Gonna have to do somehting about this here.
RNS reader Darrell, who isn’t even in Washington State, tipped me to this attempted take-away of use of public land planned for tomorrow.
The Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission will be considering a proposal on Friday, December 7, that would make it easier to prohibit recreational shooting on land controlled by the Department of Fish & Wildlife (DFW). This Port Angeles public meeting will be the last of a series of hearings that have been held this summer and fall to consider many issues regarding public conduct on DFW land.
Unless there is an outpouring of comments in opposition to the proposed rules in the next two days, the Commission is likely to rubberstamp the proposal that will be before them this Friday. The proposed rule, WAC 232-13-130 (1) (b), would authorize the DFW to prohibit the discharge of firearms on any or all portions of Department land at any time and for any (or no) reason. Without public input, DFW could shut down any of their land by merely posting signs. In the future, they MAY designate limited areas open for limited shooting under WAC 232-13-130 (2).
Further, the proposal would create an arbitrary 1000-foot diameter no-shooting area around every designated campground.
Finally, proposed WAC 232-13-130 (1) (c) would make it unlawful to fail to remove expended shell casings and other target shooting debris after shooting activities. NRA requests to add a “good faith effort†or “due diligence†standard to the clean-up language have been ignored. What that means is that a shooter who makes a legitimate attempt to clean up after his target practice session, but only finds 98 of the 100 shell casings he fired, is subject to sanctions for “littering.â€
And therein lies the crux of the reason this legislation is coming down. Too many shooters are going out to use these public lands and making a mess of the place, not picking up after themselves, and the state employees have tired of cleaning up after them.
I don’t know why someone would tease an agency that is known to be anti-use of their property like that, but it is too late to say were sorry now.
Washingtonians, you know what to do.
The same reasons for closure are behind the large timber holding company’s prohibiting entry as well.
Company’s such as Weyerhaueser, Simpson Timber and Port Blakely Tree Farms here, have severely limited the use of there vast holdings for several years now, because of the total disregard for others property by a small number of “pigs”. Can’t say as I blame them for gating and posting.
Again, the few totally screw it up for all.
I must give credit where it’s due, I first read about it over at The Gun Thing forums. It’s a great forum, one of Kim Du Toit’s sites.