Target Shooters Bring Mayhem to National Forests
Recreational target shooters call it “trigger trash” — tons and tons of refrigerators, car parts, televisions, sofas, bowling pins and other unwanted junk that shooters haul onto pristine federal woodlands and shred with gunfire for sheer enjoyment.
The abuses are scarring forest lands from the Carolinas to the Pacific Northwest. An emergency halt to target shooting had to be issued for the Croatan National Forest, in North Carolina, after hundreds of complaints from alarmed visitors. Forest Service records show an increasing raft of violations, like shooting from cars and shooting in campgrounds.
The problem keeps growing, with hikers and conservationists warning that virtual free-fire zones threaten not only national forests but also millions of multiple-use Western acres overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, where there are too few enforcement officers. Citizens describe scenes resembling war zones, as volleys of gunfire roll across the mountains.
It’s bad enough that federal crews have to clean up after the shooters leave their bullet-riddled detritus behind in the forests. More alarming is that these feckless “sportsmen” have been taking pot shots at priceless prehistoric petroglyphs — the rock art depicting animals and people left behind by ancient Indian tribes in such treasured sites as Utah’s Lake Mountains.
“You feared for your life,” one petroglyph hobbyist told Jack Healy of The Times in describing scenes of desecrated rock art, shredded juniper trees, spilled shotgun shells and the mess from cans of spray paint that shooters like to explode.
As a result of this supremely irresponsible behavior, and the wanton destruction it brings, the Bureau of Land Management wants to permanently ban open target shooting in the Utah backcountry to protect the 10,000-year-old human record from modern man’s right to bear arms. The bureau’s plan is to contain the problem in a designated shooting range.
Such measures would not only protect valuable artifacts but would also ease the fears of hikers, campers and others more interested in nature than gunfire. Their paths are increasingly crossed by stray bullets, one of which fatally struck a camper last month as he rested at a campsite in Colorado’s Pike National Forest.
Gun enthusiasts insist that designated ranges are too small for their needs and infringe on their freedom, which they equate with that of backpackers and four-wheel enthusiasts. But officials don’t hesitate to regulate those visitors with common-sense rules. Target shooters deserve no less for the heightened risks they are selfishly creating. The national forests are no place for gun mayhem.
' Whaaaat!?? What in tha' sam blazing heck is This all about!? Are you telling us that We 'free to do as we damn well please', red blooded, guns up tha arse, Americans can't just go out and willie-nilly shoot the heck outta Anything we darn well please? Just hold the fort boys! Back up to square one! Whoaaa fellows! Is This America, 'the land of the free', 'home of the brave', or What! Doggone it, we were Born with guns in our hands and bullets in our teeth, yep, that's why they call us 'son of a gun'! If it wasn't for US, the whole American economy would flush! The money we spend on Guns and bullets float our economy like a great big ship that would sink without us. Guns! Get it? Guns! Why do you think those Ruskies don't attack America? Yep, because we got guns, and they don't. We shoot the heck outta each other all the time, so they Know we'll pop a cap in their butts just as fast! And Now you tell us we can't go out and shoot hell outta everything we see. What're we gonna shoot at Now? Read the Constitution, it says right there that we can carry our guns anywhere we want to and shoot'em anywhere we please. Yep, that's what it says! Oh, and those target thingies we leave strewn all over the woods..biodegradable. And we help it do that by puttin' lots of holes in it..makes it smaller. See, we like Mother Nature just as much as you whinners do. Love those trees (great targets by the way) and all those wild critters (more targets!) and the smell of fresh cordite in the air. Ahhh...love that smell! Annnd, you can shoot even Big guns and that bullet can fly for miles and miles and not touch a thing...well sometimes a 'camper', or 'hiker' might catch one..but that's Sooo rare! But we got more rights than those lame butts do anyway. We got guns, they got nuthin'! So don't tread on us...man, That's a snappy sayin' huh, 'cause we're gonna go and shoot wherever the heck we want to, that's our birthright, and the mess we leave behind..tax money will clean it up, that's why we pay taxes! This here is America, and we're Gun lovin' Americans, we live by the gun, and of course once in a very long while some of us 'die' by the gun, so just leave us alone..you feds are always pickin' on us anyway. Go pick on somebody your own size! You meanie's!'
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