Jeff Rumage

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MEQUON - Bear Arms, Ozaukee County's first "boutique" gun range, opened this week in Mequon.

A boutique gun range? Yes, you read that correctly.

With nearly 40 years of experience as a beautician, Bear Arms owner Cheryle Rebholz has brought a variety of skin care and personal grooming products to the pro shop area of her new business at 9653 N. Granville Road.

"I'm bringing the beauty industry in with the bullet industry," she said.

If you're feeling tense, Bear Arms also offers chair massages to groups by reservation.

Beauty products aside, the pro shop also has multiple racks full of pink shirts, coffee mugs and other products sporting phrases, like "Yeah I shoot like a girl. Need a lesson?"

There are also a number of gun accessories specially designed for women, such as garter belt holsters and holsters that fit inside purses.

For those who are not comfortable using lethal force, the pro shop also carries pepper sprays, stun guns and flashlights with sharp edges.

Women targeted

The women's market has become the fastest-growing segment of the firearms industry, Rebholz said, because more and more women want to learn how to defend themselves from a carjacking or mugging.

"They go after women because we are the soft target, but I want to turn women into the hard target," Rebholz said. "We train people to refuse to be a victim."

Rebholz speaks from experience. Her beauty salon, Faces II, has been burglarized three times in its nearly 40 years in Mequon.

In another incident 16 years ago in Milwaukee, two men tried to knock down the front door of her home while her two young boys were sleeping inside. In a state of panic, she called her husband, Mark, to figure out how to load their gun.

The men did not succeed in breaking into the house, but the experience motivated Rebholz to get her concealed carry license when it became legal in 2011.

Pulling the trigger

Rebholz was motivated to open a shooting range in Mequon after realizing there was a shortage of gun ranges in the area. The nearest ranges are in Richfield, Saukville, West Allis and Waukesha.

The idea of opening a gun range in a residential community was as controversial as you might expect.

When Rebholz first proposed the gun range in 2015, residents and city officials objected to the proposed location near Port Washington and Donges Bay roads.

She received city approval nearly a year later, when she relocated the shooting range to a warehouse in the far southwest corner of Mequon.

Locked and loaded

Two years after getting approval from the city, Bear Arms is finally locked and loaded for its first day of business on Tuesday, Oct. 16.

The shooting range has eight lanes separated by dividers. At the end of the 25-yard range is a berm made up of chunks of rubber. An air filtration system provides air-turn-over every three minutes to eliminate airborne pollutants.

The range rates are $25 per hour or $12.50 per half hour.

Bear Arms employs multiple NRA-certified instructors to educate first-time shooters — like this reporter — about gun safety. Seventeen courses are offered, including concealed carry training, beginner handgun training and self-defense training.

The facility also has conference rooms and a lounge seating area for bachelor parties, corporate groups and others who want to spend time on the shooting range or in an electronic shooting simulator.

Bear Arms is the first shooting range in the state to offer a three-screen shooting simulator, Rebholz said. The three video screens create an immersive, 180-degree environment in which shooters have to make quick decisions, like shooting a man who opens fire in a coffee shop.

The video scenarios are so advanced they can be used for police training, Rebholz said. The Mequon Police Department and Ozaukee County Sheriff's Office have already tried out the simulator. It's also been used by corporate groups, bachelor parties and birthday parties.

"This is a video game on steroids," said Cheryl's husband, Mark. "Your hands sweat. Your heart is pumping. It's been very popular so far."