Outdoor shooting in Clear Creek
Hi guys, I don't post here a lot, but I hope you can help me spread the word about a problem that is making our shooting community as a whole look pretty bad, and is endangering our ability to do what we do. Dispersed shooting in Clear Creek county is in danger of being eliminated, for the reason that people are being very irresponsible about how they shoot in this county. I have seen shot down trees, tons of trash left behind, shooting in places that are signed "no shooting", etc. Several local resident have had bullets whiz by them due to people failing to use adequate backstops. There are a ton of hiking and biking trails in these areas and frankly, there are a lot more hikers and bikers than there are shooters, and they are a lot more vocal in community forums and to local law enforcement ears. Nobody of course wants to get killed up here.
I know there are responsible people here and I am not accusing anyone of these things, but to me it is analogous to the problem the 4x4 community had for years with getting trails closed down. Until the wheelers promoted stay the trail and no littering and did trail clean up and adoptions, there was a real threat the forest service would gate everything. Self policing really helped us continue to enjoy the roads that we have. People wheel in clubs, and when clubs did not tolerate bad behavior, things improved. The responsible wheelers had to reign in their more irresponsible brethren. I feel we have to help do the same, or risk losing the ability to shoot on FS land.
I would love to see a similar approach in the shooting community to try to educate other shooters on how to go into the woods and have fun without endangering other people or scaring them to the point where we turn them into anti gun fanatics, which is what is currently happening where I live. Even we just see someone in the woods being stupid and try to politely explain they are ruining it for all of us it could help (obviously I'm not asking or expecting anyone to be confrontational with guns involved). I'm not a big organizer, but if someone wanted to promote any kind of "let's go shoot and clean up a trashed area" day, and then made that known to locals, it would go far to help public perception. If nothing else, I would ask that people here try to spread the word and if they know people that shoot up here, please ask them to be on their best behavior and to be doubly cautious about where they set up their range.
Thank you and stay safe out there,
Eric
