BULLETPROOF REMEDY WAYS SOUGHT TO MUFFLE FIRING.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry  Staff Writer

CASTAIC - Prompted by complaints from a Castaic resident, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is researching ways to reduce noise from a shooting range on the grounds of the Pitchess Detention Center.

Use of the range, which dates back to the 1940s, is protected by state law. Still, sheriff's officials are seeking ideas on how to dull the sound of gunfire heard in the Castaic neighborhoods that have sprouted in recent decades around Pitchess.

``We are looking at contacting the Department of Public Works and have a noise engineer look at the range,'' said Lt. Bruce Harris, range master for the Sheriff's Department. ``We'll look to see if there is something we can do short of building a soundwall.''

Harris said that an option could include planting trees along the range top to absorb the noise.

While the department said it will do what it can, officials say that the range has been in place far longer than most of the tract houses nearby, and residents should have been warned before buying their homes.

``We have been here since the 1940s. The houses were built afterward,'' Harris said. ``As they are building the home, they are in the path of the range. It's unfortunate that he bought a house across from a firing range.''

Resident Brian Roney, heading the effort to cut the noise, said he was not told of the shooting range before moving in.

``When I bought my home, it was not disclosed to me that it was a regional training facility,'' said Roney, who moved from Newhall to Castaic in September. ``Now when I sit in my back yard I hear, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. The sound travels right across the freeway up to the canyon, right to my house.''

Roney, who has been in contact with the Sheriff's Department and county Supervisor Michael Antonovich, is pleased with the county's investigation into sound mitigation efforts and also hopes the department will curtail some of the late evening shoots.

``I put my kids to bed and hear gunshots up to 11 at night,'' Roney said. ``I just bought a new house and can't enjoy the back yard.''

Since Roney bought his home, the builder, KB Homes has begun disclosing to buyers information about the firing range.

``We try to be a good neighbor,'' Harris said. ``But we're protected by state law that says we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. We kind of have everything on our side.''

The range is important to the Sheriff's Department to train its own deputies as well as some 13,000 officers from other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Hawthorne and Inglewood police departments.

From January 2001 to February 2002, the range was used until 11 p.m. 84 times.

``Ninety-nine percent of our academy (shooting) training is conducted at the range,'' Harris said. ``The department mandates that deputies shoot a number of courses both in daylight and darkness.''

Each of the 9,000 sworn personnel within the department must go through shooting qualifications, which include firing a 30-round course three times a year.

An additional 4,500 deputies go through a shooting course every other year.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Sheriff's Sgt. Shari Delgadillo takes a target out for practice, above, and then practices, below, at a firing range at the Pitchess Detention Center. Neighbors have complained about the noise at the firing range in Castaic.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer