FedEx Files Suit Against Gun Club, Saying Stray Bullets Keep Landing on Property
Sharpe Shooters’ neighbors on Gun Club Road in Augusta, Ga., have filed suit alleging the club’s safety devices are failing to prevent the escape of stray bullets.
Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. and FedEx Ground Package System filed the complaint last week in Richmond County Superior Court.
Monmouth owns the 56,610-square-foot building at 2902 Gun Club Road and has leased it to FedEx since 2004. According to the lawsuit, Sharpe Shooters is less than 750 feet away.
FedEx ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest North American for-hire carriers.
The agents and employees of Sharpe Shooters represented to the city’s Planning and Development Authority that the range would follow National Rifle Association designs to erect backstop devices to stop or redirect bullets fired on the range so that none would leave the outdoor shooting range area.
“Contrary to defendant’s representations, the berms were not constructed according to NRA designs,” the lawsuit alleges. Within a year of Sharpe Shooters’ opening, FedEx employees found bullet fragments on its leased property. According to the lawsuit, the shooting range denied that any projectiles had escaped the range.
In April, FedEx staffers notified Monmouth that bullets again had been found in the parking lot. During Monmouth’s inspection of the Gun Club Road property April 26, suspected bullet fragments were found on the roof. On May 1, a roof inspection found bullets and fragments.
On May 2, Monmouth notified the shooting range that more than 80 bullets had been found on the roof of the FedEx station and more were found in the parking lot, the suit contends. A ballistics expert hired by Monmouth reported the bullets and fragments could have come only from Sharpe Shooters, it says.
The lawsuit contends the gun club is creating a dangerous nuisance and committing trespass and that its lack of response to requests from the plaintiffs entitles the plaintiffs to legal expenses and attorneys’ fees.
