Some indoor federal gun ranges are operating under unsafe conditions due to lack of oversight, watchdog reports

The inspector general for the General Services Administration on Tuesday reported that the agency is not performing proper oversight of operations and maintenance at indoor firing ranges used for federal law enforcement training. 

GSA, which manages federal buildings, oversees about 30 indoor ranges. Investigators examined five of them for the report and found violations of operational requirements at each of them. 

They warned that a range at the land port of entry in Oroville, Wash., specifically, is unsafe due to a target retrieval system that has been broken since 2017. 

“The tenant agency could not use the target retrieval system to move targets to a desired distance from shooters,” the investigators wrote. “The target retrieval system is a critical feature that allows shooters to remotely control the targets’ distance from the firing line, eliminating the need for personnel to go beyond the firing line during normal operations.”

Due to this inoperability, individuals are having to shoot in front of the firing line at various distances marked by duct tape. 

Officials from the tenant agency told the IG that they’ve made several requests over nearly a decade to repair the broken system, but GSA has not responded. GSA’s building manager for that port of entry, who assumed the position the month before the site visit, said they were not aware of the issue and couldn’t locate relevant documentation “due to the loss of building operations personnel.” 

Investigators also faulted GSA for not keeping records about range inspections that are mandated to happen every two years or about “comprehensive cleaning” that is supposed to occur annually, leading to questions about whether the required activities are taking place at all. 

“Without evidence of inspections being performed, GSA, tenant agencies and range users do not have assurance that the ranges are being maintained to ensure a safe environment for their continued use,” investigators wrote. 

The acting manager at one of the audited buildings said they had trouble locating range information due to reductions in force at GSA offices where the documents would be stored. 

GSA in March laid off many employees across its Public Buildings Service, but the agency months later canceled most of those RIFs and brought employees back. 

The IG recommended that GSA fix the target retrieval system at the port of entry in Oroville and establish a policy that clarifies who is responsible for indoor range operation and maintenance and sets document retention requirements. The agency agreed with both recommendations.