Council Approves Gun Club Construction

The approved Monday night a proposal to build a gun club and shooting range in an area where the sale of firearms is usually prohibited.

Five individuals gave public comment on whether to grant special permission to sell weapons at the club.

The meeting was held at the usual time, 6:30 pm, and saw an unusually large attendance of about 30. 

The request for an exception to the usual prohibition of weapons sales at the intersection of Kennesaw Due West Road and Cobb Parkway was made by Cara Workman, co-owner of Her co-owner and sister, Robyn Workman Marzullo, attended the meeting. 

The conflicting stipulation is condition 16-H of 18 conditions that all retailers opening an outlet in Kennesaw must meet. Though not strictly a retail outlet, gun clubs do sell weapons, so it falls under the same conditions. 

Condition 16-H prohibits the sale of guns, knives and other weapons in a retail park intended for offices and retail outlets. According to Darryl Simmons, Kennesaw's planning and zoning administrator, the planned club will take up 1.54 acres of the retail site and will include an outlet in which guns and gun accessories will be sold. 

Simmons said the Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the request and determined that "the retail component of the shooting range ... is not in conflict with the master plan."

He recommended the council approve the ordinance.

Members of the public had quite a bit to say about the proposed gun club. Most praised the idea, and one opposed it. 

Sandy Springs Police Chief Terry Sult praised the Workman sisters' club in Sandy Springs and said he believes they'll bring more of the same to Kennesaw.

Sult said that before the club existed, officers in Sandy Springs had to drive 45 minutes both ways to receive basic marksmanship training. He said that transporting the officers was costing the city around $11,000 annually. 

Sult acknowledged that he was skeptical at first because the range is mere feet from a neighborhood. "To this day, I've only had one complaint of noise, and it was actually before the building had opened for business, and it was actually for hammering on the roof as opposed to firearms."

Others also spoke in favor of the range, citing its convenience for police training and the profitable business it could bring to the city. 

One citizen spoke against the exemption: Debora Williams. She said she does not oppose having the gun club come to Kennesaw. "I understand business placement and marketing," Williams said. "It's what I practice for my business."

Williams expressed concern that the council was being too loose with city law and that granting the exemption to the Workman sisters would "send a clear message that all of our laws are negotiable."

She argued that if the city made an exception for the gun club, it would have to do so for other businesses.

"When will the ordinance literally be filled with so many accommodations that it becomes nothing more than words on a piece of paper without the ability to be enforced?" Williams said.

Despite her opposition, the motion passed on a 4-1 vote with Bruce Jenkins opposed.

"I am in no way, shape or form against a gun business being established in our city. In fact, it makes sense," Jenkins said. "But it didn't make sense for it to be in close proximity to a school and neighborhoods, so I felt like this was something I was strongly against."