If efforts to locate a shooting range in Jackson County have been defeated, then it was mostly the result of a grassroots effort by local people who were unyielding in their concerns. The people, one can say, have seemingly won.

Last week Jackson commissioners voted 3-2 to enact a 90-day moratorium on new shooting ranges. The moratorium will give the county time to develop an ordinance that will protect gun owner rights while also ensuring that nearby residents are safe and noise nuisances are kept to a minimum. In the end, this resolution seems a reasonable way to deal with what ballooned into a controversy that just didn’t need to be.

The Smoke Rise Gun Club wanted a place to relocate after it lost its lease on a Cashiers tract. After first looking at the Caney Fork area, the man who originally rebuffed the club’s interest in that community offered a 194-acre farm he owned in Tilley Creek. The new site was a few miles from the Western Carolina University campus near the county’s recreation complex.

Residents of the Tilley Creek community rose up in protest. They said the location simply was not a good one. There were homes nearby. The noise would be unbearable. Safety was also an issue because of its proximity to neighbors.

The debate veered off track. Some who supported Smoke Rise wanted to frame the argument as a cultural issue of locals versus outsiders. Unfortunately, that was just plain wrong. Many of those opposed to this unregulated shooting range were lifelong natives of Jackson County.

Another avenue of argument was to move this issue into the ever-controversial area of property rights advocates against zoning supporters.

These attempts were completely unfounded. Unfortunately, commissioners Brian McMahan and Roberta Crawford, who did not support the moratorium, helped flame the debate by refusing to support a National Rifle Association-endorsed set of guidelines for the construction of shooting ranges.

The final resolution may still be up in the air. Gun club presidet Barry Moore at first promised to move elsewhere only if the county would not pursue an ordinance. After the county enacted the moratorium and moved ahead with plans for the ordinance, Moore was unclear about the future but is considering some type of lawsuit.

When the county’s ordinance is in place, gun clubs will still be able to set up shooting ranges. They will simply be regulated, as a place where many people congregate to shoot guns should be. Period.