In Punta Gorda’s Waterford Estates, the soundtrack of suburban life is not lawnmowers and songbirds but near-daily gunfire. Homeowners say blasts from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office firing range off Airport Road shake their walls, jangle nerves and scare off would-be buyers. The tug-of-war over noise has dragged on for years and is back in the political spotlight as neighbors press county leaders for fixes they can actually hear and feel.
Residents say the shots cut straight through closed doors and windows and can run "from morning till night," wrecking sleep and fueling anxiety. New homeowner Connie Went recalled closing on her house, only to wake up the next day to relentless firing. "We woke up the next morning after buying the house to a war zone," she said. Those local complaints were chronicled by Gulf Coast News.
Commissioners request a phased feasibility study
At a Jan. 13 meeting, Charlotte County commissioners told staff to move ahead with a phased feasibility study and to draft a tightly focused request for proposals that looks at options such as enclosing the range, adding hardened sound walls and shifting some long-gun training to off-site locations. The directive, laid out in the county’s meeting packet and minutes, also pushes staff to break the work into narrow early phases so the board is not on the hook for open-ended design bills. The move is documented in the Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners agenda.
Tests show noise within accepted limits, solutions are costly
County staff pointed to live-fire testing from April 2024 that measured average sound levels of about 77 decibels along the edge of the subdivision. They likened that to heavy traffic and said it falls within accepted short-term safety benchmarks. At the same time, they told commissioners that impact noise from gunfire is not directly governed by federal or state standards, which narrows the playbook for solutions. A hardened sound wall, they said, might shave off 5 to 10 decibels but could run into the mid-hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dense vegetative buffers would need far more land than the range has to spare. Those findings and the mitigation debate were outlined by FOX4.
Sheriff's office says training must continue
The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office told FOX4 it posts range schedules, limits hours and has tried to meet residents halfway, but that the shooting cannot simply stop. Deputies need regular live-fire training to keep their certifications current. In a written statement quoted by reporters, the agency stressed that "our deputies must be proficient with their firearms," a point it says drives how often and when the range is used, as well as how it responded to the commission’s latest request.
Range has a longer history of disputes
The complaints did not start with Waterford Estates. A 2016 legal action by a developer claimed hundreds of bullet fragments were found on property earmarked for new housing near an older, open range. Subsequent renovation and construction battles followed as officials worked to modernize the facility, according to archival coverage by The Sun. County records show the shooting facility dates to the 1970s and that earlier attempts to tweak operations or rebuild parts of the range have repeatedly run into the same trio of obstacles: safety, design constraints and money.
For now, commissioners have instructed staff to bring back a phased RFP and to scout realistic off-site training partners, while residents say they are waiting to see actual timelines and concrete funding choices. The county meeting packet notes the board wants staff to identify funding sources before approving any large contracts. Homeowners acknowledge that step is necessary, but say it falls short of the immediate quiet many had hoped for. Further details are available in the Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners agenda.
