Gun club is still
shooting for survival

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

A bill designed to prevent the city’s eviction of the Holmesburg Gun Club from its longtime home passed unanimously in City Council late last month, but survival of the club remains uncertain as its advocates try to hammer out a new lease agreement for the public ground.
At issue is use of the club’s longtime indoor and outdoor shooting range on Pennypack Street, just east of State Road. The city owns the site — about three acres in size — but the gun club, a non-profit formally named the Holmesburg Fish and Game Protective Association, has leased it for a nominal fee for nearly seven decades. The club operates the lone remaining civilian outdoor firing range in the city.
In September, the Philadelphia Prison System notified the club that it had until Dec. 31 to vacate the site, which is under jurisdiction of the city’s Department of Public Property. Prison system officials say they need the ground for a full-time training facility, similar to those operated nearby by the city’s police and fire departments.
At the urging of gun club leaders, City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski on Nov. 1 introduced a bill that would transfer the ground to the jurisdiction of the Fairmount Park Commission, thereby wrestling control of it from the city administration, which includes the prison system.
Council members Jack Kelly, James Kenney, Brian O’Neill and Frank Rizzo co-sponsored the bill, which passed full Council unanimously on Nov. 29. Under its provisions, the property transfer was scheduled to occur Dec. 13.
However, Krajewski early this week was seeking to delay the transfer in hope that a shared-use agreement between the club and the city could be reached. According to Chris Creelman, legislative aide to Krajewski, granting the land to the park commission would not ensure its future use by the gun club.
"Once it’s transferred to Fairmount Park, nobody is really sure what’s going to happen," Creelman said. "We’ve only had discussions with the administration of Fairmount Park, but we haven’t discussed it with the commission. They, like us, have been hopeful that an agreement would be reached before the transfer kicks in."
If the land transfer does go into effect, the gun club would then have to negotiate a new lease with the park commission. No terms have been discussed yet.
Or the park commission may opt for alternate uses of the land. In such a case, both the gun club and prison system may find themselves out of luck.
Creelman believes that the gun club and prison system still have much work to do before reaching common ground. In recent years, the club has had full-time control of the property, while the prison system has been using the firing ranges in pre-scheduled blocks of time.
In announcing their plans to take over the facility, prison officials said that they planned to conduct firearms training there, as well as other indoor and outdoor activities. A clubhouse on the site, built by gun club members decades ago, would have been used for prison equipment storage.
Club leaders have said they are not willing to sacrifice their clubhouse. Another issue is the amount of time each organization would get to use the firing ranges.
Prison officers, who do not carry firearms in cell blocks but need guns to transport prisoners and for other duties, now conduct most of their training at Holmesburg Prison. But that facility is small and antiquated for the needs of today’s training regimen.
Plus, shooting is inappropriate at Holmesburg Prison because of its close proximity to homes. The gun club’s firing ranges face the Delaware River and feature a tall berm to block any stray bullets. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com