A leader of a group opposing a Chatham County shooting range told WCHL that some neighbors are considering making the owner of Range 2A an offer to buy the property.

For several months, Chatham County resident Tony Gaeta has been a vocal critic of Range 2A, a membership-based shooting range that opened in May just outside Pittsboro.

“It’s unsupervised,” said Gaeta. “It’s a club. You pay your money, you get a code, you go in during operating hours, but there’s nobody there.”

Gaeta is an attorney working for a Raleigh law firm. He’s also a leader of Defending Chatham Neighborhoods, which recently delivered a petition to the Chatham County Board of Commissioners to shut down the range, owned by Mark Atkeson, whose mailing address is in Apex.

Like Siglinda Scarpa, the Goathouse Refuge cat sanctuary owner who made news when she opposed the gun range of her next-door neighbor, the signers complained about the noise from gunfire. Some of them own horses, and like Scarpa, they said the sounds from Range 2A spooked their animals.

Gaeta said the potential for his own property to lose value is a big issue for him.

“We all have invested our lives in our properties here,” he said.

The range closed temporarily in July after a noise test by the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office registered the shooting sounds slightly above legal levels.

Atkeson has also faced the threat of heavy fines from the county for failing to seek authorization for disturbing soil on his 71-acre property during building.

The range owner finally met a deadline, on Sept. 19, to submit an engineering plan to the county, and now his plans to expand the range are under consideration.

He also recently met with three members of Defending Chatham Neighborhoods in an attempt to resolve differences. Gaeta told WCHL that neither he nor Scarpa were invited.

Gaeta said he was told by attendees that Atkeson said he may be willing to sell the property to neighbors.

But if that happens, it would likely follow some tense negotiations. Gaeta said that Atkeson should not expect to get his asking price, which, according to Gaeta, is in the high six figures.

“We think he’s devalued the land for someone else’s use,” said Gaeta. “Nobody else is going to come and buy it and put in a gun range.”

Gaeta said that he and some neighbors are discussing whether to find a potential sole buyer, or put their own money together to buy Atkeson’s property “at a reasonable price.”

WCHL reached out to Range 2A owner Mark Atkeson for comment, but he has not yet responded.

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