VIRGINIA BEACH
The fire that ripped through an indoor shooting range Sunday, injuring seven people, is the latest in a string of problems at the facility.
In the past year, A&P Arms' Lynnhaven Shooting Range has been cited for worker safety violations; had a former manager sent to prison for stealing, selling and giving away guns; and has its license under investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Sunday's fire, which is under investigation, was the third at the business in the past 15 years, fire officials said.
Four of the injured are hospitalized but are doing better, Battalion Chief Leon Dextradeur said.
"They are all upright and talking and have different levels of burn injuries, but none appears to be critical at this time," he said.
A&P Arms is owned by Shooting Sports Distributors Inc. The president of the company is Norman Gladden Jr., according to state records. He did not respond to voice messages Monday on his cell phone and at the store.
A message on the store's answering machine said, "We are temporarily closed and will reopen as soon as possible."
The fire started in one of the store's three shooting lanes and ignited a wood divider that separates them, Dextradeur said.
"With the backing they use to catch the bullets, you'll get lead and other debris that will back up there," said Mike Campbell, spokesman for the ATF. "Depending on their cleaning method, you may get a spark that will start a fire.
"I don't know if there was material that hadn't been cleared out or what. That appears to be what happened at Woodbridge and maybe happened here," Campbell said.
In March 2007, a fire engulfed Shooter's Paradise, a gun store and firing range in Woodbridge in Northern Virginia. No one was injured.
In 1994, an explosion sparked a fire at the A&P shooting range. No one was hurt. An accumulation of chemicals may have caused that fire, officials said at the time.
In June, A&P Arms was fined $1,740 after being cited for five violations by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The violations were for "lead, inorganic fumes and dusts" and employee exposure to sodium hydroxide.
Last month, a former store manager was sentenced to 15 months for stealing firearms, including a submachine gun. ATF agents identified 51 guns that Marcus A. McCall sold, gave away or kept in his Virginia Beach home, according to court records. McCall worked at the A&P Arms store in Hampton, but often transported guns to the Virginia Beach store, court records showed.
The store's ATF license is under review, confirmed Campbell. He said the investigation is not related to Sunday's fire but declined to give details.
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Skoops88 call we talk over coffee?
Skoop88 I would like to listen to your point of view over a cup of coffee, please tell me if this is possible!!!!
Orion
Thank you very much , Orion. It is a shame indeed , when this could have been prevented. God Bless You!!
Just different shades of Red (neck)...
Whether it be Virginia's southern redneck, Vermont's northern hillbillies or, well, I guess Alaskan's have an excuse having to fight off grizzly bears, elks, Eskimo’s and what not.
Ashley Abell
It's a shame a poorly maintained facility has caused you such injury and pain. I find it even more shameful that this incident brings out the anti-gun lobby when what happened had nothing to do with the improper use of or the malfunction of firearms.
I hope your recovery is fast and without complications; you are in my prayers...
Skoops88
Thanks for making my point even clearer....
Funny
It's funny that the two states with the least stringent gun laws are Vermont and Alaska. Not exactly red neck country there is it Skoops88?
One thing I have learned from these boards...
...is when your bluff is called and your myopic viewpoint is challenged, you resort to name-calling.
Skoops, we may or may not be "red-necks" but you’re true colors are showing very brightly.
Very sad indeed...
One thing I have learned from these boards...
There is no point in arguing with gun toting red-necks, or chain smoking idiots. They have their own twisted way of rationalizing things.
BTW, I never said not to teach children about guns. There are many other ways to teach about guns then putting one in a minor’s hand. So to teach your child about responsible use of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sex, you are going to let your "child" experience all first hand. That seems to be that way you think… Again a big bravo on your parenting.
Reply 2 Josh
AMEN to that!
Thank you , Josh
You are EXACTLY right
Since when are Training and Education bad things?
Well then, I guess I shouldn't teach him to swim because he might drown. And perhaps I shouldn't teach him to drive because he might crash. Yeah, that makes sense! By the way, I bring up swimming and driving because they each kill more kids every year than guns do. As a responsible gun owner and parent, I teach my son that using a gun for delf-defense is a last resort and that using it to resolve a dispute is NEVER an option. By the way, as if it were your business, my 13-year-old son is an honor roll student participates in sports and is 5'10"/160lb and wasn't raised by a TV. I strongly suggest that you, like all the other "Guns are bad!" people out there learn about the facts of responsible gun ownership. From my experience, legal gun owners are far more educated in firearms responsibility, firearms laws and firearms statistics. If you would like to become more educated in these areas, please start by visiting the following web sites and further links from these sites: www.vcdl.org, www.opencarry.org, www.carryconcealed.net.
My part 1 didn't come
My part 1 didn't come through, so here it goes again. This is in reply to Skoops. I am 18 years old and legal to shoot a gun. However , like I said nobody I was with was shooting. Step in my shoes for a minute and just imagine because this is very inappropriate handling. You think you are in a SAFE and controlled atomosphere , completely secure. Then , BOOM an explosion and the whole room is engulfed in seconds. NOBODY asked for this to happen. It was ALL a mistake of not taking the proper and accurate cleaning procedures and precautions. The fire marshal told exactly what happened. A&P Arms swept all the gunpowder and put it in a bag or bucket. They left that sitting right in front of somebody's shooting area and one of their shells fell into the gun powder , ignited a fire and then it all exploded. So , I would greatly appreciate you stop making accusations , judgements , and statements unless you were there. Because you clearly don't know what happened and are handling this in a very unjust manner. Thank you for taking the time to read this , for my eyes are almost swollen shut and I have 2nd degree burns on my face , arms , and back.
Victim ,
Ashley Abell
skoops88, part 2
Oh I here it now, “their purpose is self defense” well if that’s the case then put you fat kid in karate class, let him get some exercise and learn some self discipline.
What you speak of is the wrong kind of self-discipline. Sounds like you watch too many movies. Too any people think if you know a “few moves” you can disarm someone with a gun. This is rare unless you are in very close quarters. Besides, the martial arts are not going to stop a bullet from a criminal's gun; the last time I checked Remo Williams was fiction.
Skoops88, part 1
Last time I checked the kids that go off on shooting rampages were pretty handy with guns i.e. Columbine. It's great their parents taught them how to shoot, huh?
Equating a child's education on the proper handling of a firearm and Columbine is, frankly, stupid. Those malfunctions of humanity have nothing to do with proper gun safety or responsibility and their parents did nothing even though the signs of their mental states were visible.
Regardless if it is a person, deer, turkey, or a target you are teaching your child to kill. That’s all guns do, it's their purpose.
If your line of reasoning was correct, the planet would have had a nuclear war. After all they are built to "only kill." Ever hear of deterrence? If someone is robbing you at knifepoint and you pull out a .40 guess what happens next? The thug gets arrested, NOT killed.
Issues
Hey Skoops88, yes guns kill. That is their purpose. Some use it for food and others for self defense. There are those who commit acts of murder with this tool. It is a tool. Some have used knives, box cutters, bats, or tasers. There are many choices for a law abiding citizen or someone intent to break the law with malevolent intentions. Because you disagree with a tool that some use to hurt others, doesn't mean it should be taken out of the hands of those who wish to use it to level the playing field. In Chicago, where gun laws are among the toughest in the nation, only the criminals have guns. It's so bad that Mayor Daley has issued the police assault weapons to combat the problem. Anywhere there has been a mass shooting, it has happened where citizens where not allowed by law to carry a handgun. Criminals don't care about signs that say "Gun Free Zone", except for the fact that no one inside will be able to fire back when they open fire. Take any mall shooting or school shooting that has happened recently and your argument of learning a martial art falls flat on it's face. You can't count on the police either. There is a saying that "when seconds count, the police a
Name calling
Just becuse a parent decides to teach his or her child to learn the proper way to handle a firearm, some of you choose to start calling these people names. Now that contributes to the coversation.
Some kids have loftier ambitions that imitating mass murderers. They actually want to make something of themselves like the FBI, Secret Service, DEA to name a few my sone has mentioned. I won't give the tired old arguments about why we want to own, shoot or teach our prodigy to handle firearms, but let it suffice to say that it is still our right.
Some of you can do such a bang up job of raising your kids by teaching them some fantstic name calling.
OK, another definition....
OK, since Georges cannot even spell the word right, here is an explanation from OSHA:
http://www.osha.gov/dts/shib/shib073105.html
I thinkl you will find Wiki is fairly accurate. Obviously Georges gets his factual information from here, since he knows how much of it is false.
What a MA-ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.
WoW. Skoops88 are you joking?
Skoops88,
Your comments are very ignorant. Just because you choose not to properly educate your children about firearms, does not mean you have to inject your fear induced opinions onto other responsible parents. Anyways, back to the subject. That range should have been kept up to spec. There was no reason for that accident to occur other than negligence.
"when they knocked her down and trampled on her"
Nice folks, eh?
scoops-sorry to tell you
scoops-sorry to tell you this but, guns kill people just like a spoon made Rosie O'Donnel fat. Should we ban knives for killing. I dought you would not want to cut that steak. Kids and gun accidents occur 9 times + out of ten do to lack of education and their natural curiosity. Teach a kid to respect and use a gun and you remove that curiosity. In the cases of shootings, such as Columbine, those kids would have used a gun irregardless. It has nothing to do with curiosity. People need to stop using those excuses, they are nonsense, just like global warming. OOPs, I digressed. PEACE.
You must be proud.
You must be proud of your son’s ability to fire a deadly weapon. Last time I checked the kids that go off on shooting rampages were pretty handy with guns i.e. Columbine. It's great their parents taught them how to shoot, huh? Nothing says, "Here Johnny, I want you to have the best childhood possible" like shooting lessons and killings!!! Regardless if it is a person, deer, turkey, or a target you are teaching your child to kill. That’s all guns do, it's their purpose. Oh I here it now, “their purpose is self defense” well if that’s the case then put you fat kid in karate class, let him get some exercise and learn some self discipline. Nah, teaching him how to pull the trigger is a lot easier huh? Good thing you are passing the red-neck traditions off to the younger generation. Yeee-hawww!!!! And great parenting buddy!!!