A local news channel is reporting that the "Bureau of Land Management reports high number of shooting related fires." This is an example of the misinformation we get from the media and/or government.
The area where fire investigators believed the Black Fire was sparked had multiple rounds of shells from shotguns, full and empty beer cans with bullet holes, and trash.
They don't actually say that the fire was caused by a firearm, only that the fire started in proximity to the husks of shotguns shells and beer cans with bullet holes and trash (the latter of which may or may not have been from shooters). The fire could have been caused by grass contacting a hot muffler on a vehicle, a discarded cigarette, a piece of glass that sufficiently focused the sunlight, or other reasons completely unrelated to a firearm. And unmentioned is that the largest fire in that general area over the past several years was caused by people that had been "camping" there for several months, not shooters or hunters. But the inference we are intended to draw is that the fire was the result of firearms because "guns are bad".
Unfortunately, fires like these just give the BLM another excuse to limit shooting on BLM land. The article continues:
“This year we have definitely seen an uptick in shooting-related fires. We have a fire prevention order in place from May 10 to October 20 on BLM grounds in Idaho that prevents the use of ignitionary devices, steel core ammunition, tracer ammunition, exploding targets, and shooting at metal targets,” says Jablonski.
If people are found violating the order in place, they could be charged a fine of up to $100,000, as well as suppression costs.
And during the winter and spring months, the roads are generally too muddy to be passible to even most four wheel drive vehicles; and the vehicles that can make it through the mud generally destroy the roads to such an extent that the roads are largely impassible even when they finally dry out. So a win-win for the anti-gun BLM.
The BLM (and Leftists) HATE roads.
ReplyDeleteGuns too!
DeleteIn this area, the BLM's focus seems mostly on preventing gun owners from using BLM land (besides the order listed above, the most accessible lands to shooters in this area happen to also fall within the Birds of Prey area where shooting is banned for most of the year). They don't seem to care what you do with a dirt-bike or 4x4, though, or where you ride them--I've seen many dozens of acres of land that are denude of vegetation compared to 15 or 20 years ago due to dirt bikers just riding anywhere and everywhere they could.
DeleteBut, yes, leftists hate roads too. Idaho has 4,792,969 acres of wilderness and an additional 9,000,000 acres of official Roadless areas (i.e., the modern equivalent of the King's forests) intended to keep the serfs and peons from accessing and using those areas. Overall, almost 62% of Idaho (53 million acres, 82,800 square miles or 214,000 square kilometers) is federal land.