Environmentalists Target Gun
Rights
by Larry Pratt
Executive Director of Gun Owners of America
If anti-gun zealots in government are frustrated that they have not yet been
able to completely infringe on our right to keep and bear arms, the United
States Forest Service (USFS) has found a politically correct issue to use
against gun owners.
In Azusa, California, there is a shooting range in the city's mountain
suburb. The Burro Canyon Shooting Park opened with a bang in November, 1993 on a
76 acre allotment near the Angeles National Forest.
Since the Shooting Park is on land unconstitutionally owned and administered
by the United States government, Burro Canyon operates with a permit from the
USFS, itself an unconstitutional agency desperately in need of elimination.
About a year ago, the USFS discovered that the railroad ties in use at the
range had to be removed because the creosote in them was disturbing the pristine
environment of Burro Canyon. This creosote is apparently different from that in
the telephone poles all over other federally protected land.
Well, the railroad ties went, but trouble was just starting. Through an
alleged irregularity in the deeding of the 76 acres for the Shooting Park, in
spite of the USFS's earlier approval, the Rangers managed to whack the Shooting
Park down to four acres.
Then the Shooting Park was told to be sure that all that horrible human
activity that occurs there would not endanger any exotic plants. You see, the
natural habitat must not be disturbed. By the way, the Burro Canyon Shooting
Park sits on top of a landfill.
By October of 2000 the USFS discovered that shotgun shells are an
environmental threat, and the Shooting Park was not picking them all up.
Next the USFS decided that there was too much picnicking going on, so the
picnic tables had to go. Ooops -- haven't you gotten rid of all those metal
plates the cops used for their long range practice? "Why, you're not in
compliance. Those plates are polluting the pristine Canyon."
Finally, after months of a death-by-a-thousand-cuts, the Burro Canyon
shooting park closed on January 2, 2001.
The anti-gun nuts in the bureaucracy have managed to squelch constitutional
freedom under the guise of protecting the environment.
Doesn't this make you want to go hug a tree?
Larry Pratt is Executive Director of Gun Owners of America located at 8001
Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151 and at http://www.gunowners.org
on the web.
KeepAndBearArms.com Note: Anyone who reads and understands this clear
message above must ask this question: how can a site sitting on top of a
landfill filled with untold amounts of trash legitimately be alleged to causing
environmental damage with a few shotgun shells? It is this type of gross
abuse of power and utter hypocrisy that suggests the Founding Fathers' true
intentions for the Second Amendment will one day soon be validated.
