After years of trying, a Carlsbad gun-shop owner got the city’s OK this week to open a shooting range under the flight path of McClellan-Palomar Airport.

“This is the first time in four-and-a-half years that I’ve ever walked out of this room a winner,” Gregg Gunther said, as he left the Carlsbad Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night.

The commission approved a conditional-use permit for Gunther’s proposed 16-lane indoor range in the industrial building already occupied by his shop Gunther Guns on Loker Avenue.

Several Carlsbad residents spoke in favor of the range. The approval ends a long and difficult process for the Gunthers and city staffers that included the creation of an ordinance to allow construction of what will be the city’s first public indoor shooting range.


Gunther and his wife, Lisa, opened a gift shop in Carlsbad’s industrial park near the airport in 2005, and four years ago applied for a city permit to allow them to sell guns there. Initially, the city denied the permit but eventually approved it after changes.

In December 2014, the Gunthers applied for a permit to expand their gun shop business by adding a shooting range, which the city planner denied because city zoning codes had no provision for that type of use. The Gunthers appealed to the Planning Commission and then the City Council, and both upheld the denial.

However, as a result of the application, the City Council asked staffers to prepare an ordinance that would allow shooting ranges in some parts of the city. That ordinance was approved in January.

Still, planning commissions had questions Wednesday about things like noise and safety at the shooting range. They ultimately voted 5-1 for approval, with Commissioner Patrick Goyarts absent and Jeff Segall opposed.


Segall said he was concerned that the nearest building was only 20 feet away from the end of the range.

“I don’t think it’s compatible with the neighborhood,” Segall said.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com