Even Courts Can’t Stop Fort Devens’ Hostility Toward Gun Club

Fort Devens is a reserve military installation in Massachusetts. As it’s federal property and a military base, it’s supposed to have its range open to private entities like local gun clubs. They can charge for the use of the range, but federal law makes it clear that the fees need to be reasonable.

The problem is that Fort Devens doesn’t want to play nice.

They didn’t before and were taken to court, where they lost. The court ordered the fort to step up and comply with the law, and the Fort Devens Rifle & Pistol Club was looking to celebrate with a range day.

Instead, they get to hire a lawyer once again.

From Lee Williams at The Gun Writer:

Tuesday should have been a big day for the Fort Devens Rifle & Pistol Club, Inc. After a legal battle that lasted three years, the civilian gun club members were about to return to the ranges of Fort Devens for a day of shooting and camaraderie.

The small but legally proficient gun club had won their lawsuit against the Fort. It had filed suit against officials for violating federal law granting them access to military rifle ranges at reasonable rates, as well as violating their members’ constitutional rights to due process and equal protection under the law.

The club members were thrilled to go back to the Fort. One drove more than two hours from Cape Cod to get there. However, not a single member was able to fire a single round.

According to new legal documents not yet filed by the gun club, which may seek a contempt order from the judge, Fort Devens commander, Lt. Col. Carlos Poventud-Estrada, and civilian Department of Defense lawyer, John Hollis, are personally responsible for ruining their range day.

The documents allege that the two officials, “intentionally and deliberately ignored, undermined, and disregarded this Court’s March 20, 2025 Judgment and Order and has interposed upon plaintiff and its members contrived and arbitrary new conditions and requirements in a concerted effort to keep plaintiff off defendant’s firing ranges, including the absolutely outrageous misconduct it perpetrated upon plaintiff and plaintiff’s members on May 13, 2025.”

The gun club may also seek a court to order U.S. Marshals to enforce the judge’s order “at the disobedient party’s expense.”

This is basically a retread of the club’s initial lawsuit, which makes no sense at all. It’s one of those things that shouldn’t be needed. Fort Devens was told to knock it off, and rather than comply with the courts, they just keep doing the same stuff that got them sued in the first place.

It’s ridiculous.

On one hand, this is the Massachusetts National Guard we’re talking about here. They ultimately answer to the governor of one of the most anti-gun states in the country. I can see why they’d want to make it difficult for people to shoot, as anti-gunners want to discourage gun ownership as a general thing.

The fact that this involved a DOD attorney–and us, Hollis is with the federal Department of the Army, not a state DOD–makes this all the more troubling to me.

Maybe it’s time for Pete Hegseth to step in. The National Guard has dual chains of command, really, so while they answer to the governor, they also answer to the president, so Hegseth could step on this through those channels. The fact that the attorney involved works for him is all the more reason for the Secretary of Defense to step in and put an end to this crap.

Regardless, it shouldn’t have come to this. It’s time to end it.