Illegal shooters in Pike Nat'l Forest

[Del_Gue]

An interesting article from today's CO Springs Gazette:

http://www.outtherecolorado.com/blogs/illegal-shooters-leave-the-forest-a-battlefield-of-splintered-trees.html

[Big Wall]

Good article about morons ruining shooting areas for the rest of us. BUT, pounding machine gun fire? Sawed off shotguns? And those evil large caliber semi auto handguns?

[Del_Gue]

Yeah, the article definitely paints shooters as drunk, irresponsible
hooligans.

[akguy1985]

Sounds like damn liberals making more of a mess with words in their articles than the stupid kids cutting down trees and leaving their trad laying around

[esaabye]

I live near the base of the area. On a weekend it is pretty bad, not a place I can take my kids anymore.

Stupid people suck!

[Gman]

Based on what I've seen, there are some individuals being really stupid about where and what they shoot. Someone is dragging those washing machines and TVs into the woods as targets and leaving them there.

One issue that I take with the article;

Since the first shooting restrictions in 1989, the area’s population has grown by more than 200,000. There are not only thousands more shooters, but thousands more hikers, bikers, and campers potentially in the line of fire.


And closing public ranges has left shooters nowhere to go but into the woods.


“The effect is we have pushed all those people into unregulated shooting,” said El Paso County Commissioner Amy Lathen (http://bcc.elpasoco.com/Pages/District2AmyLathen.aspx). “It’s a dangerous situation.”


A tightening of shooting restrictions seems almost inevitable.

So...how does tightening restrictions solve the problem of not having public ranges? How some people arrive at "solutions" defies logic.

[Ronin13]

Great, ruin it for the rest of us! Same thing is happening in Arapahoe NF up near Echo Mtn Ski area. Trash, stupid kids shooting with little regard to safety, and people go hiking on the old service road that shooters use to access the area and the road crosses the range. Only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed up there.

[WillysWagon]

I was not happy after reading that [Rant1]
Time for the site to schedule a "Range Cleaning Day" and make sure to post pics.

Heck, even send the news crews an invite to see how 'responsible people' go play.

[Scanker19]

I was not happy after reading that [Rant1]
Time for the site to schedule a "Range Cleaning Day" and make sure to post pics.

Heck, even send the news crews an invite to see how 'responsible people' go play.

I really think we should do that. I've been wanting to do a group thing for a while. We could make a day of it at the south site, shooting, BBQ (with gas) and clean up. Although I doubt any news crew would come out unless one of us was shot.

[trlcavscout]

I really think we should do that. I've been wanting to do a group thing for a while. We could make a day of it at the south site, shooting, BBQ (with gas) and clean up. Although I doubt any news crew would come out unless one of us was shot.

You can shoot me, but only with a 9mm [Beer] Women love bullet scars, I know.

[Byte Stryke]

Heck, even send the news crews an invite to see how 'responsible people' go play.

Count me out... that's all I need is my face plastered all over the news with the Gun Crowd...

I am trying to dump that image as it is now.

[Del_Gue]

I would be willing to come help out with a range cleaning day. I think it's a great idea. Would think that KRDO would be willing to cover it.

[WillysWagon]

Count me out... that's all I need is my face plastered all over the news with the Gun Crowd...

I am trying to dump that image as it is now.

Then how about we take 'before & after' pics, send them to the media to show them 'some people' clean up their area, along with the mess others leave behind ?

[Ronin13]

Then how about we take 'before & after' pics, send them to the media to show them 'some people' clean up their area, along with the mess others leave behind ?

^This.

Call up those dickheads at KUSA and tell them we have a good story to submit to the Newstips segment of the 2PM news.
Won't really make much publicity since things like this don't get that much coverage... now if we got into a gun fight with the TSA over at the airport that would make headline news at 10!
Still a great idea though, we could call it the "Great Cleanup of Summer '11." Sequel would be the "Great Washington Cleanup of '12."

[TennVol]

Excellent op-ed piece in today's Gazette:

http://www.gazette.com/opinion/forest-120154-gun-guns.html


OUR VIEW: Forest officials cause gun chaos (poll)
Wayne Laugesen
2011-06-20 19:26:30

The number of guns in the United States roughly equals the population. Gun owners have raised billions for wildlife conservation and public lands by paying a 10 percent tax on all gun and ammunition purchases.
People who own guns reasonably desire to use them. The right to own and use guns has no less protection than the right to speak. Civil war could not disarm this country.
Yet, for some reason the United States Forest Service has little time for recreational shooters. The agency takes extraordinary measures to facilitate hikers, campers and mountain bikers. It maintains facilities for them and cleans up their trash. The agency has allowed clear-cutting in order to facilitate skiers, even though skiers kill and maim themselves and others when things go wrong.
We applaud the Forest Service for facilitating a variety of dangerous and otherwise burdensome activities. The forests belong to the people who pay for them — especially gun owners, who pay more than their share for conservation.
What we do not applaud is the agency’s efforts to shut out gun owners. The service has shut down the only two public ranges in El Paso County, the state’s most populous county and the county with the second-highest per capita gun ownership in Colorado. A Sunday Gazette feature reiterated the government’s worn out complaint about trash and unsafe shooting at the former ranges. They became eyesores, as would any facility the forest service refused to maintain.
Closure of the last shooting range, off Rampart Range Road, came as a direct consequence of a fatal shooting in 2009. It was the first and only fatal incident at either Pike National Forest range, which makes shooting the undisputed safest recreational activity in the forest. Hiking and biking deaths are far more common, yet they don’t close the trails. If they closed a ski slope each time a careless skier hurt or killed someone, there would be no place left to ski.
As a result of closing the ranges, shooters have taken up shooting wherever they please in the forests. It is chaos. Hikers and bikers fear stray bullets from the guns of morons. Imbeciles shoot at trees and leave trash on the ground.
Forest officials cannot stop recreational shooting by neglecting to facilitate it. By closing ranges they have unleashed decentralized mayhem.
They should have known better. In communities without sidewalks, humans walk on streets and on lawns. In towns without baseball fields, kids play ball in the streets. Stick a no-trespassing sign on the Manitou Incline and hikers will ignore it to satiate a desire. Set an unreasonable speed limit, to save lives, and the masses will violate it with willful disregard. Humans will engage in reasonable activities whether governments facilitate them or not. That’s why social engineering typically fails to produce the desired results.
Most gun owners would prefer to use regulated, approved, well-maintained ranges. That means the forest service had best rethink, reallocate and re-prioritize in order to open, manage and maintain at least one shooting range in El Paso County. Neglecting gun owners won’t make them disappear.
Friend editorial page editor Wayne Laugesen on Facebook

[Del_Gue]

Read the article online and vote in the poll.

[68Charger]

I voted in the poll, currently 78% yes (should re-open) with 478 votes

[Big Wall]

Voted.

[hammer03]

Well said Wayne (if you're on here). Voted.

[Yota]

Voted

Should the U.S. Forest Service open, manage and maintain a gun range in Pike National Forest?
Yes
82%
No
18%
Total Votes: 727

[divideman]

Heading up Mt. Herman tomorrow with trashbags and trucks to do some cleanup. Have a great day!