Shooting ranges make better neighbors
Colorado Shooting Then and Now
Several news stories just lately have concerned the conflict between folks who like to practice shooting and folks who wish more parts of Colorado were closed to shooting. Colorado history has some interesting examples of how peace was established on the shooting range. My favorite concerns a nun, the well known Sister Blanditta. She served several parishes in Colorado at the end of the nineteenth century and on into the 20th. Blanditta hated gun play and went out of her way to confront people she suspected of misusing guns.
Blanditta became a legend here in part because of her long service to the Columbine state. She was assigned to Colorado in 1872 and continued to work here till she was 91 in many parishes and in many capacities. She was well known for confronting shooters she suspected of having a bad intent. She argued that folks should not settle quarrels with guns. While Sister Blanditta had nothing against shooting practice, she went out of her way to ask shooters what they were practicing for.
Sister Blanditta Meets Billy The Kid
Billy the Kid was not one to stop practice with his pistols, nor to stop using them against his enemies (as he saw them). That fact did not stop the good sister. Billy had around 20 murders to his credit when he encountered Blanditta. He was busily shooting up whiskey bottles for practice when she calmly informed him that guns were for shooting rabbits, not people. There was a rumor that he had marked three men for extermination that very month. She sternly told Billy that whatever plans he had for shooting people were out of order. In fact, she would kindly request that he cancel such plans and move on. There were snickers all around. Billy took off his hat and agreed!
How the “Practice” Shooting Stopped on the Rails
Probably one of the most famous Colorado Wars concerned the 1870s fight between the Santa Fe and the Denver and Rio Grande railroads for control of the Royal Gorge route. Whichever railroad could put trackage there had access to the fabulously rich mines of Leadville. The fight raged for about two years. The famous gunfighter Bat Masterson was hired to protect the Santa Fe crews and organized a group of roughnecks. The Rio Grande tended to rely on its’ own men to do some shooting around the end of the line. Many shots were fired for “practice” near the railheads, though both sides declared they were not trying to hit anyone. This “practice” was getting out of hand however. At last, the leaders of both construction gangs called a truce. It was lawyers who finally ended the war when the courts ruled for the Rio Grande. The Santa Fe then turned south, a route we can ride today on the Amtrak
A Few More Contemporary Examples
I recently visited a shooting range much employed by citizens of Park and Chaffee Counties. Fortunately that part of the world has a great deal of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. That organization regularly leases land to organizations at no cost for the establishment of shooting ranges. Conflicts between home owners and those establishing unofficial shooting ranges were all too common until the range happened. The range was established in only one season and is manned by the National Rifle Association and three other sportsman’s groups. That range has taken most of the pressure off of the unofficial shooting ranges. It’s open daily during daylight hours. Very few trash problems have been observed, nor have conflicts between practice shooters. Best of all, home owner complaints have all but ceased in the area.
The Front Range mountain counties have not been so lucky. Our public lands are virtually all owned by the U. S. Forest Service. The Forest Service does not, by policy, lease land for free. Over the past few years Gilpin County and several other Front Range counties have searched for a tract of public land which could be bought from the forest service and turned into a shooting range. So far any such land is well beyond the financial capably of any county. Private capital has been solicited, but apparently there’s little interest there either.
The Tangle of Colorado Law
From time to time, citizens of Colorado have called upon their County Commissioners to ban the discharge of fire arms in populated sub-divisions. Three Colorado Counties have passed such ordinances and posted signs at the entrance to areas saying something like “no discharge of fire arms in this area.” The immediate problem with such ordinances is their ineffectiveness. The ordinances cannot, under Colorado law, apply to private property. Of course it’s illegal to discharge firearms on public roads, so really no actual land is covered by the ordinances. This legal fact is well known by those who establish unofficial shooting ranges. Possibly such ordinances and signs have psychological effect, but cannot have legal effect.
Law enforcement does have the right to inspect any private shooting range for safety concerns. They do that regularly in response to complaints. Adequate back drops must be maintained as well as distance between the range and adjoining property. Local sheriffs do enforce these safety laws, and from time to time send violators to county court. Unless the Colorado legislature changes current shooting laws however, closing areas to discharge of firearms by county ordinance remains a mostly empty gesture.
The U.S. Forest Service does sometimes close areas to shooting. This took place not long ago near Jamestown in our mountains. So far this unofficial shooting range has been fairly quiet. Most shooting sports enthusiasts have good manners and have not gone back to that area. The U. S. Forest service has been somewhat reluctant to close areas, however. This stems from their chronic underfunding. Finding staff time to enforce closures is not easy for that cash strapped agency.
Home owner’s groups have had a far better record of enforcing gun safety than governments have. One subdivision in Boulder County was tired of the existence of small private ranges. They held a number of meetings and finally decided to ban the discharge of firearms in their area. They posted signs and applied neighborhood pressure to those who did not wish to comply. This seemed to work very well.
Education May Be the Answer
Several youth organizations in our mountains have shooting programs. All of them, whether done by 4-H or by city education programs, stress the need for safety and courtesy. I like to believe that kids who graduate from these programs will shoot safely and stay out of areas where they could cause problems. But, the history of Colorado shows that conflict over shooting ranges is part of life in the west.