A customer shoots a handgun during target practice at The Range at Austin. Co-owners and the owner of its major debt are tussling over control the popular shooting range and gun shop.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
Katie Kim of San Francisco takes a video as she visits a gun range for the first time at The Range at Austin while visiting Austin in October for Formula 1 races.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
The owners of the popular shooting range and gun shop The Range at Austin squared off in court again Thursday hoping take steps toward figuring out who really runs the show.
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But filings ahead of the hearing in the 3rd Business Court Division shed more light on the dispute that has co-owners Grant Shaw and Alessandro Bosco — and Shaw’s former father in law Tom Sansone — tussling over control of the business and its debt.
Shaw and Bosco have been embroiled in a fight over the 4.3-acre property since last year when, Shaw says, Bosco intentionally tanked a deal for a loan to keep the company solvent. Shaw says it was a scheme to cut him out. Bosco, though, argues Shaw was using the refinancing deal to reduce Bosco’s power as a partner.
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In his lawsuit, Shaw says his business partner’s scheme was executed through fraud, bribery and violations of the corporate charter to push the company into foreclosure, where Sansone could buy the assets at a fraction of their value.
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Bosco denies that, saying Shaw “omits and mischaracterizes” the “onerous” terms of the loan he rejected and the part Shaw himself played in decisions he now criticizes. He says the lawsuit is an attempt to smear him. And Sansone says he owns the loan that’s now several months past due — the loan Shaw was trying to refinance — and wants to foreclose.
Their attorneys went to court Thursday to argue over motions, one by Shaw to appoint an independent receiver and one by Bosco asking for the dispute to be sent to arbitration. Shaw wants a receiver — an independent third party — to help decide the future of the business but rejects arbitration. Bosco agreed in theory to a receiver limited to helping sell off the business.
Because attorneys said the parties were close to out-of-court settlements on several of the issues the court was talking about, Business Court Judge Melissa Andrews declined to rule. If not resolved earlier, she could take up the motions at an April 2 hearing.
The property had been scheduled for a foreclosure sale in early March until a restraining order was issued. Now, a foreclosure is expected no sooner than May. Through his company Range Collection LLC, Sansone sued Shaw over $5.2 million he’s owed, plus attorneys fees, after the March foreclosure was halted.
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In a previous interview, Sansone said he was simply executing his rights as owner of the debt. He denied Shaw’s allegations of a scheme, saying the disputed financing deal in dispute was “unattractive.” In a court filing, he called it a “shark loan.”
Refinancing attempt
In 2025, court documents show, Shaw was attempting to refinance loans held by the company’s original lender Hillcrest Bank and TASAN LP. TASAN is owned by Sansone.
The deal Bosco allegedly killed would have given The Range $10 million at 9.5% over 30 years, court documents show. The terms of the loan included a 2% relative increase each year. By the end of its life, the business would have been paying close to 17% in interest.
Emails in the court record show that Bosco was unwilling to continue to guarantee money to obtain loans, especially if it meant Shaw was given more power in the operation. Shaw was unwilling to guarantee the loan if the two-person management team didn’t change.
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The Range had begun as a collaboration between Bosco, Shaw and Jon Armstrong, an investor. Armstrong resigned as a manager years ago. The subsequent arrangement, Shaw says, left the company deadlocked between the two remaining members and adrift on major decisions.
Bosco’s attorneys argue Shaw was exaggerating the situation.
The two men also have interests in SB Tactical — the manufacturer and seller of gun accessories. Bosco’s attorneys suggested in emails the parties amend SB Tactical’s incorporation so both men can manage the two companies with “major decision voting rights.”
Shaw responsed that was a breach of Bosco’s fiduciary duty.
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The debt
The debt issues began when Bosco and Shaw signed a $7.9 million loan agreement to build The Range in 2015. They and Armstrong enlisted 30 other investors and Sansone’s TASAN LP loaned the company $2.5 million. Sansone said in a previous interview he also kicked in funds during periods of shortfall.
Sansone was not the only one giving the company money, with Shaw saying in court documents that over the years he had loaned $5 million and Bosco saying he had given it $2 million.
Sansone formed Range Collections LLC in Florida, where he lives, while the company was trying to refinance and acquired The Range’s debt when the refinancing failed.
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Shaw alleges Bosco fraudulently executed documents giving TASAN’s loan a lien on the property years after the loan. Shaw doesn’t dispute that TASANs loan terms include the lien, only that it wasn’t included at the time the loan was made. He points to Bosco’s actions at a critical moment in the saga — January of this year — as proof of the scheme. The lien allows for the foreclosure proceedings.
Sansone, though, says the lien was executed years ago and the documents were recreated in 2026 due to loss of the initial paperwork.
The Range also has been sued by its architect for unpaid bills and by a former investor who said the company made material misstatements. Former investor Michael Qualizza was awarded more than $3 million from his lawsuit.
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