Letter from DK & Annie Kimmett
Shooting range – May 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ed and Martha:
We have a bit of a bone to pick with you regarding your article about the Gun Club/City Council mess in your April issue. You stated in the article that “Even without the lease, the gun club continued to use the property with no known safety problems.” WRONG!!!!!
A few years back, we were sitting in our shop building in good ol’ Smeltertown chewing the fat with a neighbor. Our conversation was interrupted by a loud bang that took the three of us out of our seats. After looking around the shop for a minute or so, DK noticed a hole in the steel roof of the shop.
Then we clued in that we were hearing firing from the shooting range. DK climbed up into the rafters and checked the hole. We had an old steamer trunk stored up there and sure enough the bullet went through one side of the trunk and lodged in the other side.
Needless to say we called the sheriff since we were getting kinda nervous about who might be shooting at us. A deputy came out to our humble home and pried the bullet out of the trunk.
The deputy suspected that it came from the Gun Club so he took the bullet and went to investigate. He found two fellas shooting pistols at the range. The bullet came from a 9-mm handgun that they were shooting.
Shortly after this rather scary incident, we reported the bullet business to John Bayuk, City Councilperson and met with Mike Sanchez of the Salida Police Department. Not much came out of these conversations. We told them that this was not the first time we’d heard bullets zinging over our heads. It just so happened that this was the first time that we caught one.
Keep up the good work. Come visit us in Smelter Estates and leave your Kevlar vests at home!
DK and Annie Kimmett Smelter Estates (“Where bullets no longer fly!”)
