firing range over 40 years ago. That variance never expires but comes with four conditions that must be met. Land Management said they did not sign off on their business license as those conditions were not met, like not having barbed wire on their fence.

Plus with the topography changing over those 40 years, the range is now right in the middle of a densely populated residential area, which is a public safety concern.

“The reason why [they’re] stopping it is because there’s a school there, there’s a road there, and there’s a subdivision there,” Guam Attorney General Doug Moylan said.

Still, the shooting range’s new owner John Sablan says that shouldn’t be on him.

“In 2018, before I put over $1 million into this business, you should have told me you can’t do it,” he said.

Meanwhile, homeowner Frank Charfauros questioned why government officials didn’t vet the 40-year-old variance in the first place.

 

“In this day and age, critical thinking was lost that day when they said a 40-year-old variance can supersede the people here," he said in frustration. "The students at the school there cannot tell if there’s an active shooter going on." 

He said his home acts as a buffer for misfired bullets and he’s fed up with the noise pollution.

“I’ve heard bullets whizzing above me," Charfauros said. "On a calm day, I heard bullets come through the rain. I'm not saying it happens every day. I'm not saying your range is unsafe. I'm just saying accidents happen.”

His neighbor, Joseph Gumabon, said he was standing in his yard a few months ago when a stray bullet almost hit him. “Ever since then, I'm scared to bring my grandchildren out of my house because they’re always outside my house playing," he said. 

 

But Carmel Hester, who also lives nearby, said the gunshots had been going on well before the range opened back up.

“There are gunshots going off all the time like it’s a regular thing before the gun range was ever open," he said. "We bought the house in 2018 or 2019. It was before the gun range opened.”

Supporters testified that people shoot all the time in the jungles near the range. The attorney general noted that while it’s not illegal as they shoot 50 yards away from occupied dwellings, it puts misplaced blame on Sablan.

There were no answers today, but Land Management Director Joseph Borja suggested relocating the range altogether.

“We suggest that we relocate the firing range to a CHamoru Land Trust lease near or on the raceway parcel," he said. 

While Sablan wasn’t against the idea, he said it would take too long. The bottom line, he said, is every day that the range is closed is revenue and rights lost.