Lead closes Hibbing gun range

The Hibbing School Board and the Hibbing Rifle and Pistol Club intended to give a new deal to use the Lincoln Elementary gun range a year’s test.

It lasted not quite two weeks after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration reported elevated levels of lead at the gun range, according to the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

The range, in the basement of the school, is active only in non-school hours. No weapons nor ammunition are stored there. But the future of the gun range has been contentious in the city.

“That beaten horse I spoke of a while back has died,” Jay Runnakko, president of Hibbing Rifle and Pistol Club, told the paper. “Some anonymous, civic-minded citizen filed a complaint with OSHA about the range. I hope this ends the controversy. We lost, the bad guys won.”

The school district has been fined $1,750 by OSHA. The fine will be reduced if a plan to clean the facility is completed by Feb. 9.

The gun range has been around for 60 years.