Neighbors unnerved by next-door shooting range

HOLIDAY (FOX 13) - A homemade outdoor shooting range on a privately-owned property in Holiday has some neighbors fired up.

“It is just too close for comfort here,” complained Donna Martinenko-Wiedemann, who lives directly behind the outdoor range.

Martinenko-Wiedemann calls its “unnerving” to hear the whizz of bullets flying outside her front door.      

“It is extremely unsafe. There's residential houses completely around here. It's a hazard,” she said.      

Neighbor Dana Mossman, a former sheriff's deputy, calls it insanity.      

“Out of 360 degrees, you maybe have five to seven degrees and I’m going to trust some hick not to shoot somebody by shooting off?” he said.

Surrounded by "private property" signs, the range was built in August by John Rodanhisler. He owns the seven-acre property.

Rodanhisler says there's a large, U-shaped berm made of dirt and sand on the range.

Despite being sandwiched between a neighborhood and a mobile home park, he believes his homemade range is safe. 

”Where I’m standing, I’m shooting downhill into a berm,” he said.

Deputies with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and the county attorney reviewed the range and determined it was not violating Florida law.  They say at this point it is a legislative issue. 

Rodanhisler says he goes to the property, which is up for sale, on weekends.

”I’m doing it safely ...legally,” he said. “I’m going to keep it, darn right.”

”Very unhappy," added Martinenko-Wiedemann. "The law needs to change, plain and simple."