Historic Gun Range About To Be Shut Down By Leftist Bureaucrats

Gun ranges are frequently targeted by left-wing activists in the government, and sadly, one is finally about to be wrongly shut down. This is alarming, because it marks the beginning of a slippery slope leading to forcing other gun ranges out of business. This will ultimately lead to a lack of reputable places for people to learn how to defend themselves with firearms, and a major step backwards for the Second Amendment after years of withstanding progressive attacks.

The Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club in Washington state has been targeted for nearly 20 years now by left-wing activists in government. I covered the events leading up to this previously here and here. KRRC has bravely fought the attacks off so far, mainly due to the efforts of its chief executive officer Marcus Carter, who has represented himself pro se throughout most of the proceedings, forcing himself to learn the law. But this last battle looks insurmountable if something doesn’t change.

The targeting has been going on for so long that local mainstream news sources frequently run political cartoonsabout it. It all began due to a vendetta that gun-grabbing Democrat prosecutor, Russ Hauge, developed against the club. His hatred became so well-known that virtually every attorney who now challenges him in elections – even Democrats – denounce it during their debates and declare that if elected, they will stop running the office based on political vendettas. The Kitsap County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild issued a strong statement this year announcing it would not endorse Hauge for reelection. Unfortunately, so many people entered the race to challenge Hauge, they split the vote in the primary election, and he may very well end up winning in the general election again.

Hauge, who has been in office since 1995, has apparently been using his influence to convince other government agencies to help him harass KRRC. No doubt afraid of being targeted themselves by a powerful county prosecutor, other government agencies have willingly jumped into the fray to help Hauge shut down KRRC, as I covered here.

The Kitsap County Commissioners passed an ordinance last month requiring shooting ranges, including the 89-year old KRRC, to obtain a five-year operating permit to continue to do the same historic activities they have handled expertly since 1926 – claiming it would somehow increase safety and reduce noise during “recreational and educational shooting activities,” whatever that means. It includes the vaguely worded mandate, “Adequate physical containment requires the use of the appropriate combination of overhead baffles, impact berms and sidewalls or side berms.” Adding all this will easily put a small gun range out of business. There was no reason given to require this onerous requirement, other than referring to lawsuits against the club which are ongoing and have not yet been resolved, which alleged that bullets went beyond the property. Hypocritically, trap and skeet clubs are exempt from the new regulations – more evidence that KRRC is specifically being targeted. If KRRC is compared to numerous other gun ranges around the country – which I’ve featured each month in past monthly issues of Western Shooting Journal over the past 20 months – it is clear that it is at the level of – and in fact surpasses – most shooting ranges when it comes to safety and environmental concerns.

The depth of the absurdity was demonstrated when Carter pointed out to the commissioners that not one single county commissioner, nor any other county employee, has ever visited the range while operational, and the county sheriff himself has brought his family out to use the range. Allowing an anti-gun bureaucrat, who quite frankly wouldn’t know a gun range from a radar range, to fully take over the operations of a private organization, is completely antithetical to common sense or how our Founding Fathers set up this country.

The county spent more than $17,000 on sound studies done from the nearest neighboring residence during a high-power speed shooting contest - the loudest time possible at a range - only to find that data collected “wasn’t useful” to their purposes - wonder why! The county then suggested it be allowed to measure sound on the firing line so officials could “extrapolate the data” to the residential properties, claiming those who had complained about noise would probably not allow them to take measurements from their homes.

As far as safety, the county recruited the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab to do an analysis on the three incidents where a small group of malcontents claimed bullets left the KRRC property over the last 80-plus years (the last of which was found on the deck of a legal clerk for the prosecutor just a couple weeks prior to trial). The Washington State Patrol’s forensic scientist demonstrated in court that none of the trajectories crossed the KRRC ranges, and only after adding a huge “margin for error” could the club property be crossed. Of course, the county doesn’t want to talk about the thousands of acres of park and state lands where anyone can see evidence of irresponsible shooting taking place.

This represents one of the most flagrant, arrogant attacks on the Second Amendment anywhere across the country in recent years. KRRC is a well-respected, established gun club that has been in the community since 1926. It was founded not just as a shooting sports range, but with the dual purpose of supporting our national defense. Located in a military community, it trains our military, law enforcement, and even designs courses of fire for the largest military base in Washington State and most recently for the Air Force Special Forces. The range is so committed to safety that its URL is gunsafety.org.

If this kind of community service public resource can be shut down, what about gun ranges that have no ties to national defense, nor have an advocate willing to devote hundreds of hours to learning the law and defending it? The ordinance will likely go into effect 90 days after it was passed on September 22, which will be December 21st, if the Washington Department of Ecology approves it, or even if it does nothing. The County will require KRRC to apply for a permit by December 21st, which the County also testified under oath it may not grant, regardless of what hoops KRRC jumps through.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Carter told the commissioners in a loud voice immediately after their vote, as reported by the Kitsap Sun. “What you did here this evening has nothing to do about public safety. You can be held culpable for violating individual rights. What you did was appalling. I wonder if you have even read the Constitution.” To which the overwhelming majority in the room broke out in even louder applause. He then walked out of the commissioners’ chambers, followed by a large number people who also opposed the ordinance.

Don’t let this happen. You can object to Loree Randall at Department of Ecology, Shorelands and Environmental Assistance Program, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600, ecy.wa.gov/forms/comments.html or call (360) 407-6180 and tell them to REJECT Kitsap County’s attempt to usurp state authority and protect our shooting ranges. Otherwise, this is a big slide down the slippery slope to eroding our most important right to keep and bear arms.

email recd. this a.m. Title: “Is this what you want?” author unknown:

You’re sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door.
Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers.
At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way.

With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun.

You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it.

In the darkness, you make out two shadows.

One holds something that looks like a crowbar.

When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire.

The blast knocks both thugs to the floor.

One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside.

As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you’re in trouble.

In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless..

Yours was never registered.

Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died.

They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm.

When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter.

“What kind of sentence will I get?” you ask.

“Only ten-to-twelve years,” he replies, as if that’s nothing.
“Behave yourself, and you’ll be out in seven.”

The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local newspaper. Somehow, you’re portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys.

Their friends and relatives can’t find an unkind word to say about them..

Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both “victims” have been arrested numerous times.

But the next day’s headline says it all:
“Lovable Rogue Son Didn’t Deserve to Die.”

The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters..

As the days wear on, the story takes wings.

The national media picks it up, then the international media.

The surviving burglar has become a folk hero.

Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he’ll probably win.

The media publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you’ve been critical of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects.

After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time.

The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars.

A few months later, you go to trial.

The charges haven’t been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted.

When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you..

Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man.

It doesn’t take long for the jury to convict you of all charges.

The judge sentences you to life in prison.

This case really happened.

On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk , England , killed one burglar and wounded a second.

In April, 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term...

How did it become a crime to defend one’s own life in the once great British Empire ?

It started with the Pistols Act of 1903.

This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license.
The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns..

Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.

Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerfordmass shooting in 1987.

Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw.

When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead.

The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of “gun control”, demanded even tougher restrictions.
(The seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective even though Ryan used a rifle.)

Nine years later, at Dunblane , Scotland , Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school.

For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals.
Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners.
Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns.
The Dunblane Inquiry, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few sidearms still owned by private citizens.

During the years in which the British government incrementally took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism.
Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun.
Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released.

Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying,
“We cannot have people take the law into their own hands.”

All of Martin’s neighbors had been robbed numerous times,
and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences.
Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars.

When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities.

Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law.
The few who didn’t were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn’t comply.

Police later bragged that they’d taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens.

How did the authorities know who had handguns?
The guns had been registered and licensed.
Kind of like cars. Sound familiar?

WAKE UP AMERICA ; THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION.

“...It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds..”
—Samuel Adams

If you think this is important, please forward to everyone you know.

You had better wake up, because Obama is doing this very same thing, over here, if he can get it done
The UN Small Arms Treaty that Hilary is negotiating would take away our 2nd Amendment rights.

And there are stupid people in congress and on the street that will go right along with him.
Just remember - the reason the Japanese didn’t invade the USA is because they knew that Most
of the citizens were armed.

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