Obama Pushing Shooters Off Public Lands

[JAC]

If BHO gets a second term this article is just the beginning of the rights gun owners will lose.




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[deadeye]

I say that they need to provide areas for the shooting enthusiests and use some of the funds the BLM gets for upkeep. What is the difference of a few shooters footprint versus the footprint of hundreds of searchers every time some idiot hiker gets lost. How about they close the land to hikers for their own safety and save the thousands of dollars spent every year on search and rescue.

 

[rufus]

Great. I've already been pushed off public lands, for the most part, as a life-long off-road motorcyclist. Now they want to do the same to shooters (me!). Many of their reasons sure sound familiar.

Land of the free my bubble gum.

 

[civilian75]

...is facilitating or creating a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property is violating existing use restrictions...

this is an area we must admit we shooters as a community have not been good stewards.

 

[Sling Blade]

thi0s is an area we must admit we shooters as a community have not good stewards.

+1 No lie. Go to almost any place in the Coast Range suitable for shooting around here and it is a crap hole of broken bottles, old appliances and other garbage.

 

[rufus]

Yes, and it's sad. I have a large trashcan dedicated to going shooting with me. Leaves the house empty, comes back full (if I do not stop by the dump on the way home).

 

[grouser]

Interesting. The article says nothing about Obama proposing this. Misleading/inflammatory headline. It's urbanites who don't like shooting around them pushing this. Looks like democracy in action to me. Citizens bring their concerns to government and all sides get some input.
As shooters we need to be safe and clean up. Every time I find a good spot to shoot it's littered with empties and shot-up trash. I've also had rounds fly past me. We'll fight this and hopefully work on cleaning up our act.
As the percentage of hunters and shooters continues to decline we will see more of this.

grouser

 

[marty8587]

I've been up at Memaloose quarry and seen where someone had cut a good size tree down with gunfire on the oposite side of the quarry, With this deal they could close the area for such actions. All of us need to hold ourselves to higher standards rhan that or we for sure will lose access!

 

[svxr8dr]

Interesting. The article says nothing about Obama proposing this. Misleading/inflammatory headline. It's urbanites who don't like shooting around them pushing this. Looks like democracy in action to me.

May I suggest you actually read the .pdf response from the WHHCC to the BLM
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[whiskeybill]

Central Oregon Sport Shooting Association was actually succesful in leasing land from the BLM for a shooting complex. Part of the lease agreement was for the club (private) to build and maintain a small range that was open to the public. BLM also put in a state of the art law enforcement shooting facility that is available for club member use. This is a win-win deal. Many private clubs that were established over 50 years ago are now in the middle of populated areas and are facing alot of problems and complaints from people that are living nearby (behavior I do not agree with). If you move in next to a gun club, an airport, or military air station, you do so knowing full well the deal you are getting into. I agree with many of the posters that those irresponsible folks who go out and shoot, then trash the public domain, have no place among us if they can't clean up their act. There are alot of other reasons the government finds for shutting down public land to shooting. My brother lives in Nampa, Idaho. A couple years ago I was there for a visit, and we went out to do some plinking on public land. Most of that public land is closed to shooting because it is a designated "Raptor Corridor" along the Snake River and it's tributaries. We had to drive quite a way out of town to eventually find a place to shoot, and it had garbage there as well.

 

[Capn Jack]

What came first? The DUMP, or THE SHOOTERS?:huh:
What is it you've heard since you were a kid? ...Let's go out to the dump and go shooting...
Illegal dumping creates "targets", which brings "shooters", who figure...Well, it's a dump isn't it?
Nail the idiots that are illegally dumping the trash and most of the problems will go away.

Jack...

 

[grouser]

I spent a lot of time at the dump shooting when I was a kid. Rats make for great entertainment. I was not referring to dump shooting, as most open dumps are long gone. I've seen many old gravel pit areas that are full of the remnants of recreational shooting.

The WHHCC document is a good read. FYI the Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act provides money for ranges.

Grouser

 

[cpy911]

100% agree, we need to pick up our trash and unfortunately others' trash or we highly risk our shooting spots getting shut down!
Please at least take your targets/trash back with you when done shooting.

I really enjoy going up to "the hills" and plinking at gongs, plastic bottles (no glass), cans, etc without a range officer breathing down my back. Shooting at paper gets boring after a while, reactive targets are fun!

I bring an extra garbage bag, fill 'er up and take home all my trash and others. I would love to report people who litter and shut them down, but it doesn't happen near enough.

Thanks!

 

[kenno]

Reuters
By Paul Bedard, U.S.News & World Report

Gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres under new rules drafted by the Interior Department, the first major move by the Obama administration to impose limits on firearms.

Officials say the administration is concerned about the potential clash between gun owners and encroaching urban populations who like to use same land for hiking and dog walking.

"It's not so much a safety issue. It's a social conflict issue," said Frank Jenks, a natural resource specialist with Interior's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres. He adds that urbanites "freak out" when they hear shooting on public lands.

If the draft policy is finally approved, some public access to Bureau lands to hunters would also be limited, potentially reducing areas deer, elk, and bear hunters can use in the West



Read more: Obama Cracks Down on Hunters - Hunting - Fox Nation

 

[kenno]

Shaes of UN Agenda 21!

 

[Buddhalux]

Maybe BLM should put up game cameras around favored shooting spots and issue citations for jack asses that bring and shoot trash or don't clean up after themselves.

 

[Misterbill]

If BHO gets a second term this article is just the beginning of the rights gun owners will lose.




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Thanks VERY much for the heads-up on this. I will be contacting my Congressman.

 

[Misterbill]

Or maybe BLM should concentrate on LITTERUGS instead of shooters.

Overall I'm sure that non-shooters contribute a lot more trash than shooters. -Go to Lost Lake in Central WA and you will see myriad of trash contributed by FISHERMEN.

This is clearly an anti-shooters proposal. It needs to DIE.

PLEASE contact your congressman and ask them to directly intervene.

YES, I T DOES MATTER.

 

[RVTECH]

Conservationists and hunting groups, however, are mounting a fight. One elite group of conservationists that advises Interior and Agriculture is already pushing BLM to junk the regulations, claiming that shooters are being held to a much higher safety standard than other users of public lands, such as ATV riders.

"They are just trying to make it so difficult for recreational shooters," said Gary Kania, vice president of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation. His group is one of several, including the National Wildlife Foundation, Cabela's and Ducks Unlimited, on the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council fighting the new rules. During a two-day meeting ending this afternoon, they are drafting their own changes to the BLM rules.

"What we probably are going to be looking forward to is a reversal," said Kania. Asked about how to handle people who freak out when they hear shots on public lands, Kania said, "I don't know how to quanitify 'freaking out,'" and noted that he's seen people panicing when fly fishing in float tubes but nobody wants to ban then from rivers.

BLM actually invited the fight, seeking the council's comments. But officials suggested to Whispers that no changes are being planned to the draft regulations.

Over five pages, the draft BLM regulations raise concerns about how shooting can cause a "public disturbance." They also raise worries about how shooting and shooters can hurt plants and litter public lands.

This is the key paragraph foes say could lead to shooters being kicked off public lands:

"When the authorized officer determines that a site or area on BLM-managed lands used on a regular basis for recreational shooting is creating public disturbance, or is creating risk to other persons on public lands; is contributing to the defacement, removal or destruction of natural features, native plants, cultural resources, historic structures or government and/or private property; is facilitating or creating a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property is violating existing use restrictions, closure and restriction orders, or supplementary rules notices, and reasonable attempts to reduce or eliminate the violations by the BLM have been unsuccessful, the authorized officer will close the affected area to recreational shooting." [Check out new Debate Club about whether Congress needs to overhaul gun trafficking laws.]

Squeezing out shooters, says the draft policy, is needed because, "As the West has become more populated, recreational shooters now often find themselves in conflict with other public lands users, and the BLM is frequently called on to mediate these conflicts."

At yesterday's meeting at Interior, the council balked at the BLM draft regulations, adding that the Obama administration was not being fair to shooters on the issue of safety.

In a draft retort to BLM, the council said other users of public land aren't required to be as safe as shooters. They note that shooters have a much lower injury rate than others, like ATV users. "The policy fails to recognize that recreational shooting has one of the lowest incidences of death and injury compared to virtually any other outdoor recreational activity. The policy is prejudicial and discriminatory to target shooters as compared to other recreationists," said the council's draft response, expected to be finalized today.

What's more, the group charged that the BLM is acting in a contradictory fashion, encouraging the shooting sports while limiting shooting areas.

 

[Dave Workman]

Not so fast, guys

I snooped into this. You might want to just check your shootin' irons at the door before going off half-cocked.

Obama pushing shooters off public lands? Oh, really??

Allegations that the Obama administration is quietly pushing shooters off of public lands ignited a firestorm within the firearms community Wednesday, but the whole thing may be a tempest in a teapot half full of a sugary soft drink.

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