About three years ago I got tired of driving past two private ranges to shoot in the mountains and decided to join one of them. It was generally a good deal for me since – as a senior citizen I got a "break" on membership dues. Believing that I should do more to help the club, I tried getting involved with the making of policy but had to back out after a severe heart attack.
The club is financially solvent, even to the point of having a sort of excess which the officers are hard put to spend. There have been some improvements to the range that took several thousand dollars and made a significant improvement to it but there was still more money than projects so a call went out at the August meeting to suggest ways to spend the money that would benefit the club.
On another level, the range is primarily a rifle and pistol facility. For years the only time shotguns were allowed is for checking patterns, with no allowance for trap shooting of any sort. There just wasn't room for such a venue. Of course there are always some who don't want to abide by the rules so after a few occasions where shotgun wads were found in the wrong places the rule was changed to eliminate scatterguns completely. The use of shotguns declined but didn't stop completely.
Now the officers in the club have decided to install CCTV cameras at various points around the range to identify the people who are violating the rules. I'm one of those guys who complains mightily about traffic cameras, security cameras, red-light cameras and possibly even weather cameras so I argued against the installation of even more cameras in the very place I went to escape from the surveillance society we humans have built for ourselves. I don't want people spying on me so I don't believe I should spy on others. My arguments were of no avail and the cameras are to be installed. Accordingly, I resigned my membership, turned in my keys and bid the whole bunch goodbye.
My wife was a bit disappointed in my action though she supports my reasons for it.
Now then, I have to wonder what others think. Did I over-react or should I have simply let my membership lapse? After giving them my time and money should I have also sacrificed my principles?
My resignation is irreversible at this point so there are no "do overs" but I'd like to hear from others about how they would have handled the issue.
The club is financially solvent, even to the point of having a sort of excess which the officers are hard put to spend. There have been some improvements to the range that took several thousand dollars and made a significant improvement to it but there was still more money than projects so a call went out at the August meeting to suggest ways to spend the money that would benefit the club.
On another level, the range is primarily a rifle and pistol facility. For years the only time shotguns were allowed is for checking patterns, with no allowance for trap shooting of any sort. There just wasn't room for such a venue. Of course there are always some who don't want to abide by the rules so after a few occasions where shotgun wads were found in the wrong places the rule was changed to eliminate scatterguns completely. The use of shotguns declined but didn't stop completely.
Now the officers in the club have decided to install CCTV cameras at various points around the range to identify the people who are violating the rules. I'm one of those guys who complains mightily about traffic cameras, security cameras, red-light cameras and possibly even weather cameras so I argued against the installation of even more cameras in the very place I went to escape from the surveillance society we humans have built for ourselves. I don't want people spying on me so I don't believe I should spy on others. My arguments were of no avail and the cameras are to be installed. Accordingly, I resigned my membership, turned in my keys and bid the whole bunch goodbye.
My wife was a bit disappointed in my action though she supports my reasons for it.
Now then, I have to wonder what others think. Did I over-react or should I have simply let my membership lapse? After giving them my time and money should I have also sacrificed my principles?
My resignation is irreversible at this point so there are no "do overs" but I'd like to hear from others about how they would have handled the issue.