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Ex-astronaut uses clout to hurt shooters
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Ex-astronaut uses clout to hurt shootersBen HansenCourier Editor For someone who doesn't seem to like target ranges or know much about them, former astronaut Dick Gordon certainly has used his heavy-caliber clout to deny responsible gun owners a safe place to shoot in Yavapai County.Gordon and his wife moved into a home in the Wildwood neighborhood, ironically the very home once occupied by the people who most recently tried to shut down the Prescott Sportsmen's Club shooting range. Now if their real estate agent did his job, it should have been no surprise to the Gordons that they would have the shooting range as a neighbor.But Gordon, who isn't talking to the media, complained in writing to the U.S. Forest Service's Southwest Regional Office, which has shut down the range temporarily. The club that operates the range leases the land from the Forest Service. Forest Service officials say Gordon showed them a videotape which he says contains the sounds of ricocheting bullets. The Forest Service says an expert will have to prove the range safe before it can reopen.Some quick background: The direction in which shooters fire on the range is parallel to the border of the subdivision. Shooters fire into large, plowed up earthen banks called berms, which stop the bullets. If any bullet were to ricochet and travel over the high berms, it would land harmlessly on the open mountainside beyond the berm. For any round to strike a person's home or go near it, it would have to outperform the famous "magic bullet' that allegedly struck two different people in different positions in President John F. Kennedy's motorcade.Shooters who frequent the range aren't witless rubes who plink at empty bottles. They are sophisticated, experienced hunters and competition shooters, and all shooting takes place in accordance with strict, formal rules under the eye of a full-time range officer who quickly ejects and bans anyone who doesn't follow safety rules.In 1999, when the Gordons' predecessor in the house tried to shut down the range, three different certified inspectors pronounced it safe. Some neighbors who say bullets have narrowly missed them or struck their property are victims of the plinkers and tin-can shooters who use Forest Service land near the range. That type of shooting now is illegal throughout the forest, but the Forest Service has to enforce it and make examples of slob shooters who break the law.The Sportsmen's Club will be going through the whole inspection thing again, and inspectors likely will pronounce the range even safer than it was in the 1999 inspection, because the club has made numerous improvements.Then we may find out if Gordon's clout can make the truth irrelevant. http://www.communitypapers.com/dailycourier/myarticles.asp?H=1&S=400&P=518359&PubID=7923
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