More than a year ago, Wayne Hughes and his neighbors were startled by the sound of high-powered rifles being fired repeatedly in the residential neighborhood of Red Rock Valley, about 14 miles southwest of downtown Colorado Springs along Highway 115.

This wasn’t the sound of training from nearby Fort Carson. Nor was it from hunters in the distance, a common sound in unincorporated El Paso County.

“It was assault rifles, and they were close,” said Hughes, who has lived in the valley 30 years and runs Hughes Hacienda Bed and Breakfast on his 19 acres. “It sounded like a war zone.”

Hughes said he is not opposed to gun ownership – just the opposite. But he believes firing weapons is not appropriate in a residential neighborhood of 80 or so homes, mostly on 3- to 5-acre lots clustered along a state highway. “It’s dangerous,” Hughes said.

Neighbors called the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office to report “shots fired” and tried to pinpoint the gunfire. They eventually identified the source, and Hughes said he and other neighbors politely asked the homeowner, John Maximenko, to curtail his shooting.

“He thumbed his nose at us,” Hughes said. “And the sheriff’s office told us there are no regulations against shooting in the county.”

The shooting – and the complaints to the county commissioners, code enforcement, zoning and the sheriff – continued. Then, last September – months after that first incident – neighbors got a scare when a stray rifle bullet penetrated a home on Valle Verde Drive. They assumed it was from Maximenko and called the sheriff’s office again. A deputy responded to the call.

“The homeowner was sitting in his living room, heard a loud pop, and found a hole in the wall,” said Brad Shannon, chief of the sheriff’s law enforcement bureau, referring to a deputy’s report. “The bullet was located and collected, but there is no indication what caliber bullet it was. And it’s not clear where the bullet came from.”

But the sheriff’s department didn’t investigate further. Shannon said he couldn’t explain why, noting he wasn’t with the agency at the time.

On Thursday, when I recounted the months of complaints by neighbors about noise and their concerns for their safety, Shannon immediately sent a deputy out to investigate. A few hours later, it was determined the bullet could not have come from a shooting area on Maximenko’s property. The deputy also inspected the property and deemed it safe.

Maximenko is “dumbfounded” by the complaints, and said neighbors have left him “obscene” complaints.

“I shoot once or twice a month, maybe, and only between noon and 3,” he said. “I spent $2,500 building a horseshoe berm the sheriff said is safe. I have a couple friends come out and shoot for a couple hours at most. I don’t understand what the big deal is. I’m completely within my rights.”

Existing county ordinances prohibit shooting ranges in residential zones on less than 10 acres. But a county land use official has ruled Maximenko’s berm isn’t a “range,” and his shooting does not qualify as “recurring shooting,” which is prohibited.

Hughes insists the shooting is disturbing the peace. So Shannon has dug up the agency’s decibel meters so his staff can measure sound from Maximenko’s property.

“We do have a noise ordinance and it permits only 55 decibels between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.,” he said.

Hughes wants county commissioners to pass an ordinance, patterned after Arapahoe County law, requiring at least a half-mile between any home range and the closest houses or public roads.

Commissioner Sallie Clark said she was looking into the situation. “If there’s a safety issue, we need to look at that,” Clark said. “We can look at what other counties have done.

“We want to ensure everyone can exercise their Second Amendment rights. But we want them to be safe while they are doing it.”

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The Red Rock Valley neighborhood southwest of Colorado Springs has about 80 homes on mostly 3- to 5-acre lots along the west side of Highway 115. Some residents are upset that neighbors are shooting high-powered rifles on their properties and want El Paso County to outlaw shooting in residential areas. It is seen in an image from Google Earth.

Bill Vogrin – Side Streets