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Fires Sparked By Utah Target Shooters Prompt Evacuations
Hugh Pickens writes "The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that more than 9,000 people have been driven from their homes by a wind-whipped wildfire started by two shooters at landfill popular with target shooters who won't face any charges because they were not breaking any laws. The fire was the 20th this year in Utah sparked by target shooting where low precipitation, dry heat and high winds have hit the West hard, exacerbating the risk that bullets may glance off rocks and create sparks. Despite the increasing problem, local agencies are stuck in a legal quandary — the state's zealous protection of gun rights leaves fire prevention to the discretion of individuals — a freedom that allows for the careless to shoot into dry hills and rocks. When bullets strike rock, heated fragments can break off and if the fragments make contact with dry grass, which can burn at 450 to 500 degrees, the right conditions can lead to wildfires. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has called on Utahns to use more "common sense" in target shooting urging target shooters to use established indoor and outdoor ranges instead of tinder-dry public lands. "We can do better than that as Utahns," says Herbert, calling on shooters to "self-regulate," since legislation bars sheriff's officials from regulating firearms. "A lot of the problem we have out here is a lack of common sense.""
Bastard! Beat me to it by 2 minutes.
that this place is nuts. It's a teeming horde of right-wing extremists gone nuts. The neighbors start off hating you because you're from New York (and therefore a commie with no values) and pretty soon you're hearing about how non-Mormons are going to hell (which is apparently Earth in Mormon theology, so in a way we're already here—I just wonder what they're doing here), women shouldn't vote, gays and Mexicans (which includes anyone with dark skin, even if they're from, say, southeast Asia) should be rounded up and deported to an island, Mitt Romney is a left-wing socialist like Obama, people should be able to have as many weapons of any kind as they want and carry them anywhere they go (even on airplanes) and this will make the world safer for "our freedoms" and so on.
Young men in ties that they tell me are young Mormon priests routinely come by and vandalize our (apparently) non-Mormon house: knocking the mailbox off its post, tearing down plans and yard decor, etc. Adults either won't speak to us or drop by to offer us "lessons" and invite us to church—without ever asking the first thing about us or wanting to get to know us.
People here worship Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh like they're Jefferson, Franklin, and Hamilton.
It's a crazy place. As soon as my job responsibilities here are done (no more than a few years, hopefully) we're gonna get out and move back east. 'Cause this place is just too f'ed up.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW