Fairview Police gun range project sparks safety concerns

FAIRVIEW, Tenn. (WSMV) - People in Fairview are very concerned about a proposed police training complex, including a gun range, that could be built near new subdivisions and three schools.

Jackson Brunger’s family has owned farmland in Fairview for more than 100 years near the proposed gun range site along Dice Lampley Road.

He said it’s always been a peaceful area with the Bowie Nature Park, and he thinks the police training would put families at risk.

“Safety is the number one concern,” Brunger said. “There are neighbors here that are 1,000 feet away. You can see one of the people’s houses through the woods here. There is livestock all around here. Then the schools are less than a mile away, which bullets travel much farther than that.”

Brunger said the most controversial part of the development proposal is a 50-foot shooting training tower that officers want to build and use at all hours of the day and night on the outdoor range.

The Fairview Board of Commissioners held a public hearing about a zoning change to allow the tall tower last week where Brunger and around a dozen other people spoke in opposition to the change. City leaders decided to defer any votes on the issue until later in January.

Beyond the risk of stray bullets, Brunger and other neighbors are concerned about noise pollution filling the area that was given to the city as a nature preserve with constant gunshots. They think property values at the multiple subdivisions in the area under construction will be hurt and students at Fairview schools will be scared by the noise.

“I’m hoping they shut it down completely and turn it into a nature preserve like they promised to Ms. Bowie when she gave them to property back in 1988-89,” Brunger said. “They signed on the dotted line and they promised to preserve this as a nature preserve, not a city dump.”

Fairview Police Chief Zach Humphreys refused to answer WSMV’s questions for this story about why he thinks the gun range is needed and what’s being done to minimize the impact on schools in the area.

A city spokesperson directed WSMV to Humphreys’ comments at an October Board of Commissioners work session where he said the only people who have opposed the proposal do not have any police experience and presented a hand-drawn picture claiming the tower would be safe because they would construct a 20-foot berm downrange of the range.

In the presentation, Humphreys talked about multiple court cases that require police officers to have regular training and talked about the potential cost to the city if a lawsuit is filed for police misconduct.

Brunger said people in the area would be fine with an indoor gun range that would be much quieter and stop bullets. He at least wants the city to clean up the property where he would ride bikes as a child that’s now being used for brush dumping and utility company storage.

A spokesperson with Williamson County Schools said they were not familiar with the proposal and the potential impact the gun range would have on Fairview students.