It was a year ago today that we watched our beloved Lamoille Canyon burn, the victim of gross negligence on the part of Spring Creek Association and the unbelievable stupidity of some jackass exercising his Second Amendment right to be a complete idiot with his rifle.
Said jackass walks free because the dozen or so people watching him shoot at a rock above the target area chose to let him walk rather than do the responsible thing and drop a dime on the guy. God knows we can't POSSIBLY hold someone responsible for their actions, as long as said actions are committed with a gun. The millions of dollars of damage caused, the millions of taxpayer dollars spent to fight the fire and rehabilitate the burn area, the millions of memories gone up in smoke... none of it matters. At least not to the local Second Amendment crowd.
We had another fire at the range again this summer. Because, you know, Second Amendment and stuff.
I'm not advocating that the range be shut down - not at all. But it DOES need to be managed, people!! It needs to be STAFFED, and it needs to be closed on extreme fire danger days. They either need to figure out how to safely accommodate people using long range rifles, or they need to prohibit their use at the range. The good people of Spring Creek need to decide they want to be good community members, and pressure their do-nothing Association to manage that range safely. And they have to agree to pay for it.
Or they can keep skating on the backs of the rest of us taxpayers, who have to foot the bill to clean up the mess they continue to make.
And in the meantime, our beloved mountains are sacrificed on the altar of gun rights and anti-tax irresponsibility.
