Glastonbury State Police Firearms Training Facility

As we remain in the shadow of the Sandy Hook tragedies and our state continues to be under unprecedented budgetary pressures and citizens remain out of work and struggling with higher taxes, why is our state contemplating transforming peaceful, public land, used for running, hiking and families into a shooting gallery? How is it the best use of our state resources to build a firearms training facility in a residential neighborhood? The proposed location for the new Connecticut State Police Firearms Training Facility is yards away from houses, 2 miles from Hopewell School and 3 miles from Eastbury School. These combined two elementary schools enroll over 800 Kindergarten through fifth grade students. How can anyone deny that this is a residential area filled with children? Never mind that my children attend the Hopewell Elementary School, in the wake of Sandy Hook how can we demand that any school be subject to the noise pollution such a facility will create? The last thing we should want is for any child to become immune to sounds of gunfire. This facility is set to be open six days a week – six days of children being subjected to hearing gunfire at home and on the playground.

The proposed $6M site in Glastonbury would include a number of firing ranges both indoor and outdoor, active shooter training ranges, rifles range and pistol qualifying range. The proposal includes a firearms vault and an ammunitions storage vault. 30 acres of the Meshomasic Forest are proposed to be used. Connecticut State Police (CSP) officers are required to qualify twice per year and there are over 1000 current state police. The CSP Firearms Training Facility would be used for the CSP and other state, federal, international and host community law enforcement agencies. International law enforcement agencies – who are we inviting to use this proposed facility? This proposal is for a major training facility for the CSP. This is a large scope project. Do the benefits to having such a training facility in our community over-ride the negative consequences to the neighboring community? Noise and traffic might seem like a small price to pay for safety – however this assumes that there is no other location for such a facility to exist in Connecticut. I find this to be an incredibly false assumption.

The Meshomasic State Forest began in 1903. It was the first State Forest in Connecticut as well as in New England and the second in the country. The rocky forested terrain of the Meshomasic State Forest is home to the largest population of timber rattlesnakes, an endangered and protected species. Can we ignore that the proposal to build 55,000 square feet of training building(s), 2 control towers, shooting ranges, approximately 125 space parking lot, and water, septic, telecom and electrical utilities will impact the rattlesnakes? Not to mention the noise and the activity of running a six day a week facility. Perhaps the environmental impact of displacing the rattlesnakes should be evaluated as well as the impact displacing rattlesnakes will have on the neighboring residential area, filled with many families with many children, and schools. Timber rattlesnakes are considered the most dangerous snakes in North America due to their long fangs, impressive size (up to 60 inches and 10 pounds), and their high venom yield.

Criticism of those opposing the firearms facility in Glastonbury, blast the petition against the facility as a ‘typical not in my town refrain’ and cite the critical need to provide proper training facilities for our state police. As someone opposed to the firearms facility, I concur with these statements. This is a not in my town refrain, absolutely. I would have this same voice, if the proposal was to relocate the CSP training facility to downtown Hartford or if the proposal was to build an international airport in Glastonbury. There are dangerous things in this world, we cannot protect ourselves against every danger but we can exercise common sense. Common sense is to allow the CSP an adequate training facility so that our police can serve and protect to the best of their abilities. Serving and protection that includes putting the welfare of our children first and foremost. Common sense is to not locate this training facility in a residential area nor near schools. I hope the Commissioner will give adequate weight to my concerns and strongly consider scoping a more appropriate location which would be more conduction to the needs of the Connecticut State Police. Our state police need to be supported. Our neighborhoods and children need to be supported as well.