The Jesuits are basing their arguments against a national shooting range at Busbesija on religion and scaremongering, Stephen Petroni, the president of the shooting association AMACS says in an interview with The Malta Independent.

Mr Petroni says he and his wife have both suffered personal attacks due to their support for the range.

“They are using religion to try and dissuade people, but it will not work on me or other people. One guy even suggested that we be excommunicated,” Mr Petroni says.

Last week, the Jesuits claimed to have received an anonymous letter together with a bullet, threatening them for their opposition of the shooting range near the Mount St Joseph retreat house.

Asked if his thinks this was a stunt on the Jesuits’ part, Mr Petroni does not mince his words.

“Neither can I, the Jesuits, nor the Police at this stage confirm who sent it. Just as I condemned the incident, I also condemn those who have jumped on that incident to try and make themselves look like the victims, and I am referring to the Jesuits.

“How can they automatically claim it came from somebody from our camp to threaten them? It is all very funny, why was a Russian round selected? I think whoever did it wanted to damage the range project.”

The private investors supporting the project – U-group – are Russian backed.

“Comments like these do not help. Had they been coming from somebody else I might have understood, but coming from a religious community, in the absence of any logic of proof [about who sent the letter], they say they are being threatened and will not back down,” Mr Petroni continues.

The religious organisation is also applying pressure at school level to gain signatures for a petition opposing the range.

“They are putting pressure on parents to sign the petition. These parents are dependent on that school. If the headmaster hands out a petition, you would feel awkward not signing it.”

Asked what is wrong with this seeing that the three shooting associations are rallying support for the project, Mr Petroni replies pointedly: “Not like this.”

“Too much religion is being dragged into all this. It is not a religious issue. Something like that is unacceptable,” he says.

On Saturday, the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Michael Falzon said on a radio programme called Ghandi X'Nghid that the Jesuits had issued a comfort letter to one of the potential investors who expressed an interest in developing the site in question.

Mr Falzon said this precluded the government from speaking to the Jesuits prior to the winning bid being chosen, as they were an interested party.

The Jesuits have publicly offered their support for the proposal to turn the site into a horse-riding school.

Mr Petroni says Malta’s three shooting associations and the site’s developers are willing to sit around the table to discuss the matter, but the Jesuits’ “no compromise” position has thus far made it impossible.

He explains that noise abatement technology means that 95 per cent of the sound can end up being absorbed.

Pistol and rifle shooter will be firing from an all-weather enclosure, and the sound has to be measured from where it is being generated, yet the Jesuits are measuring the extreme outer edge of the site from their retreat, when the actual firing position is much further away, he says.

“Let me be egoistic here. Even if I do not consider the Jesuits, the shooters want sound absorption; it is not nice going into a shooting range and have the sound echoing back at you. Even for shooters this is not the kind of ambiance you want.”

On the site location, he says that such a range has to be build it an outside development zone, as it is impossible to build it in a village.

The previous government had proposed a €40 million project, involving an underground and over ground complex. This Mr Petroni says, was not financially feasible.

On the potential traffic impact, Mr Petroni says all the project will involve is a circular road for cars to go in and out from.

He points out that the Jesuit retreat is not a designated silent area, and is in fact a noisy place with a major road close buy and is also on the flight path of aircrafts.

“They are not starting from a position of absolute silence,” he says.