Police chief: We need a shooting range

The Huntington Beach Police Department has been without its own shooting range since the mid-1990s, but a proposal could bring such a facility back and save the department money and time, since the officers have to travel out of the area to practice at other facilities.

Police Chief Robert Handy explained to council members during a study session Monday that the city could convert a 14,500-square-foot warehouse in the city-owned storage yard into an 11-lane indoor gun range where his 222 officers could train with their handguns and rifles.

Eight of the lanes, at 25 yards long, would be used for handgun practice, while the remaining three lanes would be 50 yards long, allowing for officers to train with rifles, he said.

Construction estimates range from $1.5 million to $1.7 million, Handy said, adding that this includes reinforcing the floor of the building to accommodate a gun range.

“Firearms training is a perishable skill, which requires very consistent and ongoing practice to be proficient,” he told the council. “The state of California also requires us to train and test our officers on an annual basis and we have to track that and report to the state.”

The department has hired an engineering firm to study the possibility of converting the site. The seven-member council indicated general support for the proposal.

Huntington Beach police officers have been splitting time between two shooting ranges, and doing so has cost the department time and money that could be used toward better policing, Handy said.

Officers have to travel about 27 miles round trip to the Buena Park Police Department’s shooting range to practice handgun use. But when they have to train with their rifle, officers travel about 84 miles roundtrip to Raahauge Shooting Enterprises in Corona.

Officers train with a handgun six times a year and twice a year with their rifles. To send 222 officers out for training costs the department about $400,000 a year, which includes range fees, fuel and vehicle maintenance costs, Handy said.

For decades, the Police Department had its own shooting range next to the Huntington Beach Central Library. However, the facility was closed in 1997 because of lead contamination from the accumulation of bullet fragments and other problems, including a bullet from the range hitting a nearby house.

Officers briefly used the shooting range at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station but stopped in part because a bullet ricocheted off the grounds, Handy said.

To help offset the construction costs, Handy said the facility could be rented out to other law enforcement agencies. There are no plans to open the range to the public, he added.