Northern Colorado Front Range National Forest Shooting Update

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.455_Hunter

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I attended the SportsShootingPartners.org meeting last night in Boulder. The primary goal of these meetings is to inform the public about the process of selecting multiple “designated shooting” locations in Clear Creek, Gilpin, Boulder and Larimer counties. Most of the people there were NIMBY folks hoping the “other guy’s area” gets selected for a range and not theirs. The secondary goal, which was not highlighted until I brought to the attention of the crowd, was the plan to eliminate dispersed shooting in all the nearby National Forest locations. In Boulder County, for example, dispersed shooting would be banned essentially anywhere in National Forest below 11,000 feet. Similar restrictions would be in place for Clear Creek and Gilpin. Larimer, without the history of mountain mining development, has significantly less restrictions. The plan touts that only 20% of the forest property would be unsuitable for dispersed shooting . However, they neglect to mention that all of that restricted area is where it is actually convenient for people to go shooting- near town.

The “compromise”, like most gun regulation proposals is completely asinine. In no way, shape, or form, does the selection of a handful of overcrowded designated shooting sites compensate for the loss of thousands of acres of dispersed shooting. I understand that there are some National Forest locations, due to immediate proximately to homes, roads, or trails, that are unsafe, and should be shooting prohibited- that’s fine. However, the determination criteria are overly restrictive if it eliminates such vast region of forest that contains many reasonable areas to conduct safe sport shooting.

My preference would be to restrict shooting in a few limited areas where it is obviously highly inappropriate and unsafe, open a few designated ranges for public use, and preserve dispersed shooting in the other areas.

Please review the attached map/supporting document, and visit the SportsShootingPartners.org and National Forest websites (http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=46910) for more information.

The pro-gun and shooting community needs to flood these comments about how unacceptable the plan is to restrict dispersed shooting in such a manner, and how the vast majority of shooter’s are responsible and will not have their valid usage of public property so extremely compromised.

Send comments to:
Garry Sanfacon, Project Coordinator, [email protected], 720-564-2642
Joshua Milligan, Forest Planner, [email protected], 970-295-6761
Tammy Williams, Forest Planner, [email protected]

If you are a resident of one of these counties, please contact your county commissioners and voice your disapproval to this plan. Since it is federal property we are discussing, I will also be contacting my Representative (Polis) and Senator Gardner. I suggest you do the same and spread the word.

As you all know, it’s was easier to stop a bad policy before it get implemented instead trying to get it rescinded later. If this sticks up north, don’t think that Pike National Forest west of Colorado Springs won’t be next…
 

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  • RSS Ban Plan.pdf
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  • Shooting Ban Map.pdf
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So if I understand you right, any place convenient or accessible is being banned. The map appears as if I would have to drive 2 hours from Boulder or the Denver metro area to shoot. I think that is nuts. I might be open to the dispersed shooting ban if, and only if, they opened 15 range areas close to town. The current designated areas are far to crowded and unsafe.
 
Yes, you are right. There is a bit of area in Clear Creek County, but the "approved" areas in Boulder and Gilpin are all high elevation remote wilderness area (no vehicles). It almost appears that the software was biased enough to magically indicate there are no safe shooting areas in the vicinity of Boulder- too bad, so sad for you gun owners...

What is really interesting is the fact that many approved areas on the west side of the divide have greater concentrations of housed/roads/trails than the restricted areas on the east side.
 
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