{"id":3153,"date":"2024-04-18T11:07:23","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T11:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/?p=3153"},"modified":"2024-04-18T11:07:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T11:07:23","slug":"david-v-goliath-small-gun-club-wages-constitutional-battle-in-missouri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/?p=3153","title":{"rendered":"David v. Goliath: Small Gun Club Wages Constitutional Battle in Missouri"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri.webp\" data-caption=\"Glendale Shooting Club Photo\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"391\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri-696x391.webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri-696x391.webp 696w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri-700x393.webp 700w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri-150x84.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri-747x420.webp 747w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri-560x315.webp 560w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Glendale-Shooting-Club-Missouri.webp 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" alt=\"\" title=\"Glendale Shooting Club Missouri\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Glendale Shooting Club Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During its heyday, the Glendale Shooting Club located near Robertsville, Missouri, was home to shotgun, silhouette, high-power rifle, handgun and cowboy action shooters. It hosted regular matches, including the Bauer Brothers Cup, and had around 400 active members.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, the clay shooting is long gone as are the matches, and the members\u2014only around 140 remain\u2014are writing personal checks to subsidize a convoluted and confusing legal fight that began 40 years ago.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stakes are extremely high. If the club loses its legal battle, Missouri\u2019s shooting range protection act could be declared unconstitutional, which could impact every firearm range in the Show Me State.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf we lose, the ballgame is over,\u201d said Glendale Shooting Club treasurer Jim Hopkins. \u201cIt would be as bad as losing our preemption statute, which protects every pro-gun law in the state. It\u2019s up to the courts now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David Bohm, a St. Louis-based attorney who has represented the club for the past several years, agrees.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt could open the door to potential injunctive actions against other ranges,\u201d Bohm said. \u201cWe\u2019re aware of other ranges where houses are even closer to the firing line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hopkins has personally donated more than $30,000 to the legal battle. He estimates the club has spent more than $200,000 to defend its members\u2019 Second Amendment rights.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Glendale Shooting Club was founded in 1928 by high-minded wealthy families from the St. Louis area who wanted a safe place to recreate with their firearms. Over the years, the club moved several times until 1976, when it purchased 107 acres in eastern Franklin County.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Problems began with the neighbors, Raymond and Veronica Racine, who since 1967 had owned 78 acres adjacent to the club. In 1983, the Racines sued the club in circuit court primarily over noise. In their complaint, the Racines claimed the club used the land for \u201ctarget practice, local, regional and national shooting matches conducted with automatic weapons, handguns, shotguns and high-powered rifles.\u201d The Racines alleged the noise occurred \u201con a daily basis at all hours of the day and night.\u201d The couple asked the court to permanently stop or enjoin the club from shooting on its property.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court agreed with the Racines, finding that \u201cthe use of the (Club\u2019s) land as described by the evidence constituted an abatable continuing temporary nuisance, to the extent that it substantially impaired the right of the Plaintiffs to peacefully enjoy their own adjoining land. The sustained noise found by the court to be a nuisance did cause actual inconvenience and physical discomfort to the Plaintiffs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather than ordering the club to cease its operations as the Racines wanted, the circuit court tried to split the baby, but the decision was terrible\u2014 a hellbroth of conditions no club would want and few could survive. In its injunction, the court ordered the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No shooting before 9 a.m. or after dark or 6 p.m.<\/li>\n<li>No more than 10 shooting matches per year, and only two high-power rifle matches.<\/li>\n<li>No more than two matches in any one month, and only one on a Sunday.<\/li>\n<li>No more than 8 persons can shoot at one time during a pistol match.<\/li>\n<li>No more than 8 persons can shoot at any time, club-wide, other than during a rifle match.<\/li>\n<li>No shooting of shotguns or firearms of a caliber greater than a .22 except between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and during a rifle match.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For a club that prided itself on its matches, the injunction was damning, and the requirement that only eight members could shoot at one time significantly impacted its daily operations. After all, the Club has five ranges: one for pistols and .22 caliber rimfire rifles, three multi-purpose 50-yard ranges and a 200-yard rifle range. The eight-shooters-only rule caused membership to plummet, and it never recovered.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enter, the Missouri Range Protection Act<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1988, one year after the permanent injunction was issued, the club falsely believed Missouri\u2019s General Assembly had come to their rescue after it passed a range protection statute, which granted firearm ranges \u201cimmunity from nuisance and trespass actions and prohibit courts from enjoining the use or operation of firearm ranges on the basis of noise or sound emission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1989, one year after the statute became law, the Racines sold their 78-acre property to William and Jeri Landolt.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be clear, the Landolts purchased the property knowing full well there was a shooting range next door.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather than filing suit immediately after the range protection act became law, Hopkins said the club waited until the language was clarified. When passed, the act only covered \u201cnormal use\u201d of a shooting range.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThat was a problem for us, since the court could have found that for us normal use included the injunction,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cBy 1998, the \u2018normal use\u2019 language had been removed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1998, the Club asked the circuit court to dissolve the permanent injunction, arguing that it had \u201cbeen rendered absurd and unjust\u201d by the state\u2019s range protection act. The club added that they had made major renovations to abate the noise. The circuit court dismissed the club\u2019s motion to dissolve the injunction and the club appealed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2000, a Missouri court of appeals reversed the lower court\u2019s judgement, but not on the merits of the club\u2019s motion. The appellate court said the circuit court erred when it concluded that the range protection statute did not apply because of the injunction. The court remanded the case back to the circuit court with the order that the court should consider the effect that the state statute had on enforcement of the injunction. The circuit court was told to have an evidentiary hearing to see if the injunction had been made \u201cabsurd or unjust\u201d by the club\u2019s noise abatement modifications. However, both the Landolts and the club opted for a settlement agreement instead, which precluded \u201cfurther litigation over the injunction for a period of not less than 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Club ran out of money,\u201d treasurer Hopkins said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we settled, and we needed at least 20 years to raise money for the next round of litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back to Court<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2021, after the 20-year settlement agreement expired, the club went back to the circuit court and asked the judge to dissolve the permanent injunction pursuant to the state\u2019s range protection act. The Landolts\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.courts.mo.gov\/file.jsp?id=189798\">countered by arguing<\/a>\u00a0that the act constituted a \u201ctaking\u201d of their property rights \u201cwithout compensation, and is therefore unconstitutional pursuant to Art. I, \u00a726 and \u00a728 of the Missouri constitution, and the 5th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The judge ruled in favor of the club and set aside the injunction. However, the Landolts appealed again by challenging the constitutionality of the state\u2019s range protection act.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The case made its way to the Supreme Court of Missouri, but rather than clarifying the lower courts\u2019 decisions, the high court punted and dodged the constitutional question. On March 21, 2023, the justices vacated the circuit court\u2019s decision and remanded the case back for addition proceedings, because the club \u201crelied exclusively on a change in law to support its motion for summary judgment and did not assert uncontroverted material facts demonstrating the change in law rendered the continued enforcement of the injunction inequitable, the circuit court erred in entering summary judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI will state that if the court had addressed this (constitutional) issue, it likely would not have upheld that argument,\u201d attorney Bohm said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, the Landolts and the club are preparing for trial in circuit court, which could happen as soon as April 2025. The Landolts want to argue their case in front of a jury. Both sides have started depositions. Meanwhile, the club erected a noise barrier and is conducting expensive sound testing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey are doing everything they can to reduce the level of noise at the Landolts\u2019 home,\u201d Bohm said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, the injunction remains in effect. Jeri Landolt, whose actual last name is Cashin except in court documents, has been keeping a log of alleged violations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cShe complained that we once started shooting at 8:58 a.m., but our members said they started at 9 a.m. per the injunction. It\u2019s all a matter of whose watch was right,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cShe also complained that the Franklin County Sheriff\u2019s SWAT team once trained until 6:05 p.m. \u2013 five minutes past the time limit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David L. Baylard, a Union, Missouri-based attorney who represented the Landolts before the Supreme Court of Missouri and in the current litigation, did not respond to calls or emails seeking his comments for this story.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fighting the Good Fight<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Glendale Shooting Club has established a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.givesendgo.com\/GC5UB\"><strong>GiveSendGo page<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0they hope will raise additional funds for its upcoming legal battles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Said Hopkins: \u201cFor almost 40 years Glendale\u2019s members have fought to get this injunction lifted. The club is a shadow of what it once was because of it, but our members are not giving up. They\u2019ve put years of blood, sweat and tears into it, spending just about every single dollar they\u2019ve had. We\u2019ve come close a time or two but each time the courts have shot us down. And now it\u2019s an even bigger issue. We\u2019ve had to defend a state statute, one saying you can\u2019t enjoin a range like ours, from being declared unconstitutional. People don\u2019t realize it\u2019s much larger than just our club. There are over 40 states with similar statutes protecting shooting ranges. Depending on where this goes, the impact on gun owners all over the county could be a disaster. It\u2019s something you try not to even think about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/david-v-goliath-small-gun-club-wages-constitutional-battle-in-missouri\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Glendale Shooting Club Photo During its heyday, the Glendale Shooting Club located near Robertsville, Missouri, was home to shotgun, silhouette, high-power rifle, handgun and cowboy action shooters. It hosted regular matches, including the Bauer Brothers Cup, and had around 400 active members. Today, the clay shooting is long gone as are the matches, and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reviews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}