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Aug. 1st, 2002 07:44 pmI just added you, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ignatius.
If you would like, email me and tell me to un-add you, if for some reason you wish not to be on my friends page. Rrrr.
In other news...
...Yesterday, I spent all afternoon at the Winchester Canyon Gun Club and the Los Padres National Forest public shooting area, way up in the Santa Ynez Mountains. It was hot; I was overdressed; I was unsure that we'd find it. I was ready to rock.
The WCGC is a range whose permit is up for evaluation and renewal by the Forest Service. One might think that the USFS might not be happy with an 84-acre shooting range on public land, but they're happy when people do go use it because the alternative is the public shooting areas...and we'll talk about those in a bit..
I had with me the lovely and talented Marny, the "photo intern" at the Valley Voice. We got to WCGC at about 12:45; they knew we were coming. We were immediately approached by a gentleman on the club's board of directors.
He was very concerned about getting bad press, and he kept bitching at me about the people who come and shoot up their club facilities after hours,when everyone who's supposed to be there has gone home. He told me about how much money the club had spent on the environmental surveying to pass through the hoops necessary for the proposal to get drafted. He seemed very secretive and distrustful, and I kept trying to calm him down and assure him that I was just trying to publicize what was going on, not to slam the club.
After a little while, the trapmaster came and greeted us. He seemed very nervous, as well, and very distracted. He ended up showing me like every trashcan in the place.
We went on a tour of the place in his truck, during which the trapmaster showed us every damned environmentally friendly clay pigeon and broom in the whole place. I give them this: it was spotless, and everyone with a gun did have it broken and empty until it was his turn to shoot.
After this, we went to the public shooting area. That place is likely the biggest dump I've ever seen in my life. TVs, dollhouses, beer kegs, and boxes full of bullet holes. Shells, bottles, cans, boxes that once held beer all over the ground. A guy shooting a rifle at something out of the back of his truck. Another guy scrounging, perhaps, for empty brass. A road that actually loops back around into the line of fire, so drivers may find themselves being shot at if the shooters in the first part of the area aren't careful. It was...odd.
The moral of the experience: people are gonna shoot their guns, and they're sure as hell not gonna give 'em up. So, to protect the land--and the people who might inadvertently get hurt at an unsupervised, remote shooting location--fuck yes, leave the shooting range where it is.
ignatius.If you would like, email me and tell me to un-add you, if for some reason you wish not to be on my friends page. Rrrr.
In other news...
...Yesterday, I spent all afternoon at the Winchester Canyon Gun Club and the Los Padres National Forest public shooting area, way up in the Santa Ynez Mountains. It was hot; I was overdressed; I was unsure that we'd find it. I was ready to rock.
The WCGC is a range whose permit is up for evaluation and renewal by the Forest Service. One might think that the USFS might not be happy with an 84-acre shooting range on public land, but they're happy when people do go use it because the alternative is the public shooting areas...and we'll talk about those in a bit..
I had with me the lovely and talented Marny, the "photo intern" at the Valley Voice. We got to WCGC at about 12:45; they knew we were coming. We were immediately approached by a gentleman on the club's board of directors.
He was very concerned about getting bad press, and he kept bitching at me about the people who come and shoot up their club facilities after hours,when everyone who's supposed to be there has gone home. He told me about how much money the club had spent on the environmental surveying to pass through the hoops necessary for the proposal to get drafted. He seemed very secretive and distrustful, and I kept trying to calm him down and assure him that I was just trying to publicize what was going on, not to slam the club.
After a little while, the trapmaster came and greeted us. He seemed very nervous, as well, and very distracted. He ended up showing me like every trashcan in the place.
We went on a tour of the place in his truck, during which the trapmaster showed us every damned environmentally friendly clay pigeon and broom in the whole place. I give them this: it was spotless, and everyone with a gun did have it broken and empty until it was his turn to shoot.
After this, we went to the public shooting area. That place is likely the biggest dump I've ever seen in my life. TVs, dollhouses, beer kegs, and boxes full of bullet holes. Shells, bottles, cans, boxes that once held beer all over the ground. A guy shooting a rifle at something out of the back of his truck. Another guy scrounging, perhaps, for empty brass. A road that actually loops back around into the line of fire, so drivers may find themselves being shot at if the shooters in the first part of the area aren't careful. It was...odd.
The moral of the experience: people are gonna shoot their guns, and they're sure as hell not gonna give 'em up. So, to protect the land--and the people who might inadvertently get hurt at an unsupervised, remote shooting location--fuck yes, leave the shooting range where it is.
