Let’s go ahead and get all the jokes out of the way right now, pardner.
Powder Springs will be Wild, Wild West Cobb, the home of booze and bullets, of shooters with shooters. It’ll be the land of shots — from pistols and bottles.
That’s been the talk, serious and in jest, since Monday, when the Powder Springs City Council approved an alcohol license for a Cobb County couple developing an indoor shooting range called the Governors Gun Club.
But patrons “will not come out shooting,” said Powder Springs Mayor Patricia Vaughn. “We felt confident that safety is the No. 1 consideration in their business.”
Kristina Brown, an Acworth gun-shop owner, and her husband, Bert Brown, want to build a facility with 16 shooting lanes and a 35-yard archery range.
At present, the only hint of the Browns’ plans is a sign advertising the club’s groundbreaking, which took place July 16 at a tract on US 278 northwest of downtown Powder Springs. They haven’t scheduled a grand opening.
The Browns say the $3.5 million range will be like a country club, with members-only privileges. But instead of golf or tennis, the 20,000-square-foot facility is aimed at people who shoot bullets or arrows.
And, like any country club, the Governors Gun Club will offer libations. Patrons with lounge privileges will be called Full Metal Jacket members.
“[T]he members lounge is not a bar and will not be used as one,” Kristina Brown said in an email. “This is a relaxing social atmosphere for members to enjoy food and limited drinks responsibly. Irresponsible and excessive drinking will not be tolerated.”
A valet will take their firearms when members have finished at the range, locking them away. Once they’ve had a drink, members won’t be allowed back to the shooting area, Brown said.
Members “cannot drink and shoot, drink then shoot, or drink while in possession of a firearm,” she wrote.
That safeguard, said Vaughn, settled her fears.
“We were all naturally concerned about control,” she said. “But after listening to her, I wish every business [serving alcohol] had those controls, those measures, in place.”
Georgia law, Vaughn noted, allows people with firearms permits to carry weapons into restaurants and bars. The gun club, she said, is abiding by the law — and taking safety a step further.
A gun range with a lounge is unusual but not unique, said Zach Snow, manager of shooting promotions for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The organization, a trade association for the firearms industry, lists about 7,000 ranges in its database. A few, he said, offer alcohol.
“Ranges are expanding to offer additional amenities,” said Snow. “They’re branching out, usually with cafes.”
A colleague, he said, told him about the Powder Springs club. “It’ll be interesting to see how it works out.”
Others, especially residents of the nearby Silverbrooke subdivision, are watching closely, too — perhaps none more so than Shalaina and Nick Pinkney. Their home, located near the subdivision entrance, is about 200 yards from the range site.
The parents of four admit to having mixed feelings about the club. Air Force veterans, the Pinkneys said they’d probably use the range, all the while worrying about their children and property values.
“How many families want to live behind a firing range, a gun club?” Shalaina Pinkney asked.
“I have no problem with drinking. I have no problem with guns,” Nick Pinkney said. “I have a problem with drinking and guns together.”
The club poses less of a threat than coyotes that prowl the subdivision at twilight, said Silverbrooke resident Stephanie Robertson.
“They’re a legitimate business. They’ve filed for all the permits,” said Robertson, a mother of two who lives a couple of streets behind the Pinkney home. “Anytime a local business owner wants to try a new venture, I’m all for it.”
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