Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Fifty Calibre Shooters Association (UK) submission of 4 June 2021
PE1874/A - Introduce legislation to create artillery and firearms exclusion zones around places of spiritual importance and religious worship
As the Club responsible for the operation of the rifle range at Over Cassock which is one of the ranges referred to in this petition we have concerns about some of the statements made in the petition being factually incorrect.
"Applications for two new private firearms ranges have recently been made for development beside Samye Ling Buddhist Monastery in Dumfriesshire."
The range is not new, it has been in operation since 2017 without a single issue or complaint. The range is not beside Samye Ling, it is over 6km away and faces away from the monastery. The planning application is to replace the temporary buildings on the range with a permanent one.
"The operators have marketed their sites to the US military, who have already held exercises on the land."
We are a target shooting club, we do not market our services to any military and no exercises have ever been held on our land.
"The sound of regular gunfire would be intrusively detrimental to Samye Ling’s peaceful environment."
As noted above our range at Over Cassock is over 6km away also and faces away from the monastery, we have commissioned an independent Noise Impact Assessment which has shown that there is no disturbance to the residents at Samye Ling.