Letters

I must vehemently disagree with Anthony Liberatore of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee when he stated that the Maidstone Gun Club is an anachronism [“East Hampton Gun Club’s Future Hinges on ‘Major Changes,’” 27east.com, August 9]. What he should have said is that this historical institution is under duress solely because it represents a past that we should all seek to preserve for future generations.

Closing the Maidstone Gun Club because it just doesn’t fit the narrative of its very presence in our current culture is not conducive to respecting our past: a club that goes back to 1982 so that sportsmen and gun enthusiasts can safely practice, hone their skills and enjoy all that shooting is about.

But no longer is it a rural area, and many homes have been built since 1982. The club has done everything humanly possible to make it a safe area as long as protocol is followed.

At present, the club has been shut down because of an alleged breach of that protocol by two individuals who have supposedly been identified as the culprits that fired rounds into a nearby house. If that’s the case, and it’s what Detective Luke McNamara stated, why haven’t these individuals been charged with reckless endangerment?

Something is truly amiss when individuals with large sums of money can push their weight in the courts continuing to hamper members from enjoying a club whose safety record is one of the finest in the nation. The Maidstone Gun Club welcomes all members of every race and background and truly is a melting pot of tradition and new. There is no other institution on the East End that can say that. Most institutions require large sums of money to belong to and are exclusively for the rich.

What a shame it will be if this club has to shut its doors permanently. It’s already been a blow to its members and devastating that a tradition can be wiped out because money simply controls everything out here.

I hope the local politicians see through this scam of disinformation that has been heaped on this club. Look beyond the narrative and concentrate on the facts of this case as it unfolds and ask yourself: Have I let the fact that the shooting of guns bothers me? Or are the facts that this club has been a viable, continuous autonomy within a community that safely operates outside one’s boundaries?

Thomas M. Jones

Sag Harbor