Editorial

Slob shooters damage sport

Shot-up road signs, empty shotgun shells and cartridge brass littering the sagebrush, ricochets screaming over the heads of hikers and cyclists out on the trails.

Nobody likes to see the wreckage left behind by irresponsible shooters (see Jim Anderson's column, The Nugget, July 9, page 25). Perhaps the most offended are other shooters.

The slobs make all shooters look bad. Many people have only negative feelings about guns and seeing a blasted road sign or a littered landscape only confirms their prejudices.

Right now, target shooters can set up just about anywhere in the National Forest. With that right comes responsibilities: to choose a safe backstop, where stray bullets won't pose a danger to other folks out enjoying the woods, and to clean up after yourself when you are done.

As more and more people move into the forest lands, there will be more and more pressure to confine shooting to designated areas, such as local cinder pits. Then, if those places turn into dangerous dumping grounds, they'll be closed and only private, fee-charging shooting ranges will be allowed.

It has happened in California and it can happen here. If shooters want to avoid that, it's up to them.

A local man is organizing a clean-up at the cinder pit used for target practice in Camp Sherman. He is also creating flyers depicting several of the mangled signs in the area, announcing to sign-shooters that "people like you ruin shooting sports for the rest of us."

Several local folks have taken it upon themselves to clean up the popular cinder pit shooting area at Zimmerman Butte.

Such efforts are to be commended. They show respect for the land and they send a positive message to the non-shooting public: Target shooting can be safe, clean fun.

J.C.