Durango, Colorado brings us yet another case of people who are brought near an existing gun range by urban sprawl who then complain about the noise. Folks are pressuring La Plata County and the city of Durango to move the the private, members-only Durango Gun Club to “somewhere more remote.” (Map link here, so you can see where it is now.) Volunteers collected 153 signatures on a petition to give to officials. The organizer of the movement, one Amanda O’Connor, says she doesn’t walk with her 4-year-old daughter on the Animas River Trail anymore . . .
because the sound of gunfire makes her precious snowflake nervous. “Brooklyn will actually cover her ears when the shooting is going on, and it just gives her anxiety and makes her a little bit scared,” O’Connor said. Several things to note about this story: Neither Ms. O’Connor nor anyone else signing petitions can reasonably be termed “nearby residents,” because everything for at least a mile around the gun club is suburban retail and light industrial; local law enforcement trains on this range; and finally, the range (as always seems to be the case) has been in the same place for decades. The gun club leases the land the range sits on from the county for $1 a year. The first lease was signed in 1979 for 20 years, and then renewed in 1998 for 20 more years. The county commission can break the lease early, but has to attempt to move the club to a new location. The commission is studying the issue, but has had little success finding better places to locate the range. On the list of things that have done the most harm to this country in the last 50 years, entitled NIMBY BS like this has to rank somewhere in the top three or four.
Last Thursday I told you about a man on his honeymoon who was arrested on Grand Cayman the previous weekend when customs officials found 50 rounds of 9mm in his luggage. They ended up charging him with attempting to bring live ammunition onto the island, and he was fined $3,000 and allowed to leave the island. I suppose it could have been worse. A lighter wallet beats a jail stretch in a foreign country ten times in ten.
Yet another story to put the lie to the statement by those who would disarm us that gun ownership is on the decline. Cincinnati.com has an article discussing how gun laws have been relaxed in Kentucky recently, and the number of concealed carry permits has increased dramatically. The number of permits issued had already increased from 11,000 in 2004 to about 30,000 in 2012, but by 2013 that number had doubled again, with more than 60,000 permits on the books by the end of last year. A concealed carry instructor in Louisville saw 300 students in the three months after Newtown, more than all of 2012. He said that the biggest increase in his students is made up of teachers, school administrators, and bus drivers. And that’s only the concealed carry permits. Kentucky also allows open carry without a permit, much to the consternation of some, like local MDAGSAA member Pam Mangas, who recently saw someone carrying a gun at a barbershop when she took her son to get a haircut. “I don’t want children terrorized by the sight of guns,” Mangas said. For my part, I doubt seriously that her son was terrorized, unless she’s instilled that fear in him. If he’s like most normal kids, he was either curious about the gun, or completely indifferent to its presence. Sounds like the civilian disarmament movement is trafficking in their standard fare of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Some sanity in Washington Township, New Jersey, where a student found a single round of ammunition on a sidewalk on the grounds of Flocktown-Kossmann Elementary School last Monday. The discovery was reported to the administration, and emergency protocols were activated. A K-9 was brought in and located two more rounds in the grass near the first one. Police said the ammunition was a specific type of .40 S&W that’s used for pest control. [So, rat-shot?] Here’s where the sanity comes in: Detectives were able to determine that the ammo had fallen through a hole in a specific student’s backpack. Investigators confirmed that the same ammo was present at the student’s home and that all firearms there were accounted for, secure, and inaccessible. Due to all of that, and because they had no proof that the ammunition was intentionally brought to school, they will not be pursuing criminal charges. So all’s well that ends well, right?
The same folks that brought the R.I.P. fragmenting ammo are working on a new thing they call Trident. It’s a non-fragmenting round that opens up into a HUGE three-pointed star shape upon encountering resistance. Richard Ryan got some pre-production samples in .300 BLK and tore up some water bottles, watermelons, and ballistic gel, all filmed in high-speed, of course. I usually try to point out what I think is the “cool part,” but this whole video is the cool part. Watching that round blow up and spin through the gel is awesome.
Also, note the triangle-shaped piece of plastic that gets blown out of the side of the water bottle in the opening sequence. If you click the Trident Ammo Test annotation at the end of the above video it will take you to an 8-video playlist of the different tests he ran, or you can just click here to jump straight to the full water bottle test.
“yet another case of people who are brought near an existing gun range by urban sprawl who then complain about the noise”
We have the same problem here in the St. Louis area with neighbors near/around the Arnold Rifle and Pistol Club who have the audacity to whine and complain AFTER they buy property near the gun club, knowing full well that they may well, and no doubt will, hear the sound of gun fire from 8:00 until sunset every day of the year.
They even sign a waiver acknowledging this before the move in.
But….they whine and complain regardless.
This problem was addressed in a county north of me.
“Pierce County became the first in the state to approve an ordinance that protects shooting ranges from potential lawsuits based on noise or nuisance complaints.”
The five ranges now protected in Pierce County include:
The Tacoma Sportsman’s Club
Paul Bunyan Rifle and Sportsman’s Club
Sumner Sportsman’s Association
Upper Nisqually Sportsman’s Club
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department Practice Range
http://www.king5.com/news/Pierce-County-sets-a-precedent-with-law-that-protects-shooting-ranges-219520191.html
Why the hell did I ever leave Pierce County? They actually employ halfway sensible politicans there.
except that Pierce co. Sheriff refuses to sign off on Form-1 for suppressors or SBRs
Most public ranges in Pierce so. suck IMO. I’d rather go to one in Kitsap county, or drive into the hills. Fortunately I have a small 75-yd pit five minutes from my house where I can shoot and never be bothered.
Tennessee recently passed a law protecting all ranges against residential encroachment. My club, Memphis Sport Shooters Association, was very relieved when that happened.
I’ve seen the same type of complaints from people who buy houses that sit on golf courses then they complain that golf balls are hitting their homes. It’s insanity.
And I have seen the same, about people who buy a house near an active military airbase.
Tell ’em that’s the “Sound of Freedom.”
As a kid, I used to ride my bicycle on the road at the end of the runway at Offutt and come home smelling like JP4 or JP5. Good times.
Yeah Gene, when I was little, My great uncle would bring his sea-doos done to lake worth and we would go out and sit at the end of the runway at Carswell AFB and watch F-16s come in for touch and gos about 100 ft overhead.
And yet these very same complaining people who find the noise from the range intolerable will show up at the local 4th of July fireworks shows, and even let the kids light a few firecrackers, all the while failing to recognize the sounds they cheer there are the same always made in the resistance to monarchical tyranny in all its forms.
What about democratic tyranny?
Sounds like the solution would be to take silencers off the NFA list so that “noise pollution” would never be a problem.
I can dream, right?
Yeah, well… except for those of us shooting big bore wheel guns.
I believe KAC had a solution for that, the SRR, pity it’s not available.
Finland encourages the use of sound suppressors for exactly that reason.
Yep. Same problem here too. Normally, I’d be pretty outraged, but the ownership of this particular range are such pricks to anyone but lifetime members, which it’s impossible to become unless someone dies, I’m not as pressed about it.
The same can be said about local race tracks. When I was a kid, there were at least four within a 50 mile radius. All but one have been shut down and are now either flea markets or large box stores/warehouses because newly enacted noise ordinances shut them down after folks started moving in around them.
I grew up a mile from NASA Plumbrook. They used to test Saturn V rockets at night. It was a glorious roar that would lull me sleep and dream about someday being an astronaut.
In the late 70’s EPA shut that program down for noise pollution.
I hate the EPA.
So, did you ever become an Astronaut?
Another reason I love living in Idaho:
Idaho Statutes TITLE 55 PROPERTY IN GENERAL
CHAPTER 26 SPORT SHOOTING RANGES
55-2601. Sport shooting range — Liability for noise pollution.
(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a person who operates or uses a sport shooting range in this state shall not be subject to civil liability or criminal prosecution in any matter relating to noise or noise pollution resulting from the operation or use of the range if the range was established, constructed or operated prior to the implementation of any noise control laws, ordinances, rules or regulations, or if the range is in compliance with any noise control laws, ordinances, rules or regulations that applied to the range and its operation at the time of establishment, construction or initial operation of the range subject to the limitations in section 55-2605, Idaho Code.
(2) Rules or regulations adopted by a state or local department or agency for limiting levels of noise in terms of decibel level which may occur in the outdoor atmosphere shall not apply to a sport shooting range exempted from liability under this act.
(3) A municipal noise control ordinance may not require or be applied so as to require a sport shooting range to limit or eliminate shooting activities that have occurred on a regular basis at the range prior to the enactment date of the ordinance.
55-2602. Sport shooting range — Nuisance action — Limitations.
(1) Except as provided in this section, a person may not maintain a nuisance action for noise against a shooting range located in the vicinity of that person’s property if the shooting range was established as of the date the person acquired the property. If there is a substantial change in use of the range after the person acquires the property, the person may maintain a nuisance action if the action is brought within three (3) years from the beginning of the substantial change.
(2) A person who owns property in the vicinity of a shooting range that was established after the person acquired the property may maintain a nuisance action for noise against that shooting range only if the action is brought within five (5) years after establishment of the range or three (3) years after a substantial change in use of the range.
(3) If there has been no shooting activity at a range for a period of three (3) years, resumption of shooting is considered establishment of a new shooting range for purposes of this section.
THAT’S how you do it, folks.
Re: Grand Cayman.
I lived there for several years in the 80’s working on a project. We had a guy arrested for drugs. Trust me you don’t want to do time there.
You know Jim Dailey? He’s my grandfather, has lived there since 1967. He was fined 3 times for “tampering with the Queen’s bottom” (the Queen owns the ocean floor surrounding the island), but never locked up in Cayman that I know of. He did some time in El Salvador though if you can believe all the stories a grandfather tells.
This is happening in Milton-Freewater, Oregon as well…right across the border less than 10 miles from my town in WA. Just today, in fact, I read in our paper that it seems they have a reprieve for a while due to 5-minute deliberation of the city council to allow them to continue operation despite complaints of the “unsafe” range…which I assure you its not.
I’m still trying to get my mind around “urban” sprawl being associated with Durango.
I wonder how long Ms. O’Connor has lived there. Her attitude does not sound like one I would suspect to be common in Durango.
Well, she named her precious little snowflake “Brooklyn.” Who on Earth names their child Brooklyn? Is his/her/it’s middle name “Gowanus” or “Armpit” or something equally hip? “Look everybody, I gave my child an exceptionally stupid name before it was trendy!!!!!”
I’ll bet the family’s not from around Durango. Or this planet.
Uh, ever heard of Brooklyn Decker?
They had no satisfactory explanation for her name, either. But she’s pretty, so Roddick isn’t likely to be hung up on the name.
It is not urban sprawl as much as it is well-heeled urban outsiders who are nonparticipants in the backwoods gun culture moving in and building vacation homes. Go there in winter and look at all the high dollar cars from out of state there for the skiing, or the high-end stores that survive only because of the skiing clientele. In fact, the last time I was there, I saw a Ferrari parked on the street.
Telluride’s fun. I’m ashamed to admit I have a friend with 500 acres near the club. He’s as p_____y whipped as a man can be. Hunters lease the rights. She likes that money. But shooting ranges? With pistols? Laugh.
Washington Township is just one town over from me. This lockdown occurred about a week after my town’s middle school had a shelter in place for a few hours when a round was found on a sidewalk near school property. Police searched lockers, found nothing… but some students were missing donuts afterwards… no joke.
As a recent visitor of Durango and a former resident there I can assure you that there are, in fact, houses (mostly apartments) within line of sight of the gun club. The gun club happens to be an indoor range, however. I am calling BS about the woman who wont walk on the trail because of the gun range. You can litteraly cross the street and walk on the sidewalk to get away from it.
I bet that famous steam choochoo they operate makes more noise than the gun club.
The article mentions that the gun club operates both an indoor pistol range in town and an outdoor range outside of town. This is referring to the one outside of town, and I think you’re talking about the other. If I’m mistaken, please let me know.
Wait, they’re bitching about the OUTDOOR one? The one that isn’t even INSIDE the town limits?
wow… I’m speechless
Correct, outside city limits.
But but but it’s near the river trail! And the noise is SCARY! We have RIGHTS to FEEL SAFE in our purfuit of happineff, you know!
The animus trail mentioned in the article is on the other side of the animus river, a fairly large body of water. Furthermore, there is nothing preventing them from cutting through the Walmart parking lot and completely bypassing that section of the trail should they find the shooting that offensive.
I swear, some people’s children.
The link to google maps in the piece about the Durango range didn’t really get me to the range. I did finally find it. Google says this “13999 Co Rd 231, Durango, Colorado, United States” is an approximate address.
Doing a little “google map recon” it doesn’t appear that there are any residential structures around the range at all. She must have had to really scrape to get 153 signatures (maybe some voted like a democrat).
The neighbors to my range tried to shut us down by taking us to court. It ended up in mediation and the end result was that we had to shut down for the first Sunday and Monday of every month, most holidays (we’re open July 4!) and do some “remodeling” (berms, shelters, baffles).
On the other hand, the neighbors to our state National Guard Headquarters managed to get the pistol range on the ‘reservation’ shut down.
Some you win, some you lose.
Working off memory here on a quick ttag check on break, but isn’t that the same gun range that they were trying to force off the county property for “radical” political affiliation or something because they had an NRA membership requirement?
You are correct. Since it’s on public land, the antis got their panties in a wad that the club required NRA membership (as does mine), primarily for insurance purposes. They raised enough of a stink that the club had to drop the requirement. No doubt the antis think they’re on a roll.
You mean the National Radical Association? Those “minority terrorists”…
Maybe we could get the same lawyer that got a child molester off..I mean someone like that has to have ethics,right?? guys? hello?
My gun club is right in the middle of San Antonio, in an expensive old neighborhood. It’s been there many decades and is the oldest active gun club in the US. A few years ago some whiners complained about how late the shooting was going on in the summer evenings, so they cut back hours. Same deal, they knew the club was there when they moved there, but complained anyway. At least the club didn’t have to shut down. Too bad Colorado has gotten so wussy on guns compared to how they used to be. I’d be embarrassed to raise a child who was scared of the sound of distant gunfire. My son was raised where we could hear both the morning cannon shot at Ft Sam and the pop pop of the shotgun club. He never thought anything of it.
Little Brooklyn is going to have to go on meds someday because of what her mom is doing to her. I hope the tax payer won’t be picking up Brooklyn’s therapy bill.
When I was a kid many of the folks that lived nearby had home ranges. The immediate neighbors on both sides had 100 yard setups, and the sound of someone shooting targets with a big game rifle was a common thing on a Sunday afternoon.
Then again, this was Wyoming.
Durango is in the southwest corner of Colorado and there isn’t a large urban area within several hours’ drive; I wouldn’t worry too much.
When Telluride’s socked in jets have to land in Durango. Liberal visibility is very high. Oprah is driven through Durango regularly. It’s not very urban, but it’s not off the radar either.
Re: Cayman Islands
Holy moly! That guy had FIFTY rounds…or LIVE ammunition? Who is the heck needs FIFTY rounds of LIVE ammo?
Who the heck can find fifty rounds of ammo?
+1 (he he he)
My parents knowingly bought a house about a block away from I-5 near a major interchange.
They said they didn’t care, as the houses tended to be cheaper. And they are very hard of hearing.
I’m liking that new trident round. Awesome penetration!
Unfortunately for you and your siblings, when they move out or pass on, you’ll be the one trying to sell it.
the 300 ammo seems pretty impressive for subsonic!
Perhaps. Although I hope it is good to go,I noticed he was using the same weak, clear gel to test with that G2 Research used. I’m sure was a stipulation given to him. I’ll wait to see a real in-depth test first.
I belong to the Tri-County Gun Club in Sherwood Washington. The club was eastablished in 1940 and is on 230 acres. Over the years civilization has encroached on the boundaries, but so far we still are on good terms with our high rent neighbors. Police train there and you can find about any shooting discipline you want. No automatic weapon fire allowed. Thanks to Hussein Obama, membership is full with a waiting list. Great club to belong to.
I’m betting Ms. O’Connor freaks out her little darling when she skins her knee by over reacting instead of telling her to shake it off. I’m surprised they even hike the great outdoors with so many dangerous animals on the loose.
That should be Sherwood, OR.
Yet another anti-gun, gun club.
I was at an IPSC shoot there and was asked why I wasn’t a member.
I let him have it with both barrels. No machine guns!
Yet they will have 20 people on the firing line all letting loose at the same time.
I cussed him up one side and down the other.
No .50 bmg allowed there either.
Anti-gun idiots.
And my father in law was a founder of the club.
Wow, I don’t even know where to begin with your comment.
How does not allowing .50 make them anti-gun? Maybe it makes them pro-safety because their berms aren’t heavy enough for regular .50 fire.
The gun club I frequent has a policy of buying any land around the club whenever it comes up for sale. The club has grown to over 250 acres simply to keep a buffer between the noise and the suburban sprawl.
Mine has been squeezed on all sides by development, and all we have left is an indoor range sitting on about 10 acres. It’s in an unincorporated area surrounded by condos, apartments, and single family dwellings. We get the occasional noise complaint, but so far it hasn’t been an issue.
We have a “Bird Watchers Association” Trying to get us to close the outdoor portion of our range due to noise and “destabilization of a habitat”. This happens now, after the club has been there for 100 years next spring. The birds know well enough what going on. Hell, I’ve had to cease fire because a deer decided 2pm was the right time to try and eat the pumpkins I was slugging with my shotgun at 100yds… approaching the pile while I was firing! We’ll be cracking shots off, and some one in a kayak in the river (safely) adjacent to us will smile and wave.
But the bird watchers have a problem. Who the hell decides that sitting in the woods next to or behind a 600 yard rifle range is a good idea? Tourists from Chicago, that’s who.
One of our parks expanded a decade ago and a gun club owned large tracks of land adjacent to the park for about 30 years before the park was established. The gun club agreed to move, donated half the land (and sold the other half to pay to move facilities), and continues to operate just outside the park. That area is the nature preserve, marked with “quiet zone” signs and in the nature center building there is a sign saying “Why do I hear gunfire?” that explains the situation and ends with “But don’t worry about the wildlife, they have grown accustomed to the noise”. Anyone that claims the local wildlife is disturbed by a gun club or range doesn’t know much about animals.
” ‘I don’t want children terrorized by the sight of guns,’ Mangas said. ”
I don’t either, but to me that means educating children about guns so they understand them and, more importantly, respect them. I was raised in a house lacking firearms but I was still given a strong respect for firearms. I knew not to play with them and not to point a gun at someone (in the case of toy guns, it was not to point it at someone who wasn’t a part of the game being played, whatever that might be) without ever having shot a real gun.
So Pam Mangas doesn’t want her precious little fart snapper to be frightened when she takes him for his haircut. Poor baby!
Why doesn’t she do what my wife’s been doing for 24 years, Get a pair of scissors and cut his friggin hair at home!
I had my hair cut yesterday. I chose my barber because he carries concealed and he and his clientele don’t freak out when I take off my coat and expose my gun. I can read American Rifleman or Shotgun news from the table in his waiting area, we talk about shooting sports while he cuts my hair, and I noticed a handmade sign on the wall advertising a shotgun raffle that a local little league team was holding as a fund raiser. I guess part of me likes it that I get my hair cut in a place that would make an anti’s head explode.
Kids do tend to key in anytime my gun is exposed, and generally they ask me what kind it is and if I’m a police officer. I’ve yet to have a child react poorly to the sight of a gun, mine or someone else’s, though I have encountered a couple of adults who seemed a bit put off by it. Invariably they aren’t from around here. I guess maybe our kids are just tougher than those of the antis, our adults too it seems.
It’s not that they’re any tougher; it’s that they haven’t been indoctrinated into fearing firearms. My sons were never indoc’d either and now they enjoy visiting the range with me often (much to my CFO’s dismay).
We have a neighbor who I suspect to be an “anti”. She and her husband have two small boys. She has no problem driving her 3000 lb baby killer ten miles over the posted speed limit of our development. I wonder how she’ll react when I engage her in trivial neighborly conversation with a 1911 strapped to my thigh.
“a student found a single round of ammunition on a sidewalk on the grounds of Flocktown-Kossmann Elementary School”
This will be listed as #75 on Everytown’s school shooting list.
Dat beeatch dun habe a FB page buttz deeleetud sum opha hur poe-sts N lokkd dhawn hur payge.
Excuse my language today, I wanted to practice my White House-speak.
It appears Amanda OConnor works at a college, but like ALL good hypocrites she “likes” the Godfather and Kill Bill movie franchises, is anyone surprised?
Apropos a recent piece here the other day, the only people who make guns a fetish, an object with magical powers, are the people who only know guns as presented by Hollywood. I mention a 1911 of mine to my conservative brother, and he asks “does it feed hollow points reliably?” I mention it to my very liberal brother and he starts quoting Samuel L. Jackson lines about über-powerful pistols and AK’s “that can take out the whole room in three seconds.” That’s the political reality.
If everyone used suppressors the whole noise issue would be eliminated (and assassinations would be ten times easier /sarc).
I am disappointed in the Trident. They start out with a badass metal shark at supersonic speed only to end up with a banana perl bullet.
After growing up around military bases and serving time in the business , I find the sound of distant gunfire rather relaxing. In fact, I have trouble sleeping without it. That and the scent of jp8 and diesel….lovely.
Gun fire in the distance is the sound track to some of the best times I’ve had. I find it reassuring and exhilarating more than relaxing, but I do enjoy it.
Wonder what percentage of the folks bitching & whining about gun noise at the Durango range are transplants from California? The left coast liberal occupation has increasingly shifted Colorado into the column of States with an alarming increase of voters who view anti-gun measures as hip and progressive. Time will tell if there are enough conservative voters left in the Centennial State to turn back the tide, but until that happens, the days of spending my hard earned dollar on vacations and hunting trips in Colorado ARE OVER!
I have seen complaints over a local gun range near my house. The nearest houses are about 5 miles away, and it is in a canyon within another canyon. You cannot even here it until halfway through the road that is part of the shooting park! Which is already off a road that is off and across the canyon from the highway, which is lightly used an most cars I see are either fellow shooters or campers going a few more miles.
Heck the military used to do tests with missiles and torpedos in the main canyon….
It isn’t about the noise. It is about wanting to shut down what they do not like and impose that on us. Both of the closest ranges to make take 30 minutes at least without traffic. There used to be a couple of indoor gun ranges closer, but, despite being in non residential areas, they were “too noisy” God help them if they find out my LGS shoots guns indoors, in their back room (gunsmith, testing that sort of thing, not a firing range)…the restaurant next door might complain about “noise” even though you can barely hear it in the front room of the LGS
Looks like her real problem is she named her daughter “Brooklyn”
Here in the Gunshine state a law was passed in 1999 exempting existing firing ranges from liability from nuisance complaints due to “noise pollution”.
Man we have the same problem here in Australia. Just watch this video here http://youtu.be/9pdDoWplTUE
“Tom in Oregon
June 24, 2014
That should be Sherwood, OR.
Yet another anti-gun, gun club.
I was at an IPSC shoot there and was asked why I wasn’t a member.
I let him have it with both barrels. No machine guns!
Yet they will have 20 people on the firing line all letting loose at the same time.
I cussed him up one side and down the other.
No .50 bmg allowed there either.
Anti-gun idiots.
And my father in law was a founder of the club.”
Sherwood, Oregon…Thanks for the correction. Me being just a mere shooter I’ve found it a great place to shoot. Even a volley of shooters doesn’t compare to the constant hammering of auto or bmg fire. Where I live in Washington, most days I can hear the English Pit shooting range outside but not in. Occasionally it gets reported as gun fire, but otherwise I don’t hear anyone getting their panties in a bunch over it.
Tom, methinks TCGC hurt your feelings, did they ask you to leave?
Lazy parents encourage fear by their children of normal noises. What do they do when there is thunder and lightning? Hide in the basement? Call 911? My kids know that thunder, and gunfire will not hurt them if they hear it from a safe area. A good parent discourages irrational fears in their kids so they don’t grow up to be clingy, drama queen adults.
I live near a few ranges, my range and my neighbors’ ranges. Gunfire heard is the sound of fun.
Military bases have been dealing with these urban sprawlers for years. Camp Dodge bent to the will of the gulf course that sprung up 70 years after the base had been there to cut short night shoots at 11 pm. Now the housing complex nearby wants the ranges to be quieter. LOL.
Yea, this is pretty ridiculous. If the new resident move-ins don’t like the gun range that has been there for decades they can move somewhere else. These people are the complete opposite of rights and justice. They only want what they feel would benefit them. What if they owned a large track of land in the area and people voted on turning it into a park. How would they like that?
I had an experience somewhat like the Grand Cayman story, not nearly as bad but there was some pucker factor involved. I got married earlier this year and Greece was the destination of choice for our honeymoon. My new wife had no idea where we were going up until the last connecting gate. Before leaving i packed my bags like normal. This time though my old carry on bag that i normally take got beat up pretty bad on a trip to Utah the year before. I grabbed a backpack that I usually take to the range instead. I normally don’t put any ammo in this bag, its just for carrying water, a snack or two, and my range first aid kit. The last time i took it though my brother went to the range with me and we fired alot of ammo – ie alot of brass to pick up. I went through the bag and made sure everything was out of it, packed my carry on and went about the rest of prep. Fast forward to Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, our first international landing. We had to go through customs and there I was standing in line without a care with my new wife, when a K9 unit walked past and the dog alerted on me. They asked me to come with them so i consented fearing nothing. Customs ran my bag through an x-ray and did the typical “Is this your bag?” Yes it was they just took it out of my hand. Just like out of a movie a little weaselly looking guy reached in to the bag and pulled his hand right back out holding a metallic object. “What is this?” he asked. I looked at it and my heart dropped. i panicked and almost went into full smart @ss mode “Uhh, that is a live .45 acp hollow point” I told the guy. I immediately wanted to facepalm. The Amsterdam PD were called and they inspected the bullet. After signing my life away, to Interpol I’m sure, they told me to be careful with that kind of thing because bringing live ammunition into the EU is strictly illegal. I made small talk about guns and the US with the two young Glock toting officers and they seemed to sympathize. After about 30 mins, only a 45 min layover, they let me go. No arrest, no fingerprint, just my signature on a sheet of paper. Thankfully we made to the boarding gate just before it closed. And there on the marque – ATHENS, GREECE.
I grew up in NJ, that’s right, northwest New Jersey and often heard the neighboring farmer shooting when I was a kid back in the 1960’s. When I got old enough, I would occasionally shoot with him and/or his son. We could hear gun shots when outside our house on most days, some from the farm, some from farther away. I guarantee that is not the situation today. The old farm has been chopped up into 3/4 acre lots with $400,000 McMansions built on them. Those people organized a protest that a public park was being built nearby on vacant land, with basketball courts and a baseball field. Protesting a PARK!!! Why you might ask? Because of the noise and traffic. When I was a kid, we would have LOVED having a place like that to play in, and so would our parents. I can’t figure out what happens to some people’s brains that makes them affluent, and ignorant at the same time.
My former private club was also on leased County land. Basically the overflow basin for a couple of levies that cut through the property. Same history, there LONG before urban sprawl and development, etc. The Sheriff didn’t use OUR range, but there’s was literally next door to our’s only a couple of hundred yards away.
Well, folks paying property taxes that VOTE eventually won out over the thousand or so club members. One the Sheriff moved their range facility, we were doomed, and the County didn’t renew our lease.
Last time
I shot in Colorado it was an outdoor range in Pine Colorado, where a certain group is tryin to shut it down due to people who leave their trash scattered aroun the area. Every time I shot their I policed my brass and tried I leave it better than I found it.
I liked shooting there because it’s not too busy mid week, and the only cop I ever saw was one shooting and he asked for my brass.
One time I was doing some transitions and shooting on the move and this rabbit popped it’s head out of its hole by one of my targets, he was totally used to gun fire. I stopped shooting for a minute and waited for the rabbit to leave, which he did.
Awww diddums. Poor wittle girly shcared by the shcary gunfire. Doesn’t your heart just bleed?…No. I don’t care.
The same goes for all the other whiny, entitled shits that move near a gun range knowing what they are in for and whinging like little kiddies. Don’t like it? Move away. The community will be a damn sight better for it.
The Aurora, IL Sportsmans Club Relocated to Sugar Grove over 30 years ago. Sugar Grove got crowed with new homes and the noise complaints started. Then a group got City Hall to instigate lawsuits and raise taxes. long story short, club moved 20 miles West and sold property to an asphalt plant. I wonder how the neighbors like the new set up?
This is one of the main reasons that I moved out of Kolorful Kolorado. Such a beautiful state but the Liberals and statists are destroying it.
Last night I listened to Apaches tear up the range with some night time artillery fire. This morning, more artillery and aircraft dropping people out of perfectly good aircraft. It doesn’t bother me one bit. Some people need to suck it up. If you move next to a noisy place that is your fault. If you don’t like it, move!
” ‘I don’t want children terrorized by the sight of guns,’ Mangas said. ”
Ok then Mangas…. DON’T terrorize her!
The gun isn’t what’s doing it, YOU are.
I swear, anyone this stupid can’t have human thought… they must just mimic people capable of thought, and tune into the newest trendy station/magazine/website to learn how they should feel about something.
A child’s natural reaction to guns is nearly always positive. If this “Mom” doesn’t want her kid terrorized, then she should stop terrorizing the kid. It’s no bloody coincidence that children of these kinds of “Mom”s are the first to be reduced to tears or screaming fits when things go wrong. It’s no wonder that parents like this raise little freaks.
Sooooo they bought a property near a gun range AFTER the gun range was built?
And they’re complaining why? No sympathies. Its like the people who buy a house (because its inexpensive) near an airport then complain about the noise the planes make.
This isn’t a Florida residential side yard facing a canal type range is it?
I’d get tired of all the noise from all the anti gun people.
Around here we have OMG those F/A 18’s are SOOOOOO LOUD crowd that live next to a Naval Air Station that has been there for 60 years. And they all sign a waiver when they purchase their property. Another group had their nose offended in the summer, they had purchased new construction home close a hog farm. Now grant you the hog farm had only been in the same family raising hogs for over a 100 years. So why not shut it down, the “city” is only 50 years old. Now the 2 cities around the naval base/reserve landing field are buying up land or development rights to prevent encroachment, no base less federal money to waste.
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