So none of that money derives from Clark County coffers? I said.
"Clark County has put in labor work only," said Turner. Moreover, he told me that he's fixin' for the park, which will be run as a business with charges for respective range use, to be self-sufficient in three years, and to have any loans paid off in six.
He said, "Just wait 'til you see the park, when it's completed: It'll be worth every penny." And that's because, from what I gather, there'll be nothing in either Southern Nevada or the rest of the world like it: 2,900 acres of myriad shooting ranges, both indoor and out, classrooms, simulated hunting courses, a pro shop, a cafeteria, a convenience store, RV camping grounds and too much more to continue on.
And that's cool. But does this place really have a chance to succeed? Nah, I said. People ain't gonna come. Then Turner told me: "I could be booking seven to eight national events right now (we just don't have a fixed estimation to offer for when we'll open the next phase, which is the event module)."
Furthermore, there are more than 200 shooting events in the U.S. each year, and Turner said having facilities in Las Vegas makes it easy to attract them. "Or, for example, you can take the weekend NASCAR is in Las Vegas," he said.
Okay. "That's 100,000 NASCAR fans in town for three days, and studies show that 80 to 85 percent of NASCAR fans are also gun owners."
Naturally.
"So those are potential visitors to our park. We'll be competing for them."
With other gun ranges?
"No: with other forms of entertainment in Las Vegas."
Wondering about the locals, I spoke to a woman who goes by the name Charming. She's the president of the Eldorado Cowboys, one of nine shooting clubs in Southern Nevada, and she said: "Yes sir, that's right: We can't wait for the new shooting range." Because, she continued, there ain't but two outdoor ranges in Clark County right now for her club to get their rounds in, the Desert Sportsman on West Charleston and the Boulder Rifle and Pistol Club in Boulder City.
Turner said reports indicate that there's a gun owner in one out of every three households in Clark County, and, from his experience, that old Wild West attitude still lingers in the Southwest, even if only in the form of nostalgia. There's precedent, said Turner, who led the successful Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Arizona. He told me there were more than 260,000 day visits sold per year by the time he left to take on this bigger, better endeavor in Las Vegas, and one event even saw 20,000 fans in attendance.
But that's Arizona, I said, where one out of every two households contains a gun, and where people are quirky, no doubt, but tame. The good Lord knows that we Southern Nevadans, on the other hand, are some crazy sons a bitches, and from what I've seen, indocile too, just like wild horses. Charming said she, like many of the longtime residents of this region, knows people who take regular expeditions to the desert to shoot their guns. "And they only do it because there's nowhere else to go," she said.
In actuality, it was the desert shooting that spurred the idea of this park into action, I'm told. Authorities took alarm to the inherent dangers of the popular practice after a Metro police sergeant was killed by a runaway desert bullet in 1996, and then a Shadow Ridge High football player was hit with a stray during practice in 2005.
At any rate, I said to myself, there must've at least been some good political debate over this massive project involving guns. I could see the Grand Ol' Party wearing their NRA hats and huntsman's gear cheering on the idea, and the implacable Democrats decrying the promotion of guns, which leads to violence, which leads to war, which leads to George Bush, the emphatic (and effective) conclusion to their every argument. But more than anything, the Democrats must've been deprecating the idea for the park because a Republican like John Ensign obtained the land for it from the BLM four years ago, and Republicans like Jim Gibbons sponsored the Clark County Shooting Range Conveyance Act to usher the project along.
But that wasn't the case at all. Senate majority leader Harry Reid worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Ensign to obtain the money for the project, and in fact it was Dirty Harry there at the park site last month, breaking ground on the project and shooting off the first round, at a clay pigeon. His son, Rory, the county commissioner in whose district the park will stand, was there, too, and when I later asked him about the bipartisan unity on this project, he said:
"Everyone's behind it; I don't know of anyone who's not."
Which of course made me think that there must be some kind of corruption here. Especially with this Valley's ignominious record, epitomized as of late by the Erin Kennys, Dario Herreras, Mary Kincaid-Chaunceys, and the eternal suspects Michael Mack, Michael McDonald and far too many others to list here. But everyone and everything involved with this park appears clean: It is government land obtained by government figures, handed over to other government employees to build and operate. (And the land, now zoned rural, will be changed to permit a public facility without friction.) And the jobs will go to locals, Turner said, unless the occupation calls for some discipline of expertise not present here in Clark County.
"Las Vegas is the biggest metropolitan area without a public shooting range," said Turner. "Our philosophy is to provide a civil service here, a place that is safe, fun and family-orientated."
A shooting range—family-oriented? Good Lord! Ain't a place with rampant shooting a bit too dangerous for children? Who in their right mind would bring his child to a gun range?
"You know, technically speaking," said Turner, slinging another insurmountable answer from his hip. "Statistics show that it's actually safer to bring your child to a shooting park than it is to bring them to a neighborhood playground ... "
"Plus," Turner said, "if you're 16 or under, adult supervision is mandated."
I knew where he was going. Anyone here who watches the news understands that there are many youths not just strapped but antsy with guns on the streets of this town, wholly unsupervised.
Commissioner Reid put it this way: "I think everybody understands this is a safety issue. I'm often a destination for people's complaints, and I've yet to receive one complaint about this [shooting park].
"And, it's a chance for the county's recreation department to generate some real revenue."
Ah, hell: It appears that, in the end, no one's against it. Not even me. Nor even the good Lord, whom Don Turner is hoping will see that the construction of his shooting range develops without event through 2007, and its doors open to the public in January of 2008.