Shooting Ranges Go Quiet Luxury
Jodi Ladge, a physician assistant in neurosurgery, said she had originally bought a gun for self-protection about two years ago, worrying about “the way things have been in L.A.,” but is now entering competitive shooting matches.
Ladge, wearing her gun belt, which carries her spare magazines, holster, shooting gloves and first-aid kit, has been a member of the Range for more than a year. She was with two friends she had made at the club, and they were discussing lunch plans.
“I never thought I would be doing this ever,” she said. But it is an ideal way for her to decompress, especially with the Range ambience. “All you can think of when you’re shooting is shooting,” she said.
Like Kenneally, the Hollywood agent, Leonard Konopelski, a graphic designer wearing arty royal-blue glasses, said he found shooting therapeutic. “I’m coming here to try to relax my body,” said Konopelski, 83.
He shoots at the Range about three days a week and views his pistol as a precise instrument, like a Leica camera. Mr. Konopelski, who first became interested in shooting as a boy in Poland and later during his mandatory military training, said he liked that the Range was somewhere he could easily drop into as a member.
By midafternoon, the concrete floor of the 16 shooting lanes was thick with spent shell casings. In a period of calm, the range was declared “cold,” and an employee picked up the brass with a small cylindrical cart reminiscent of those used on tennis courts. In the lounge, a member took a Zoom call, while another grabbed a snack. Soon, the brass was piling up again.
