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Infrastructure and Public Debt

Some gun-toting folks don’t give a dang, says reformed target shooter – Volunteer public land cleanup Sept. 25

Guns don’t destroy public lands, but reckless people with guns sure can.

No Shooting sign on Mt Lemmon/Ryn Gargulinski

We find evidence of this in parts of Ironwood National Monument, where target shooters have been turning the area’s natural beauty into a garbage dump, according to a news release from Friends of Ironwood Forest.

Located 25 miles northwest of Tucson, the park’s 129,000 acres contain several desert mountain ranges, the biggest collection of Ironwood trees in the Sonoran Desert – and enough debris to choke a google of goats.

“The shootists trample on and damage sensitive soils and vegetation,” the release notes. “They use the saguaro cacti and other species as backstops for their targets. And they leave behind ‘tons’ of shotgun shells and casings – along with the objects of their ‘plinking’ or bullet shots – TVs, computers, household appliances, water heaters, bowling pins, real estate and political signs, stuffed animals, kid’s toys, even a propane gas tank that apparently was shot at in hopes it would explode.”

On top of the mounting trash and debris,” the release adds, “the shooting has become a safety concern. While no one has been hurt, there have been some close calls.”

Any debris is fair game for some target shooters/Ryn Gargulinski

Reformed target shooter speaks out

One Tucson man, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, grew up in the wilds between Willcox and Douglas and admits he was as reckless with a gun as they come.

“We’d shoot up glass bottles, a couple of old, beat-up cars, paint cans filled with paint that would drip down like blood,” he said of his target shooting days. “It’s mostly stuff you find out there.”

While he never shot at a mighty saguaro, he did admit to shooting up barrel cactus. “You couldn’t even tell. I don’t know what it looks like now, but you couldn’t tell at the time.”

Now in his early 50s, our reformed target shooter easily offers several explanations why folks would leave a trail of shot-up debris.

“‘My one shattered bottle isn’t going to wreck the environment,’ is how you think when you’re younger,” he said. “When you’re in your teens or 20s you don’t care. You become more environmentally conscious as you get older.”

Having a galpal also helps, he noted. Once he got married, our shooter man switched from blasting away glass bottles to shooting cola cans he could collect and remove when the shooting fun was done. He said they even had a can crusher in their backyard and would turn in the cans for recycling.

“Women have a big input into this,” he said of becoming environmentally aware. “‘You’re not going to leave that mess,’ they tell you.”

The two have since divorced for reasons beyond tin cans.

One more factor leading to widespread target shooter destruction is perhaps the scariest.

“Some folks with guns just don’t give a damn,” he says.

“The people who shoot up the ‘No Shooting’ signs, leave beer cans everywhere – that’s generally a statement on their entire being, not just their shooting.”

In responsible hands, guns are useful for protection, essential for some hunting. In reckless hands, they can destroy people, lives – and public lands.

Volunteer Cleanup at Ironwood National Monument on National Public Lands Day

Who: Friends of Ironwood Forest, Tucson Audubon Society, the Town of Marana, and the Bureau of Land Management
What: Clean up target shooting site and remove buffelgrass at Ironwood Forest National Monument as part of National Public Lands Day
When: 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Sept. 25
Where: Ironwood Forest National Monument – El Cerrito Represso
Register online, get driving directions at www.ironwoodforest.org or call Friends of Ironwood at 628-2092

[tnipoll]

What do you think?

Have you seen evidence of reckless target shooting?

Have you been the cause of reckless target shooting?

Have you ever been the target of reckless target shooting?

What’s the worst destruction you’ve seen on public lands?

Filed Under: blogski, crime, danger, death, environment, gross stuff, life, police, fire, law, stupidity Tagged With: buffelgrass cleanup, crime, danger, environment, gross, gun owners tucson, gun-totin' folks, gun-toting folks, guns arizona, guns destruction, guns jerks, guns public lands, guns sourthern arizona, guns tucson, Infrastructure and Public Debt, ironwood forest, ironwood national monument, national public lands day, no shooting, public lands day 2010, responsible guns, ryn gargulinski, rynski, rynski's blogski, shooting debris, shooting public lands, sick, target shooters, tucson, tucson crime, twisted, volunteer cleanup ironwood

Is texting making us dumb? No Texting while Driving act passes Senate in one smart move

Texting has swept the world as the coolest form of communication. Or has it? We are still trying to figure out what’s so cool about communicating like this:

Photo Ryn Gargulinski
Photo Ryn Gargulinski

“Dewd BION I send TXT MSG in TFX TLITBC. TIGAS?”

For those of us who have yet to secure a master’s degree in Internet lingo, this translates to: “Dude, believe it or not, I am sending a text message in traffic. That’s life in the big city. Think I give a s—?”

Perhaps not surprisingly, much of the lingo, as found on netlingo.com, contains swear words, crude sayings and phrases that involve copulation.

The 82 million folks who reportedly text regularly may not always be using their brains when it comes to when and where they text, either.

Texting while driving is about as smart as putting a plastic bag over your head and trying to breathe.

But it’s still legal in Arizona – for now.

The No Texting While Driving Act (SB 1334) passed with a unanimous 5 to 0 vote in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Infrastructure and Public Debt, according to a news release from AAA Arizona.

“Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia have laws that address text messaging by all drivers,” the release adds. “Late last year, AAA announced that the Association will work to pass laws banning text messaging by drivers in all 50 states by 2013.”

While this is a major move forward, there is no guaranteeing Tucson drivers will heed the rule even if it’s made into Arizona law.

Photo Ryn Gargulinski
Photo Ryn Gargulinski

Driving under the influence is already illegal, but Tucson police stats say 843 motorists have been busted for it in the first six weeks of 2010. That’s roughly 20 per day.

Texting in the jury box has also caused some mayhem. Although jurors are specifically told they cannot talk about the trail while its ongoing, some have possibly assumed the rule either does not apply to them – or does not apply to texting, tweeting or e-mailing updates to folks on their address list.

A Pima County judge kicked one juror off the jury for texting during a trial, according to the State Bar of Arizona. Pennsylvania lawyers were going for a mistrial in one case involving a former state senator after a juror was caught posting up-to-the-minute trial updates on Twitter and Facebook.

At least the juror wasn’t texting.

While smashing your car into a lamppost and marring a trial are major dangers of texting, there are also some small annoyances.

Like using the phone keypad as a typewriter. Yes, we know any savvy 10-year-old can probably do it with his eyes closed. It’s still annoying to have to press a button three times just to get to the letter C. We’d hope perhaps the lingo would help make the typing a bit easier, but even the lingo contains plenty of letter C’s.

Texting is also irksome when folks do it in inappropriate social situations. There’s no better way to make our date – or any other company we’re in – feel like they are not worth our time if we ignore them to check and respond to our text messages.

While we are offending our in-person company, we must be careful not to offend our text message recipient if we send them an inappropriate message.

TOBAL (There oughta be a law).

[tnipoll]

wb-logolil
WDYT – What do you think?

Is texting the best form of communication or is it eroding our society?

Do you text in inappropriate places? Do you text at all?

Filed Under: blogski, danger, death, life, politics, stupidity Tagged With: aaa arizona, arizona senate texting act, az senate texting act passes, danger, dead, death, dui tucson, environment, gross, Infrastructure and Public Debt, internet lingo, jury internet, jury texting, jury tweeting, pima county texting juror, rynski's blogski, Senate Committee on Natural Resources, texting driving, texting dumb, texting laws tucson, texting lingo, tucson, tucson crime, tucson drivers, tucson driving

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