To the editor:

Ah, the pastoral bliss of Whidbey Island, birds singing, eagles and hawks calling, the splash of gentle waves upon the beach, a field of grasses waving slow motion in the breeze. Such was the scene last Friday evening as I ambled through the field behind my home on Sandy Point Road. Suddenly, the bliss was blasted by the sounds of gunfire.

It is amazing how sound carries on the island. Someone at the rod and gun club was shooting.

Now, I think target shooting is fun. I have no problem with responsible, sane gun owners.

I think that people have a right to discharge firearms in a safe and legal manner. What I do have a problem with is the noise. I think that I have a right to my pastoral bliss, unpunctuated by gunfire on a Friday evening.

I know that people trespass at the gun club, sneak in after hours and when they are closed. It is a problem for them. I think it is a problem that they should solve.

Do they need to put a gate across their road to keep trespassers out? Does the sheriff need to show up when guns are heard when they shouldn’t be?

I have a friend who lives near the gun club and I don’t know how she stands it. Some of the rifles fired, during and after hours, sound like elephant guns. Should the gun club put some limits on the caliber of guns fired for the sake of the noise generated?

I am not an island newbie. I appreciate the history of the rod and gun club. But, come on, the sound of gunfire heard for a two-mile radius around the gun club at all hours is just not OK.

Mary Ann Mansfield

Langley