The Squamish Valley Rod and Gun Club continues to operate in a manner that disrupts the lives of thousands of Squamish residents. The club’s proximity to town has been questioned numerous times in the past for safety and noise concerns. Despite these concerns, the club continues to expand operations and see increased use with no regard to its neighbours. There is no debate that gun clubs provide a valuable service to communities when properly located away from populated areas. Unfortunately, the location of the Squamish club has become completely inappropriate as the town has grown around it.
The club is located on Crown land on Centennial Way east of the Eagle Vista RV park, but if you are sitting in your quiet living room up to 5 km away in Garibaldi Highlands and some other parts of Squamish, the sound of gunfire would make you think that it is right down the street. The club’s rules and regulations make no stipulations or efforts to control the amount of noise that it sends into our living rooms.
The club boasts numerous improvements over the past few years, including, but not limited to, the construction of a washhouse, storage sheds, driveway improvement, trap machine replacement, new biathlon and archery range clearing. There is no indication that any time effort or money was spent to enhance sound control or safety measures for the surrounding community. The addition of less impactful activities such as archery and biathlon does nothing to diminish the negative impacts of the club’s core activities.
The argument that they are Squamish’s oldest club and that many other jurisdictions use the facility for training purposes, means very little to the residents of Squamish who would like to raise their children outside of the shadow of gunfire. There are steps that can be taken to help the club better coexist with its neighbours. If the club has enough money to build new archery and biathlon ranges on its current site, then it has enough money to build ranges for trap shooting and high-powered rifles on a remote site away from thousands of people’s homes. At the very least, the complete lack of noise and time of use restrictions needs to be addressed by the incoming council. These are just a few of the changes that could be made to help the rod and gun club coexist more peacefully with its neighbours.
Jeff Norman
Squamish
