A company called Kloovenburg Sports wants to build an Olympic level sports shooting facility plus a mountain bike course, archery lanes, walking trails and skiing trails on roughly 800 acres of land in the middle of nowhere in rural Leduc County, AB.
The place sounds awesome and if Kloovenburg says they can produce Olympic level athletes close to home, even better. Seems like a no brainer. I hope they do kids’ birthday parties.
Except there is one big problem. Busy body neighbours are not a distinctly urban animal. Their territory covers the entire province.
Two people who live near the Kloovenburg property ran to the CBC to complain about concerns they had. After I read their complaints I did something they didn't bother to do: I read the environmental impact study done on behalf of Kloovenburg Sports.
One neighbor seems to be concerned about stray bullets and noise, and another one is worried about lead poisoning.
Let's be honest. It's not about the noise of the shooting or the environment. It’s about ignorance about guns and gun owners, of course.
These people think gun owners are irresponsible dangerous yahoos. They're the same people who hate guns until they need someone with a gun to save them from a bad guy with a gun.
But it’s also about something else. This is about lack of respect for property rights. People who don't pay someone else's mortgage and someone else's property taxes think they can tell legal owners what to do with their land if they just complain loud enough to the media and the government.
Honestly, I’d rather live next door to a gun range than a neighbor like that.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
— Hmmm, omnipotent moral busybody ???
Our local gun club had an open house where the club members provided pistols and ammo to allow the unschooled in the fine art of firearm handling a chance to experience the fun of a mini IPSC competition.. I would suggest that more clubs do this.
Lead shot is no longer in use over water it is steel shot now. Just say the word gun and the CBC is all over it.
Turdo must have heard them say world class facility. He wants the the third worlds ass backwards faculty.
Fear of a gun range moving in is understandable to a degree – the way people unfamiliar with the shooting sports have been conditioned by MSM sensationalizing and special interest lobby fear mongering, the average person has a net negative opinion of firearms and the legitimate firearms sporting community. I’m old enough to remember when motorcycle clubs and events were viewed the same way.
I have been involved with the shooting sports organizationally, as a competitor and safety coordinator for longer than I care to remember. Canada’s organized shooting sports orgs and facilities are world class, and the safest places on earth to be. The people involved are responsible consummate professionals and we have an actuarial track record of safety that provides us with 100s of millions of dollars worth of liability insurance for less than 60 bucks a head. In Canada no person or livestock near a licensed range has ever suffered loss.
But you’d never know these easily obtained facts listening to CBC.
Sheila Gunn Reid wrote, "Honestly, I’d rather live next door to a gun range than a neighbor like that. "
Me too Sheila!