🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 22 Apr 1998 14:46:27 -0600, "wMoore" <anon4211@nyx.cs.du.edu>
wrote:

>If you are like me and didn't know the Boulder Police/Sheriff's department
>and the Department of Commerce are planning to put a Firing/Gun Range on top
>of Table Mountain, north of Haystack, at 53rd and Nelson Road....Wake Up!!!

Asleep at the switch, eh?

>The quiet gravel roads that make the most incredible rural place to bike and
>run around Table Mountain are about to be radically transformed.  George Epp
>wants to close and secure the top of Table Mountain for use as a huge gun
>range for fedreal, local and state officers to practice automatic weapon
>firing, swat and other weapons and war-game tactics, and he wants to have
>the place open all hours (closing at 10:00 PM won't do, he says) so officers
>can conduct realistic night maneuvers shooting long into the night!!!

Sounds like a very good idea to me....the police *do* need a place to
train, after all...or do you prefer your SWAT snipers to be
untrained....think about that as he lines up to take the shot which
will save *your* life by the width of a dime...

So, you'll just have to get used to the sound of gunfire as you
jog...or bike...or go somewhere else.  You *don't * get to reserve the
*whole* county for your personal pleasure, you know....

>This area has been untouched since the front range was settled 120 years ago
>and is home to a special island of wildlife, including deer, mountain lyon,
>coyote, fox, golden and bald eagles, large horned owls, redtail hawks,
>racoons, skunks, prairie dogs and much more.

Excuse me?  It's a barren gravel plain covered with diffuse knapweed
and has been used to mine gravel, not to mention the fact that there
are a couple of large radiotelescopes on the top....

It's an ideal site for a shooting range, and I for one applaud Sheriff
Epp's plan....just as I raise a cheer for his plan to house weekend
jail inmates in tents at the jail....as someone else said, "if it's
good enough for our soldiers, it's good enough for convicts."

>If you have ever been in a foot or bike race that had its route through this
>great area north of town, you know what I'm talking about.

So change the route....

>
>Please speak to your friends and get everyone you can to write to the
>Boulder County Land Development Board, the County Commissioners, and any
>people you know at the Dept. of Commerce (NIST, NOAA) to tell them that this
>is a really stupid idea!!!

Got a better idea, or are you just carping?  I'll write in in support,
thanks for bringing it to the group's attention.

>
>Of course, since this new range will be open to the public if Epp has his
>way, hey everybody can come out and shoot all day long and have a ball.
>Maybe even plunk away at the wildlife before it knows what's
>happening...ooo, that would be cool.

No, it would be illegal, and it won't happen, you're just trying to
demonize shooting sports, nothing more.

>If you don't mind that the county will have to pay hundreds of thousands of
>dollars to build this range to match what the county already has invested in
>the current range near the Erie Airport on Colo 7, and you don't mind
>high-velocity military-grade rounds flying around as you attempt to fly over
>this favorite GA private pilot flight path along the beautiful foothills,
>and frankly none of the reasons I've mentioned concern you, never mind this
>message.

Okay, never minding....

The shooting range near Erie is a private shooting park, it does not
belong to the county.  The extent of the county's investment in it is
some dirt work and target turners, and a few benches, which can easily
be moved to the new facility.

There is *absolutely no evidence* that stray rounds pose *any* danger
whatsoever to either the neighbors or to aircraft, and there has
*never* been an incident, despite the fact that the current private
range facility is *less than a mile* from the Erie Airpark, and is
right under the approach path for one of the runways. 

You're hysterical amphigory is duly noted.

>Otherwise, wake up like I did this week and start to find out what you can
>do to stop this madness.

Do you have an alternative or are you just NIMBYing?

>With any luck, Epp's plans are not already a slam-dunk, done-deal, yet
>another reason to sigh about Boulder's ongoing bureaucratic bungles and
>swell community planning ideas--like closing neighborhood schools in favor
>of the Wal-Mart model of education for elementary and middle-school aged
>children.
>
>I'll post more specifics about who to contact later.  Right now I just need
>to steam in my corner until I can calm down.

Sounds like another case of runaway NIMBYism to me.

The police need a training facility, and shooting sports are perfectly
legitimate recreational activities, and there are few other suitable
sites left in the county, so, instead of just whining, can you come up
with an alternative site?    And no, the shooting park on Highway 7 is
not suitable for modern police tactical training.

Regards,

Scott Weiser

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