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OT~ Rampart Range

zach

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2009
Messages
228
Location
Castle Rock, Colorado, USA
imported post

Got this email from the NRA regarding Rampart Range.

"
[align=center]Colorado: Support Needed to Re-Open Rampart Shooting Range!
[/align]
Following an accidental shooting last July, theForest Service closed the very popular and heavily used Rampart Shooting Range on the Pike National Forest. In its nearly 20-year history, Rampart had never before experienced a shooting-related injury or fatality.]Rampartis the only free public range in El Paso County and receives 40,000 visitors a year. The Service called the closure a "time-out" in order to assess whether the design of the range was a factor. An investigation determined that the range was not a factor in the accident.Safety experts have said that the accident could have happened at any range. Butafter it closed Rampart,theForest Servicedevised a schemetokeep the range closed permanently.

The Forest Service has listed requirements that must be met before it will reopen Rampart. There is no timetable formeeting these requirements and likely no moneyto cover costs. The most significantissue is the requirement of full time supervision.Most ranges on federal landsoperate without supervision and this requirement could place all such ranges in jeopardy. Rampart Range is in need of improvements which were identified more than two years ago. Such improvements can be addressed and implemented with therange reopened.The Forest Servicehas said that it could take up to five years beforeRampart is reopened, but there is no guarantee that it would reopen Rampart in that timeframe or at any time in the future.

NRA has been working to get Rampart Range reopened since the day it was closed, but we need the help of Colorado hunters and shooters to show the Forest Service and your elected officials that the federal government cannot continue to closepublic lands to recreational shooting, and certainly not without replacing those areas lost with other areas of the same or great value.Rampart Shooting Range is an important resource for the shooting community along the Front Range.There is no incentive for theForest Service to reopen Rampartunless the shooting sports communitydemands it!

Shooting ranges on public lands are few and far between in Colorado. In addition to the closure of Rampart, theForest Service has closed its lands to recreational shooting near Boulder and on the Pawnee Grasslands, and large acreageclosures have occurred west of Sedalia. The Forest Service is not planning for recreational shooting. Closures are imposed without opening new areas and needed improvements to existing areas, including the Rampart Shooting Range, have not been made. Recreational shooting is not being treated by the Forest Service in Colorado asa legitimate and valued recreational activityon forest lands.

Pleasesend an e-mail in support ofthe immediate reopening of Rampartto:
Tom Tidwell, Chief of the Forest Service, at ttidwell@fs.fed.us, and copyyour letter to:
Senator Mark Udall at senator_mark_udall@markudall.senate.gov,
Senator Michael Bennet at http://bennet.senate.gov/contact/,
CongressmanDoug Lamborn at CO05ima@mail.house.gov, and
Governor Bill Ritter by clicking here.

Please stress that keeping the range closed is not supportable by the investigative report; that the closure has robbed the shooting community of a valuable resource; and that needed improvements to the range can be planned and implemented without closure."
 

Evil Ernie

Regular Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2007
Messages
779
Location
Castle Rock, Colorado, USA
imported post

IIRC Rampart was the last free range in CO. Other than that, you'll have to find a nice quiet spot in the mtns on FS land or BLM land.

I've only been to Rampart once and saw more safety violations than I could stomach.
 

bogidu

Guest
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
Messages
120
Location
Pueblo West, Colorado, USA
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Agreed. While it was nice to have a free range to shoot at, after one visit I would NEVER take anyone I cared about up there.

The 'clientele' at the range were most likely not the types that could legally obtain a firearm and safety was a non-factor.

The 'facilities' were an absolute DUMP and showed complete lack of concern on the part of those who used it.

I wouldn't blame the park service for leaving it permanently closed.
 

since9

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
6,964
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
imported post

I wouldn't either. Then again, they can't exactly run a shooting range, either - as that's outside of their charter.

From what I understand from my uncle and father, the first of whom moved here in the 60's, it's merely been the nearest and most accessible patch of National Forest. As such, it was both free and readily accessible. The other two ranges in town, Dragonman's and indoor range downtown I choose not to remember because their prices are through the roof, lost business to Rampart.

The shooting was a tragedy - no doubt! The US Forest Services closure of the range, however, was as much of a tragedy, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. They clearly identified discrepancies, yet they could have FAR better policed the range merely by posting appropriate signs and fostering a community safety effort that would have cost them nothing, and actually saved them dollars spent policing the range.

Instead, they chose the easy (not the cheap) way out and simply closed the range.

Not cool. Not very bright, either.

Hopefully, they'll pull their heads out, figure out how to establish a relatively self-running range by simply posting the appropriate rules and regulations while policing the same with a reduced force and recognized volunteer effort. This "full-time" BS is hurdle nonsense (raising the hurdle to ridiculous heights so as to escape the responsibility of doing what is both very possible, and right).

Seriously, people: Most people will follow posted guidlines, if not regulations, if you simply bother to post them in the first place.

Personally, I believeI have heard from some source that if they took the stance mentioned above, they'd be admitting negilgence for not having taken it sooner, and might find themselves negligently liable in the shooting death.

Personally, I believe the service is simply overfearful of the courts and is thereby reacting negatively, and in a damaging manner, to the issue.

Freedom is never free. Doing the right thing always involves risk. No advances throughout the history of humanity were ever achieved by dodging either risk or responsibility.

I think it's high time they stepped up and simply say, "let's make this better" by enacting the right, and effective controls, without simply avoiding the issue by restricting all access and wrongly attempting to cover their asses with a grossly unrealistic "full time volunteer" requirement. That's just absurd. The knucklehead who came up with that should find his employment terminated by the government for failing to serve the interests of the people to practice and maintain proficiency in their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms: 40,000 a year of them, to be exact.
 
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