Poisonous Pastime - The Health Risks of Shooting Ranges.

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

[rockfish59]

Hey Sarah, stick it up your warbly voiced bunghole!

[RandallFlagg]

And when has any gun range been built in a reidential neighborhood?

Both (Unless I'm wrong, there's only 2) indoor shooting ranges in the Denver area are in residential areas; Firing Line, and another right on 38th Ave(I can't think of their name). Personally, I don't go to these ranges because of their "One bullet per second" rule. I like going to National Forests to practice instead. Thanks to the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners for info on where it's still legal to shoot.

[COB1]

"Not that big high power .223. Ha"

LOL!
Longrider, I developed my love for shooting with a single-shot .22 Stevens rifle, and I still love to shoot them.
I've told many people that when I was growing up in Ft. Stockton, Texas, I killed more mule deer with a .22 rifle than most people have seen.

I wish you could have been there yesterday to shoot Bigun's custom built .300 Winchester!
Talk about a sweet shooting weapon!!

[Bigun]

I'm sorry but this piece is SO idiotic as to not be worthy of the wasting of a SINGLE drop of cyber ink in response to it!

SHEECH! WHERE do they FIND these idiots?

[cpdiii]

I have a range in my back yard. There is a lot of lead in the dirt of my backstop. It does not pose an enviromental hazard as lead in the enviroment will quickly form an insoluble coating of lead oxide. However if the lead is exposed to an acidic enviroment it can solubilize and pose a problem. A little chemical magic can solve that. In the case of my backstop the dirt is a mixture of clay and calcium cabonate (the local topsoil in my area). This will form a basic enviroment and the lead will not go into solution. It will be there long after I have assumed room temperature.

In the case of a new range in an area of soil with high organic content and little calcium carbonate a problem could occur (even then it would be minimal) due to the fact this will cause an acidic enviroment when wet. By simply mixing lime in the soil of the backstop a basic enviroment would be assured and the lead would stay put as a lead oxide.

[RandallFlagg]

**Jealousy shakes!! YAAHHH!**

My next home will be out of the city so I'll be just a few minutes drive from a plinking area. A freind of mine at work is able to go in his backyard and fire away whenever with whatever he wants.

[Vic3O3]

another barf alert

[Noslrac]

The lead came from the ground...We just do our part to put it back! Call us environmentally friendly!

[IronJack]

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.

This is what is known is psychological circles as "projection." It is a pathological state in which one's own wishes or desires become aggrandized and attributed to the general public or in some cases, all of humanity. It is a hallmark of grandiosity and stunted ego development, since it marks an unhealthy need to have one's opinions validated by an external population instead of relying on a sense of self-worth.

[IronJack]

What an incredible bolus of propagandic flatus! There's hardly a word in this that is true, or isn't at least hyberbolic. For example, when was the last time you heard of anyone MURDERED on a shooting range??!!!! And when did the gun industry start "targeting" CHILDREN?!??!

For cripes' sake, why don't Sarah & Co. n't just hire a couple of unemployed comic book writers to manufacture their talking points? They'd do better than the authors of this ghastly essay.

[IronJack]

By the way, there are two shooting ranges near where I live. Both have 500-member limits. One has a 3-year waiting list for membership; the other does not even accept applications anymore.

Yeah, the shooting sports are in trouble. And talking pictures are just a passing fancy.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

But where can I keep them all? My house is 0VERFLOWING now!

[PLMerite]

"help keep these bad neighbors from moving in next door"

I bet if it was a gay bathhouse or drug rehab center the ACLU would be all over anyone who complained...

[sawsalimb]

Given a choice between the college kids who live next door to me(and hold their garage rock band practice next door to me,as a bonus),and having a shooting range on the adjacent property-

Can anyone guess which one I'd pick?

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

owned only by a shrinking minority of Americans


F##KING LIE but typical of the gun grabbers

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

i have picked my poison

[Hot Tabasco]

You forgot the &%$* BARF ALERT!

FWIW, NRA membership almost doubled in the last 2 years and if there is less hunters it is only because of the ongoing landgrabbing by the Govt.

As for shooting sports, I just went out yesterday and bought a Trius clay thrower and went to a park locally which is 0pen to the public for shooting and shot a hundred rounds. Ain't never done that before. Think I will make it a weekly Sunday event.

Must admit tho, as much as I love bird hunting, living in S.E. Michigan and not having any friends who shoot is a big deterrent in hunting.

If there's any FReepers here from Northern Michigan who enjoy partridge/woodcock hunting and wouldn't mind a flatlander who grew up in Boyne City taging along, please drop me a line......

[boris]

They have driven all but two ranges in my area out of business. They have driven all but one gun dealer in my immediate area out of business.

Of course, this is Los Angeles.

--Boris

[maxwell]

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.... The attitude most people have toward shooting ranges is "not in their neighborhood and definitely not next door."

Yeah, whom did VPC interview for this exhaustingly documented and brilliantly reasoned expose? Some soccer mom high on Prozac? Geezus. Who is this "general public" they refer to, huh? Guar-an-tee ya they didn't show up on MY doorstep... How come *I* never get tapped for these bullsh!t reports on the "general public"...

[maxwell]

exhaustingly = exhaustively