Poisonous Pastime - The Health Risks of Shooting Ranges.

VPC ^ | May 2001 Violence Policy Center and Environmental Working Group study Poisonous Pastime. | VPC Editorial Study

[vannrox]

Poisonous Pastime The Health Risks of Shooting Ranges and Lead to Children, Families, and the Environment Introduction: There Goes The Neighborhood The American gun industry is in big trouble. Hunting is fading as a sport. Guns are seen by most of the general public as either weapons of crime or dangerous toys owned only by a shrinking minority of Americans.a As a result, the civilian firearms market is becoming smaller and more concentrated.b The gun industry is keenly aware that it faces eventual extinction unless it can break out of this fatal cycle of fewer and fewer people owning more and more guns. The industry and its satellite organizations—the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), in particular—have developed a long-range "survival" strategy to pump up gun sales. One arm of this survival strategy—selling lethality, or killing power—is described in a number of Violence Policy Center books and reports. But a hitherto less well-documented arm of the industry strategy is that of building more shooting ranges to draw new customers—especially women and children—into what it euphemistically calls the "shooting sports." (Appendix A documents the means by which the industry is using tax dollars and co-opted federal officials to help underwrite this strategy.) As is so often the case, what is good for the gun industry is bad for the general public. Thus, as a Michigan hunter safety coordinator told a national shooting range symposium in 1990, shooting ranges are "like a waste disposal facility." The attitude most people have toward shooting ranges is "not in their neighborhood and definitely not next door."1 There is good reason to compare shooting ranges to garbage dumps. Part of this is because, in the understated words of ubiquitous gun industry defense lawyer Anne Kimball, "the activity of shooting is one that is controversial in our society."2 Shooting is indeed controversial in America because of our world-record levels of firearms death and injury.c But, as this report documents, shooting ranges actually are bad neighbors. They pollute the environment. They threaten public health, most severely among children—the gun industry's prime targets.d And they are backed by special-interest bullies like the NRA who use their lobbying clout to pass laws that block citizen recourse against unwelcome ranges and their influence with government agencies to cut back-room deals for special treatment. Spokesmen for the gun industry and the "shooting sports" publicly describe shooting ranges as places where skilled marksmen engage in disciplined and wholesome sport shooting. But when they talk privately among themselves, they discuss a less savory reality: lead poisoning and other types of environmental pollution such as excessive noise, dangerous novice shooters who barely know what they are doing, the "Rambo factor" (shooters intent on destroying targets and other objects by blasting away at high speed with powerful guns), suicides, unintentional deaths and injuries—even murders. These are truly neighbors that no one would want moving in next door. And "next door" is constantly getting closer and closer. As cities and suburbs expand into once-rural areas, new homeowners increasingly "complain of noise and safety," according to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service deputy director Conley Moffett.3 This report documents the problems that shooting ranges bring to those who use them, their families, their neighbors, and even to entire communities stuck with the considerable costs of cleaning up the hazards that abandoned ranges leave behind. It suggests ways that local citizens can organize and take action to: help keep these bad neighbors from moving in next door; get them out of the schools; and, inform communities of the hazards of existing ranges. a) A measure of the growing disfavor with which firearms are held among the general public may be seen in the reported decision of the Make-A-Wish Foundation to reverse policy and no longer grant wishes that involve firearms or other weapons. The Foundation underwrites the wishes of children with terminal illnesses. "Make-A-Wish Opts To Shun Future Gun, Hunt Requests," The New Gun Week, July 1, 2000, 11. b) Firearms ownership has declined and those who own guns typically own more than one. In the 1950s, about half of American households reported owning a firearm. This dropped to just 35 percent by 1994. Only one in six adults owns a handgun. In 1994, just 10 percent of firearms owners held 77 percent of the privately owned guns in America. Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, Guns in America: Results of a Comprehensive National Survey on Firearms Ownership and Use, Summary Report (Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 1996). c) Since 1960, more than a million Americans have died in firearm homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings. In 1998 alone, a total of 30,708 Americans died from gun violence. Of these, 17,424 deaths were suicides, 12,102 were homicides, 866 were unintentional fatalities, and 316 were of an undetermined nature. "Deaths: Final Data for 1998," National Vital Statistics Report 48, no. 11 (2000). d) "Everyone past toddler age should get the chance to shoot," advises Guns & Ammo magazine in a special section, "Recreational Shooting: Fun for the Whole Family," May 2000, 52. Back to Table of Contents      All contents © 2001 Violence Policy Center   The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.

For the rest of the article please go < a href="http://www.vpc.org/studies/leadcont.htm">HERE.

[COB1]

"the "Rambo factor" (shooters intent on destroying targets and other objects by blasting away at high speed with powerful guns..."

I thought that was the "Eaker factor" (shooters who blast away at a target with a Glock in one hand and a Sig in the other)!

The only way to get lead poisoning at a firing range is to walk out in front of the firing line before a cease fire is called.

Whatever method the NRA is using to attract shooters, it's working.
At least in the South, there are more sport shooters today than ever before, and it's growing.
Now you have to ask yourself.........WHY?
Simple answer: It's fun!

Shooting ranges are popping up everywhere, but so are golf courses.
There are far less people who go to a firing range with the plan in mind to kill someone as there are Saturday golfers who plan to turn pro next month.

[Fiddlstix]

You forgot to Post this.......

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

help keep these bad neighbors liberals from moving in next door;

get them liberals out of the schools; and,

inform communities of the hazards of existing ranges liberals.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

One day I'm going to meet a woman who wears Hobbes #9 as a perfume... and then I'll probably finally get married.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

One day I'm going to meet a woman who wears Hobbes #9 as a perfume... and then I'll probably finally get married.

Texas girl raising an eyebrow......"Hobbes #9? There are 8 more of you?"

[The_Mighty_Right_Machine]

use them for target practice!

[Bogey78O]

That makes me wonder about the feasibility of soundproofing

[Bogey78O]

They're doing the same thing here in Louisiana with refineries. A plant gets built in the late 60s in a desolate area. Houses get built in the 70s and black people move in in the 80s.

Now they claim it's environmental racism and the US must close down these evil racist polluters.

[dansangel]

The gun industry is keenly aware that it faces eventual extinction unless it can break out of this fatal cycle of fewer and fewer people owning more and more guns.

Thanks for the ping, LadyX. .45MAN and I just got back from the local range. We have a membership and try to get there no less than twice a month.

Whoever wrote this a) Really put me in a bad mood which is too bad because I did really well today, b) has his head up his derriere with his so-called stats and c) needs to come to Atlanta the next time Eastman has a gun show at the N. Atlanta Trade Center.

.45MAN and I went to the show in September and had to wait a half hour in a serpentine line just to get in, it was so crowded!

This kind of claptrap is what the Dims and the gun-grabbers live to spew forth to all of the gullible, brainless, drooling, liberal sheeple who, in turn, just live to lap it up! The more outrageous the lies, the more the dumbstruck masses accept it as Gospel. God help us all!

More children die from accidental drownings than from handguns (no, I don't have the stats handy, but if pressed I will find them out on the web). Have the whining, drug-numbed posterior receptacles banned bathtubs? Swimming pools? How about all of the innocent people who die in car wrecks every year? Shall we ban the automobile? Oh, and those nasty stairways...how many people have been maimed or killed from spills down stairs? Oooh-oooh, and let's not forget falling out of windows, either accidentally or intentionally. Shall we ***ONLY*** have windowless one-story buildings with no bathtubs or pools to make life safer?

Ridiculous, inciteful hyperbole. Period!

[MHGinTN]

My son visits a nice range down I-85 near Opelika, AL. Have you been there?

[metesky]

No, no, no! Don't shoot them up!

Open a used car lot. 100% profit and it'll help pay for more guns and ammo.
;O)

[dansangel]

No, can't say that I have. We belong to a range just off of Satellite Blvd. in Duluth. We have also used one on Peachtree Industrial in Norcross, and are going to an outdoor range next month in Conyers, GA for a tactical defense training class.

That's more proof that this article is a farce. There are no shortages of ranges in and around metro Atlanta.

[paul51]

I hit the abuse button. Having to read such a biased report is abusive. Saw a bumper sticker yesterday. 'Buy a gun today and piss off a democrat'. Had to laugh

[LadyX]

I second all your motions..:))

Adding forks and knives, forhevvinsake - - they can hurt someone!

[.45MAN]

They will never give up, it's not possible as long as there is a Democrat left there will be a anti-gunner. They can't stand to have someone independent and free thinking. This article came close to getting me to chuck my lunch with its lies and made up statistics. They will be the first ones yelling for protection in a violent area gee I wouldn't want to scare them by taking my gun out to protect them. Let them call the police..

[eastforker]

Hey flyer,where are the pics from the gun range and rikas'.

[.45MAN]

Don't Laugh!!!!!! Buy a Gun, we have eight and were not sadisified on the amount of Democrats that we have p***ed off so far.....

[.45MAN]

I need to take a course in spelling. Please excuse...

[longrider]

It's a shame that the left is so fearful of us gun owners.I've done tours in both the army and navy and I love this country, but not what its becoming. I'm retired now and I enjoy going to the range once a week with friends. We spend half of the day shooting targets at 50 and 100 yards And talking about things going on in the world. ( and it's going to hell )The left wants to take away what little enjoyment at 67 I have left. So you'll know we shoot little .22s, half day for under $10.00. Not that big high power .223. Ha

[COB1]

I know it's hard to believe, but there was a group of people in Houston who wanted the City Council to pass an ordinance that would make it illegal to own a five gallon bucket unless it had holes in it so water could drain out.
This was to prevent babies from falling in the bucket and drowning.
To me, this was analogous to saying that you couldn't own an automobile if it could move.
Like Bigun would say, these people are perfect examples of the need for retroactive abortions!