Residents Oppose Buffalo's Gun Range Planned For Neighborhood

Even with the city government staring down a multi-million dollar financial shortfall, which there is big disagreement surrounding on exactly how much it is, the Buffalo Police Department is moving forward with constructing a new gun range and training facility inside of a former homeless shelter and community center on Paderewski Drive.

Earlier this year, plans emerged that the City of Buffalo was looking to convert the former Matt Urban Hope Center near the Buffalo Central Terminal into a combination shooting range for officers and a training headquarters. The city's initial plan had called for the facility to be built on Seneca Street, but it was changed to the Paderewski Drive community center by city officials.

As it stands today, the City of Buffalo Police does not have its own training facilities, and it pays other departments in Western New York more than $200,000 per year for city officers to use their shooting ranges and facilities.

It's been clear that the city needed its own training facility, but residents near the community center and around the city have been up in arms about this plan because the training center would be right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, and would take away park and community space from the people.

Even with the opposition, city officials have been moving forward with thier plans. In an attempt to shut down the center, members of the community have filed a lawsuit against the city to put a stop to the training facility.

According to reporting from WGRZ-TV, the group Liberation For One, Liberation For All (LOLA) filed suit in the New York State Supreme Court to stop the nearly $5 million project. One of the justifications is that the city's own laws prevent this type of project.