Pro-gun vote: Loveland target range wins nod

The Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that voters in referendum have overwhelmingly approved an amendment to allow a 15-lane shooting range facility in the Loveland city limits.

Voters were asked to affirm or repeal an amendment passed last summer by Loveland City Council, which allowed firearms to be discharged at an indoor target range. Previously, police officers and citizens defending themselves, their property or others were the only people permitted to fire a gun inside city limits.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting from Hamilton, Clermont and Warren counties, the referendum passed 1,267 to 824 (61%-39%).

Shooters' Supply Shop co-owner Dan Lovett called the vote "impressive."

"I think we won this election because the majority of people in this city realized that something has to be done to stop businesses from leaving. They know a project of this magnitude is going to draw other businesses to the area, as well as other customers for the existing businesses," Lovett told the Enquirer.

The company will build the range and shop at 1425 Loveland-Madeira Road. Lovett told the newspaper the contractor who will retrofit the building for the indoor range plans to hire mostly Loveland businesses to do the work.

"That can only stimulate the economy and drive the property values up, which we said would happen after this facility went into operation," Lovett was quoted as saying.

Lovett told the Enquirer he intends of offer free classes at the range so parents know what to teach their children when they encounter a firearm. He plans to devote one-third of the 15 shooting lanes to training exercises for local police.

Opponents who lived nearby and balked at the range as a safety hazard that would drag down property values and bring more guns into the city, told the newspaper Tuesday that they are done fighting.