Want to know why there isn’t an outdoor range anywhere convenient to a metropolitan area? Want to know why even the remote ones keep closing up? Want to know why existing ranges receive such harassment?
Here’s your answer:
[flv:https://lonelymachines.org/video/resaca.flv 480 368]
This video, filmed at the John’s Mountain WMA range in Resaca, was brought to my attention today. I’ve witnessed some truly horrid behavior at outdoor ranges, but I assumed that John’s Mountain was far enough from the suburbs that it hasn’t been subjected to this sort of treatment.
Apparently not. Besides the shocking number of safety violations, you can see plain vandalism to the property. This is why we have to drive farther by the year to find a 100-yard range.
Here are a few of the violations of the range rules:
All shooters must fire from or by the shooting benches. ABSOLUTELY NO SHOOTING IS ALLOWED OUTSIDE OF THIS AREA.
All firearms on the firing line must be grounded, unloaded, with actions open whenever anyone is down range.
Shooters shall fire only at the target directly down range of that persons position.
Ground level targets must be positioned so that a bullet will not strike flat ground before the backstop; all targets must be located so that a bullet will strike between the base and halfway up the backstop.
And yes, those are the fence posts for the range they are destroying.
So, who’s the genius (seen here firing at the camera) behind this?
He goes by the nom de plume Smokey (skullsandflames123 on YouTube), and you can find his profile here (along with a few charming pictures). Another of his videos depicts him punching a hole in the gas tank of a Dodge Neon and letting it drain into a residential storm drain.
Though I plan on circulating this incident to everyone I know in the community (as well as contacting the DNR), I have few illusions as to the good it will do.
Though this is the worst I’ve seen, it didn’t happen in a vacuum. I’ve noticed a shockingly cavalier attitude towards safety among the newest generation of shooters. Though there’s no shortage of dangerous idiots of all ages, the kids coming up in the ranks today have demonstrated some truly loathsome habits.
We can blame video games, we can blame John Woo movies, or wretched parenting (these are the children of the Me Generation). The cause is irrelevant. It falls to us to break the cycle. We do them an unspeakable disservice if we allow this to continue.
There is no excuse for any sort of safety violation, no matter how minor. If they don’t want to learn the error of their ways, we need to drum these people out of the community. I don’t care about anybody’s precious feelings–we are dealing with deadly weapons. “Feelings” are for Dave Matthews concerts, Bergman moves, or those creepy backwoods retreats where grown men read Iron John and cry on each other.
Feelings don’t enter the equation when guns are involved, and I’m not going to risk being maimed because some adolescent imbecile can’t handle getting dressed down.
4 thoughts on “Our Own Worst Enemies”
Where do you start?
I find it incredible that he has lived so long.
Mouth breathing, knuckle dragging oxygen thief with a shoe size bigger than his IQ.
And WE get lumped in with THAT.
He shouldn’t be allowed scissors let alone firearms.
I don’t know whether the videos should be pulled, or it is a public service that they have been left up, so action can be taken.
The only words that come to mind quickly all have four letters.
As of 09/15/09, he appears to have pulled the video, so I have hosted it here.
There’s no denying we broke some range rules, there’s no denying a fence post was shot at (although it had obviously been shot at multiple times before we arrived and was already mostly gone.) I admit, there is no excuse, but I’m still a human being. This event happened over three years ago. This is a simple legal matter, and I’m in the proccess of paying the price. There were two warrants on me because of this, I drove two hours to turn myself in in good faith, then bonded myself out within a few hours. I’m not a bad guy, and I intend to pay the price for my crimes. And although you’d all love to see it happen, I won’t lose any rights to protect myself, nor will I lose my firearms license allowing me to coninue carrying protection. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand what we did was very wrong, and I’m very ashamed of it, but once again, I’m not the careless thug that you portray me as, I’m a hard working man who gives back to his comutity as much as possible. I never even had any criminal records before the warrants were filed for this video. I’m not a bad guy, I just made a few foolish and stupid mistakes.
I’ve reason to believe this is the same individual.
Smokey, I see no reasonable explanation for your actions, nor do my feelings on the matter change in the least. I hope the other individuals involved have at least received a stern reprimand. Still, you have a right to a rebuttal, and I doubt you’ll get it many other places.
I did not report your name to the authorities, but it was inevitable that someone would. I certainly don’t wish for the loss of your 2nd Amendment rights, but you need to sit down and give some very careful thought to whether you should be exercising them. Guns are not for the irresponsible or the impulsive. I lost count of the safety violations I saw in that video, and it takes only a split-second to turn “it seemed like a good idea” into tragedy.
If you plan on carrying a firearm, I can only hope you’ve gained a far greater amount of discipline, restraint and maturity in the time since that video was made. A gun is a means to end a human life when circumstances render every other option unusable. It is not a symbol, badge or totem, and a license alone does not qualify someone to make and implement life-altering decisions.
I’m sorry, but the people in that video do not possess those qualities.
These words are not meant for you alone. This situation carries a cautionary lesson that many people should consider.
If you’ve got anything you’d like to add, I will post it here.