Gotta love the way the press places special emphasis on the type of firearm that was involved...
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/homepage/x176381018
A 16-year-old girl narrowly escaped being shot last month when a bullet fired from a semiautomatic military rifle from a nearby shooting range shattered her bedroom window and landed in a pile of laundry.
Perri Meldon was at her desk in her Saddle Hill Road home April 14 when she heard a loud pop as the .30-caliber round blasted through a double-pane window next to her bed.
At first, the Meldons did not know what had happened. They called police, who blamed an errant golf ball. The family lives across the street from Hopkinton Country Club.
It was not until the next day that Perri and her mother, Robin, found the bullet, which was eventually traced back to the Southborough Rod and Gun Club on Fruit Street - roughly three-quarters of a mile away.
"It's freakish. That's what's so scary - how freakish it is," Robin Meldon said yesterday. "Every time I go out in my yard and hear the guns, I think, 'Oh, my God.' "
According to police, the bullet, a steel-core, full-metal-jacket round, was fired from an SKS rifle, a semiautomatic military weapon once used by the Soviet army.
The bullet bounced off an earthen berm at the gun club's firing range, crossed the golf course and hit the Meldon home, said Rich Fitzgerald, the president of the rod and gun club.
"We're very concerned with what happened. We're striving to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.
The club has permanently banned the type of ammunition that hit the Meldon home. It is also doubling the size of the berms that sit behind the targets on the range and moving them closer to the targets to more effectively stop bullets.
The gun club's Web site says the club purchased 80 acres from a nearby farmer in 1946. At that time the acreage was in a remote area. Fitzgerald, who has been with the club for over a decade, said, "To his knowledge, nothing like this has ever happened before."
"If you're shooting lead (bullets), we don't feel we have a problem with skipping because it's going to impact and stay," Fitzgerald said.
The club will continue to allow the SKS to be fired at the range. In fact, Fitzgerald said some club members use rifles that are more powerful than the SKS.
Robin Meldon and her husband, Jerry, questioned why the club allows any high-powered, military weapons like the SKS. Robin said she hopes to meet with police and club officials to learn more about the issue. She wants assurances her neighborhood is safe.
"I don't know why they're doing high-powered rifles in a very populated area," she said. "Especially even if there's a chance this could happen. I don't think it's necessary."
Fitzgerald, however, insisted the problem is not the type of weapon, but the type of ammunition that was used. "If we ban this type of a gun, then what's the next one?" he said.
The town has no authority to control the gun club's actions, Police Chief Tom Irvin said. The club does not have a local permit and is not required to undergo safety inspections.
When asked if residents in the area should be worried, Irvin said: "I think it's safer in light of the changes the club has agreed to make, and I would not, if I lived on Saddle Hill Road - I wouldn't be worrying about continuing to live there because there's a gun club nearby."
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/homepage/x176381018