“We will not leave!”: Mauguio shooting club refuses town hall's ultimatum

Arnaud Deliencourt, president of the Mauguio-Carnon shooting club, wants to defend the interests of the 900 members. – Arnaud Deliencourt

The town hall wants to reserve the shooting range for the police, and has ordered the sport shooting club to leave the premises as of September 1st. The club has announced that it refuses this decision, and is starting a showdown.

In the absence of live ammunition, the town hall and the Mauguio-Carnon shooting club are facing each other in a knife-edge duel. “We'll have to be thrown out, we won't leave”, exclaims Arnaud Deliencourt, president of the shooting club.

On May 15, he received a letter from the town hall informing him of the end of the agreement making the premises of the shooting range available to his association, which will be dedicated solely to law enforcement from September 1. The reason given: the “Emergency attack” level of the Vigipirate plan, which would require a reinforcement of police personnel.

“The police already have three days a week reserved in the shooting range. That's more than enough”, estimates Arnaud Deliencourt.

Significant investments by members

For him and the 900 members of the club, it's a disaster all the greater because they have invested enormously in the facilities. “Of course the premises belong to the town hall. But we pay an average of 50,000 euros in work each year. Last year it was even 70,000 euros, because we made at our own expense bullet traps in armoured steel for shooting at 50 m, at the request of the Raid. We have been here since 1988, and we are told to leave overnight, without any consultation.”

He also fears for the employee of the association, hired on January 15 by the association after having expressly left his former job, who risks finding himself unemployed.

A local ecosystem impacted

It is an entire local ecosystem of sport shooting that will be impacted. “I am a gunsmith myself. My turnover has dropped by 50% since this announcement, because we know that it takes years to obtain the authorizations to be able to resettle somewhere,” explains Arnaud Deliencourt.