SAN ANTONIO – A Northwest Side shooting range is staring down the muzzle of a lawsuit accusing it of a “cavalier attitude toward the dangers it imposes on its surrounding community.”
The San Antonio Target, Hunting and Fishing Club is being sued by its neighbor, SA Given to Fly, a limited partnership that owns nearly 40 acres of mostly undeveloped land along West Hausman Road close to JV Bacon Parkway.
The lawsuit states that projectiles from the adjoining gun club “regularly trespass” on SA Given to Fly’s land. The suit also points to the club’s proximity to the City of San Antonio’s Fox Park as well as a 2022 incident along the connecting Greenway Trails System when a cyclist said a stray shotgun pellet hit his helmet and caused him to fall off his bike.
The Greenway Trails System incident spawned a separate lawsuit against the club, which was dismissed Tuesday. However, an attorney for the cyclist said his client could still move forward with a case against the person shooting at the club at that time.
A judge in SA Given to Fly’s case has already signed a temporary restraining order to keep the club from allowing any shooting activity on its 21-acre property.
A hearing on a longer, temporary injunction is scheduled for Jan. 13.
According to a court filing, the SATHFC is a private club that operates a shooting range for its members and guests. More than 20 people shoot there each year.
SA Given to Fly’s lawsuit, though, claims “it operates more like a drinking fraternity, whereby it sells or gives copious amounts of alcohol to its members and or guests—the combination of alcohol consumption and live firearms."
The lawsuit claims the gun range defies the industry’s standard of care and that “despite multiple letters, email, and phone calls,” the club hadn’t taken any “meaningful corrective action.”
The club filed a response on Dec. 27, 2024, which broadly denied the allegations. The club’s lawyer called the allegations “baseless” in an emailed news release Wednesday.
“San Antonio Target, Hunting and Fishing Club has at all times operated in a responsible and safe manner, ensuring the safety of its members, neighbors, and surrounding community,” attorney Mark Anthony Sánchez said in the statement.
Blake Yantis, a partner with SA Given to Fly, told KSAT it had acquired the land in 2022 as an investment. His father, Tom Yantis, is also listed on state paperwork for the partnership. Both men also head up Mosaic Land Development, LLC.
Yantis said there had been plans to put single-family homes onto the land, but the issues with the gun club have put that on hold.
The club’s sign states it was established in 1953. Bexar County property records show the last deed transaction was in 1955.
Yantis said they were aware of the gun club’s existence, and it didn’t bother them until they became “aware of unsafe practices and lack of safety, infrastructure and protocols that are egregious and that are grossly negligent and that need to be addressed."
“We went and attempted to sit down with them and share our concerns,” Yantis told KSAT. “They basically told us that it was it was our problem and not theirs. And we were left with no other option but to pursue it legally.”
KSAT visited the gun club on Wednesday afternoon and spoke briefly with club board member and Public Relations Officer Sean McCord, who described it differently.
“A gentleman next door purchased the property with the intent of selling that property to a home builder,“ McCord said. “And he — we met with him a couple of times, and, you know, there really wasn’t much coming of it. And we had gone back and forth a little bit about what we might do to coexist. And the next thing we knew, he filed a suit against us.”
When asked about stray rounds going onto SA Given to Fly’s land, McCord said, “I would say that they’re not.”