A range in New Jersey is being sued by a developer in what appears to be a land grab. The range, Iron Horse, has now responded to the allegations via a reply filing.
Previously reported, Iron Horse has come under fire by a land developer. It’s alleged that the lawsuit is part of a scheme to push them out of business so that their land can be acquired. Bryn Mawr Garwood LLC v. Iron Horse R&R LLC, Dean Rea, et al. was filed in Camden County Court and has been docketed as CAM-L-002643-26. The complaint alleges, amongst other things, that Iron Horse et al. has “potentially” caused environmental damage to adjacent properties. Iron Horse’s attorneys filed documents countering Bryn Mawr Garwood LLC’s claims.
“This matter began last year when Plaintiff’s principal, Harvey Sternberg, offered to pay Answering Defendants over $200,000 to shut down their gun range, which has been in operation under various owners since the 1950s,” the filing says. “In May 2026, Answering Defendants counter-offered and requested $1.25 Million to shut down the gun range. Harvey Sternberg did not respond to the counter-offer other than filing the instant lawsuit seeking to use this Court to shut down the gun range for ‘potential’ and totally unsubstantiated environmental concerns. In addition, the NJ DEP started investigating anonymous environmental complaints related to activities at the gun range.”
Iron Horse alleges in their response that Sternberg’s company’s “claims are now pre-empted by the ongoing (sic) NJ DEP and Gloucester Township investigations into environmental concerns at the gun range” and that Sternberg further “failed to show a likelihood of succeeding on the merits.”
Mark Karpo is an attorney representing Iron Horse. Karpo is not licensed to practice law in New Jersey, however, he applied to work on this case pro hac vice. The motion for Karpo to represent Iron Horse was scrutinized by Sternberg’s company for multiple reasons, one of which was because Karpo is a member of the gun club.
An Aug. 24 letter to the court opposes Sternberg’s company’s motion to disallow Karpo from representing Iron Horse. In the letter, it’s most notably stated that “as a member of Defendant’s gun range, Mr. Karpo has knowledge of specific facts concerning the operation of Defendant’s range that another defense attorney would have to investigate and learn, allowing efficiency for Defendant that the Court should promote.”
Counsel of record Steven J. Jozwiak further explains that Karpo has an engineering degree. Karpo’s education included “advanced coursework in Chemistry and Material Science” and Jozwiak contends it could be helpful in the case “if Plaintiff produces expert reports to support its presently bare allegations of potential pollution.”
“He’s basically trying to use the New Jersey environmental laws to bring a lawsuit to shut down the gun range for polluting the environment,” Karpo previously told Bearing Arms when discussing Sternberg’s potential modus operandi. “And his connection to the case is that he has a contract with the Waddells to buy their property. He hasn’t bought it, but he has a contract to buy it. So that’s his alleged standing to even bring this lawsuit.”
A curious thing about this scenario is that the owners of the property that Sternberg is under contract with — the “Waddell Property” — sold Iron Horse range to the current owners. Since the Waddells entered into this battle as plaintiffs as well, Iron Horse points out that if there’s any pollution or contamination, the Waddells are at least partially to blame. This was explored in a counterclaim Iron Horse filed against Sternberg’s company.
“At the time Counterclaim Defendants sold the Gun Range Property to Counterclaim Plaintiff, the Counterclaim Plaintiff was not aware of any environmental defects or pollution related to the Gun Range Property as alleged in Plaintiff’s complaint,” the counterclaim states. “At the time Counterclaim Defendants sold the Gun Range Property to Counterclaim Plaintiff, the Counterclaim Defendants failed to disclose any environmental defects or pollution related to the Gun Range Property.”
How the court is going to look at and take in the claims and counterclaims made by Iron Horse et al. is not known. Karpo is confidently optimistic that the court will see through Sternberg’s lawsuit for what he says it appears to be — a land grab. For people in New Jersey who are interested in this case, a public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 4 at the Camden County Superior Court Chancery Division.
Author’s Note: If you’re interested in listening to the folks at We Like Shooting podcast talk about this case, you can check that out HERE or in the embed below.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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