The Jackson County Planning Board will hold a special session at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 29 in room A-227 of the Justice Center. The purpose of the session is to continue development of a shooting range ordinance.

Blood boiled Monday night as representatives of Smoke Rise Field Club squared off against residents from the Tilley Creek community, where the club is hoping to relocate.

Groups from both sides of the argument — those pro-range, those against it — packed into the Jackson County commissioners’ board room, launching an hour’s worth of public comments and personal barbs from 14 speakers while a sheriff’s deputy kept guard at the front of the room.

Pro-range advocate and Smoke Rise Manager Randy Deitz said it was a matter of American freedom to shoot guns and neighbors shouldn’t complain about what their neighbors are doing “cause that’s the way we do it here in the mountains.” If residents were going to complain, they shouldn’t have moved to Jackson County from “Nu Joisey” and other such places in the first place, Deitz quipped.

Comments made include those from Smoke Rise President Barry Moore, who publicly spoke about his club’s potential purchase of a historic, 194-acre farm in the Tilley Creek community since the issue came before county commissioners late last year.

Smoke Rise, which lost its lease on a shooting range in Cashiers, first looked at relocating onto property in the Caney Fork community. Caney Fork Sam Matthews came before commissioners requesting a moratorium be placed on all new shooting ranges and an ordinance written for their regulation.

Neither was done, as Matthews later reported to commissioners that Smoke Rise was no longer looking for property anywhere within Jackson County. Now, it is Matthews’ property that is up for sale on Tilley Creek.

Moore promised that the gun club would not close on its option to purchase the farm for approximately three months, which would give county planners time to develop a shooting range ordinance, most likely based on NRA guidelines.

“We are in favor of a shooting range ordinance like the one that’s being discussed,” Moore said.

Other proponents of the gun club invoked the property rights argument, claiming it’s every person’s right to do as he wishes with his property. Being asked to consider a regulatory ordinance is a waste of commissioners’ time that would only hurt local residents, they said.

“That’s the ones it’ll really affect, is the little man,” Mike Clark said.

Clark surmised that 90 percent of the homes in Jackson County contain a gun, a percentage he thought should be closer to 100. He linked a shooting range ordinance with land-use planning and terrorism.

“You haven’t heard much about zoning or gun control since 9/11,” he said.

Louis Spagna, a member of the anti-shooting range group, said that the issue was not about firearms — it was about finding a solution everyone can live with.

“This is not about guns. I’m an NRA member, have been for decades,” Spagna said. “This is about a moratorium ... an opportunity for people like me to calm down.”

Spagna said he did not think Smoke Rise members could live up to their promise of locating the shooting operation as far away from a nearby road as possible. He said there was not enough room to safely launch and shoot skeet targets, as range members have proposed.

Moore, sitting in the audience with club member and real estate broker James Reynolds, exchanged a chuckle at Spagna’s comments. As commission Vice Chairman Roberta Crawford — running the meeting in the absence of an elected chairman following Stacy Buchanan’s surprise resignation earlier this month — warned Spagna his three-minute time limit had passed, Moore called out from the crowd, “I took my three minutes.”

Both sides exchanged opinions on whether lead discharged at a shooting range would be an environmental hazard, opinions that were greeted with a flurry of mumbles and groans.

Perry Eury, the leader of Tilley Creek’s campaign against the gun club, called into question the group’s willingness to disclose their member roster and tax filings.

“Maybe they should change their name from Smoke Rise to Spoke Lies,” Eury said.

“He’s full of mud,” Deitz said.

At Commissioner Joe Cowan’s request, votes on whether to enact a moratorium and pursue an ordinance were delayed until county planner Linda Cable could be present to answer questions about the wording of a proposed moratorium. Cable was absent from the meeting due to another meeting being held in Cashiers.

Commissioners took a break following discussion of the issue, at which time throngs of attendees clustered in the hall and Rebecca Heppel, a representative from Rep. Charles Taylor’s office, moved through the crowd talking to gun range supporters and handing out campaign flyers. The shooting range issue is expected to come up for discussion again at commissioners April 4 meeting.