“The United States, Yemen, Switzerland, Finland, and Serbia are ranked as the Top 5 countries in firearms owned per capita, according to the 2007 Small Arms Survey, and my study found that all five are ranked in the Top 15 countries in public mass shooters per capita,” said study author Adam Lankford, […]
Monday, August 24th, 2015
The Editorial Board, - The New York Times
Stephan: I have been a backpacker and hiker all my life, and there is no question but that it is growing increasingly dangerous certain months of the year, in certain parks and national and state forests, to be hiking or backpacking, particularly the first four miles of any trail. You can hear the gun fire, like a fire fight in Viet Nam over the hill. And you see the trash. Here is an essay from the editorial board of The New York Times that makes the case admirably.
Let me say once again, I am not interested, nor am I advocating abridging the 2nd Amendment. But what the Founders' had in mind and what we have now contradicts their intent, and it is literally killing us.
Credit: angier-fox.photoshelter.com
Recreational target shooters call it “trigger trash” — tons and tons of refrigerators, car parts, televisions, sofas, bowling pins and other unwanted junk that shooters haul onto pristine federal woodlands and shred with gunfire for sheer enjoyment.
The abuses are scarring forest lands from the Carolinas to the Pacific Northwest. An emergency halt to target shooting had to be issued for the Croatan National Forest, in North Carolina, after hundreds of complaints from alarmed visitors. Forest Service records show an increasing raft of violations, like shooting from cars and shooting in campgrounds.
The problem keeps growing, with hikers and conservationists warning that virtual free-fire zones threaten not only national forests but also millions of multiple-use Western acres overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, where there are too few enforcement officers. Citizens describe scenes resembling war zones, as volleys of gunfire roll across the mountains.
It’s bad enough that federal crews have to […]
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