Why did the authorities close the accessible areas of Tonto National
Forest to marksmanship? The answers are ugly, and the mainstream
media doesn't want to deal with it, preferring instead the "safety"
pablum officially circulated. You should ignore of course the fact
that no fatality from outdoor marksmanship is known, and that 54
dead bodies were removed from Tonto last year (fairly typical according
to officials) related to crimes and non-gun accidents, and of course
unreported anywhere (except here). The real reasons for closures
concern sex, a corrupted judiciary, law enforcement failures, and
the bureaucratic mindset, but what else is new.
THE REAL TONTO "CLOSURE" PROBLEMS
THE REAL TONTO "CLOSURE" PROBLEMS
THE REAL TONTO "CLOSURE" PROBLEMS
by Alan Korwin, Author
The Arizona Gun Owner's Guide
On July 27, the Tonto Forest closure plans hit the editorial page
of The Arizona Republic. The paper did a strikingly fair job of
describing the problem. Many of the fine points they had discussed
with me got ink, and instead of the familiar crush-your-rights fix
we're so used to, many positive suggestions were made. Let me agree
and recommend:
1. The Forest Service should begin running workshops to teach safe
shooting techniques, as the paper recommends. These should be held
outdoors in Tonto. In addition to public classes, classes should
be offered to school systems statewide, where gun ignorance is rampant
and education is desperately needed.
2. Shooting groups of every description should apply to the Forest
Service to adopt sites for maintenance and improvements, as the
paper recommends. Don't just read this, get your own groups to agree,
and make the phone call. Make the Fall and Winter of 2001 an outstanding
model of citizen action.
3. Individuals should volunteer to go out en masse and "beautify"
your favorite outdoor marksmanship spots, as the paper recommends.
Don't just read this, call the Forest Service, offer to volunteer,
and insist that they coordinate dates.
4. The Forest Service should prepare packets for gun stores, as
the paper recommends, including "where-to-shoot" maps
and trash bags for litter pickups. Encourage the stores you use
to request packets and pass them out to all their customers.
5. On the long range side, it's time to insist that our legislators
support an iron-clad range protection law, which the paper describes
as "critical," during the session starting this January.
I'll circulate more about that later.
Let me also agree with the paper that, so far, Forest Supervisor
Karl Siderits has taken sensible steps to reach out to shooters
for strategies, and appears to be acting honorably. Contact him
and let him know you support the reasonable, common-sense proposals
outlined above and in The Arizona Republic.
TONTO CONTACT INFO
Forest Supervisor Karl Siderits
(pronounced SIDE-er-its)
is the top local honcho.
His assistant is Clarice.
602-225-5200, Fax 602-225-5361
ksiderits@fs.fed.us
The PR guy is James Payne
His direct line: 602-225-5291
his fax line: 602-225-5302
and his email: jwpayne@fs.fed.us
A key agent is Delvin Lopez.
One of the LEOs is Tom Lister.
mailroom_r3_tonto.fs.fed.us
Tonto National Forest
2324 E. McDowell Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85006
Contact can be made in person
at any Forest Service facility.
Asking questions and talking
politely with the staff can be
a most effective option.
REGARDING CLOSURES
REGARDING CLOSURES
The newspaper says that some small parts of Tonto should probably
be closed to shooting. This is a slippery slope, and no selection
criteria have ever been publicly addressed.
For the most part, only specious reasons have been put forth for
planning to close sections of the Tonto National Forest to the public.
The main one -- so-called danger of outdoor marksmanship -- simply
hasn't been evidenced after decades upon decades of use. This perhaps
conveniently masks the fact that 54 dead bodies were removed from
Tonto last year -- a typical year! -- due to other causes entirely.
This makes Tonto more dangerous annually, in terms of mortality,
than all U.S. schools combined. (Despite this, our so-called "news"
media will, for the rest of your life, mention 12 schoolkids ruthlessly
murdered in Colorado by homicidal maniacs years ago; and the annual
dead-body count in Tonto will remain suppressed).
Here are the real problems at Tonto, too ugly to be openly discussed
by authorities, none of which will be resolved by proposing land
closures. This is the non-sugarcoated version. If bluntness will
offend you, please stop reading now.
1. SEX (POPULATION GROWTH)
1. SEX (POPULATION GROWTH)
As long as humanity continues to indulge in vigorous sexual activity,
the population will grow, and demands on everything will increase.
We have grown fond of gross euphemisms like sprawl, pollution, growth,
congestion, shortages, development, erosion, overuse or road rage,
when it really boils down to people making lots of babies.
Closing off lands will have zero effect on this root cause, the
cause will worsen with time, and closures will simply force migration
of the problem to other spots.
When nine people were using the forest in a week, neither marksmanship
-- nor anything else -- was an issue, and you couldn't find a shell
casing or hear a shot if you were Sherlock Holmes. Today, with a
metro population of more than 3 million, of course there is plentiful
evidence of constant routine use of the land, by all users.
This should come as no surprise. "Let's close the land because
there are too many people," is simply unacceptable.
2. CORRUPTED JUDICIARY
2. CORRUPTED JUDICIARY
If two dirt bikers race down a narrow trail in opposite directions,
then collide around a blind turn, they can sue the forest because
it has the deep pockets. Someone must at last take an unwavering
stand against such corrupt abuse of the judiciary, and why not the
Forest Service.
The forest of course has no responsibility, but it cries of paralyzing
fear of such lawsuits. The forest's own lawyers, the courts, the
judges, and the bureaucrats are all complicit in allowing such frivolous
lawsuits to proceed on non-existent merits, rather than challenging
the suits as wasteful corruption. It is understandable, because
for lawyers to do otherwise is to compromise their own income and
livelihood. (The lawyer's unspoken creed: "When you sue my
client, you're my friend.")
Lawyers should be disbarred for bringing such suits (law actually
requires that), but instead they receive support to go to trial
or reach obscenely lucrative settlements. This is the corruption
of the judiciary, and it is endemic and epidemic.
The Forest Service's capitulation to its own lawyer's threats and
fears of such bogus litigation is a malignant festering disease
that needs to be rooted out by honest, righteous attorneys.
Land closures will never ever dull the axe of the corrupted judiciary
-- which most other segments of society suffer under as well. Take
a stand, don't close the land.
3. CONFLICTING INTERESTS
3. CONFLICTING INTERESTS
In a country where you are free to pursue your interests, some of
those interests are going to collide. Horseback riders would love
to have the land to themselves, and who can blame them. But so would
dirt bikers, marksmen, hikers, picnickers, boaters, floaters, homeowners
and most others. Simple tolerance of each other, when the land receives
such substantial use from the multitudes, is not an expectable result,
and complaints are inevitable.
Total closure would stop the problem on the closed land, but at
what a cost; no one has moral authority to lock the public out of
its own land in such monolithic proportion. Besides, the conflict
of interest would once again merely migrate to another locale. Closing
land is not a solution for conflicts of interest.
4. LAW ENFORCEMENT
4. LAW ENFORCEMENT
This, to me, seems the most odious problem. "We don't have
enough officers to enforce the rules, so we should punish the innocent
with closures, because of the guilty."
Of course the guilty, if they exist in the numbers suggested, would
simply ignore such closures, continue to act recklessly or criminally,
and simply continue to evade the hopelessly scant enforcement. The
newspaper and authorities repeatedly describe gunfire across roads
and other outlandish and grossly criminal acts, but never mention
any consequences for the perpetrators.
"Do you know how long it takes to arrest and prosecute even
one offender?" is a routine Forest Service retort. Expedited
processing must be possible, of course, and if there are truly only
two law enforcement officers for a zillion square miles (a frequently
voiced excuse), get more help, or at least make 700 collars a year
(one per day per officer), and make the problem go away.
Constantly touting the numbers of irresponsible land users (though
I have not noticed them on my frequent forest visits) clearly implies
the authorities have direct personal knowledge of such actions.
Failure to act on the knowledge and make collars seems outrageous
to me. One must suspect that some of the stories are campfire tales
-- isolated cases wildly amplified by constant retelling (quite
likely, I think).
If law breakers are truly being witnessed constantly and then ignored,
the law enforcement people should be held accountable. Closing land
because the gendarmes are eating donuts would be idiotic.
5. THE BUREAUCRATIC MINDSET
5. THE BUREAUCRATIC MINDSET
This is the ugliest problem. It is a natural outgrowth of a bloated
bureaucracy, and the natural evolution of a government system which
is increasingly socialist in nature. It is demonstrably antithetical
to a liberty-based free enterprise model, where every effort would
be focused on increasing forest use and access.
In the bureaucratic/socialist framework, it's easier to close land
than to manage it. It's easier to close land than to enforce the
laws. It's far easier to keep people out, and arrest anyone who
enters, than to let people in, and only arrest perpetrators of offenses.
And worst of all (and most repugnant), it's easier, and more satisfying
and fun, to exercise power over those whose rights you can crush,
than to act as a public steward and honorably protect and even expand
the public's rights and access to its own property.
Alan Korwin, Author
The Arizona Gun Owner's Guide
Bloomfield Press
"We publish the gun laws"
4848 E. Cactus, #505-440
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
602-996-4020
602-494-0679 fax
alan@gunlaws.com
https://www.gunlaws.com
AVAILABLE NOW:
How-To-Save-Your-Rights Books
A new line for concerned activists
Check out all our books --
If you knew all your rights you might demand them.
If you knew all your rights you might demand them.
If you knew all your rights you might demand them.
See "Licensed to Carry" -- the guide to permits
in the 31 "shall issue" states.
Also,
"The Traveler's Guide to the Gun Laws of the 50 States"
And,
"In The Gravest Extreme"
The classic and great read on armed self defense.
https://www.gunlaws.com
