The Sierra Sentinel, along with many others, have received yet another letter
from the Stanislaus National Forest Service office in Hathaway Pines. (You remember; this is the office that people in opposition to the Candy Rock Shooting range have told us, know better than to visit).
Is the local District Ranger there either unable or has NO DESIRE to enforce the laws or restrict in any way the illegal behaviors of their friends who think they OWN Candy Rock Shooting Range and the DISTRICT RANGER at Hathaway Pines. Or, is she also in fear?
Although we are aware that this problem has been escalated both to Senator Feinsteins office, the USFS office in Washinton DC and other federal offices, residents in that area say that "nothing is changing".
The danger to the public, and especially anyone who complains openly about the disrespect for the law shown by many of the people who have their own private gun range at the candy rock quarry, (built and recommended by the USFS) is totally ignored.
We have seen that the Calaveras County Sheriff has written that he is not interested in enforcing laws at this illegal shooting range.
Some shooters cheered, and have made comments like "ha ha, we have the Sheriff by the ***** *****". Why would the Sheriff be afraid of these people? Oh, upcoming election???
Then there is the Supervisor of District 3, Merita Callaway, who would not even place shooting under her new noise ordinance. She ordered Captain Macedo to write something to put under the firearms portion of the county ordinances. Do the residents feel she let them down too?
The Sheriff's Office never wrote up or presented anything!
The USFS District Ranger, Teresa M. McClung, tries to get the people who are complaining to meet with her, knowing full well that a meeting of this type puts these people in danger after threats.
Is this how little the USFS cares about the rest of the population? Some thought the forest was for use by everyone. Legal shooting at a legal shooting range like the Mother Lode Gun Club or Angels Gun Club is not the problem.
But shooting near homes is not going to work. Homeowners say the USFS and The Sheriff refuse to act on the illegal behavior.
If you have read the Neutral Assessment, which now they act like never occurred, there is no question that this is NOT a good place for a shooting range and that violations occur regularly with no supervision.
In addition to the trash, shooting everywhere, alcohol beverage containers and disturbances very close homes, there are the general threats by certain members of this group, that have even caused people to move away in fear.
Does the USFS care? Or does this letter reinforce the idea that THEY DO NOT CARE!!!
Until those at higher levels of authority get involved in this issue, and realize that McClung and her friends at the local office are encouraging the illegal behavior, nothing will change.
More to come!!!
18 comments:
Per Teresa McClung; "The quarry is not considered to be a designated shooting range as it is available for multiple uses. If at any time the quarry is occupied by people involved in other activities, it cannot be used for target shooting."
Picnic at the quarry, anyone? You bring the bullet proof vests and I'll bring the earplugs. We can have a jolly old time facing down a bunch of angry shooters toting a few 12-packs! They won't mind a bit that we're using their shooting range for "other activities."
Get real, Forest Service and face that you have created a monster that you are unable to control. Everyone i knows it is a shooting range, no matter what you try to call it.
I understand the stand-in forest supervisor has sent this paper a letter in which she states, "Candy Rock Quarry has been used for target shooting since the 1960s. The quarry is not considered to be a “designated shooting range” as it is available for multiple uses. If at any time the quarry is occupied by people involved in other activities, it cannot be used for target shooting. There are no designated shooting ranges on the Stanislaus National Forest.
This is an unmitigated falsehood.
Lie #1: "used for target shooting since the 1960s." Very few people were shooting in the 60s, and most of those were hunters sighting rifles. In addition the quarry was not in the same location. The amount of shooting has multiplied by leaps and bounds over the last 5-10 years, and ILLEGAL guns, designed for the sole purpose of killing people are being used.
Lie #2: "The quarry is not considered to be a “designated shooting range” as it is available for multiple uses." It looks like a designated shooting range, it's used as a designated shooting range, it must be a designated shooting range. There is NO OTHER ACTIVITY COMPATIBLE WITH SHOOTING SEMI AUTOMATIC RIFLES, hand guns,shotguns,etc., or with detonating explosives. All of which occurs at Candy Rock. If the FS employees think there is, every single one of them should go out there and sit down...have a picnic, as another poster suggested. How stupid does the FS think we are? A sixth grader could figure out this.
Lie #3: "There are no designated shooting ranges on the Stanislaus National Forest." The Candy Rock Quarry has BECOME AN ad hoc DESIGNATED SHOOTING RANGE. All the local shooters go there and word of mouth or e-mail has invited shooters from as far as the Bay Area to come up and 'shoot at Candy Rock.'
Gee, folks, looks like a designated shooting range (even illegally cleared for the purpose by the FS), used like a designated shooting range, must be a designated shooting range. Saying it isn't doesn't change the reality.
So this is what our forest service is really like. Instead of Smokey the Bear they are now the Armed Magilla Gorillas!
The shooters spokesman is the craziest sob you ever saw. IF he's the example of the problem, no wonder there are so many illegal things going on there. Losers!!!
Boy have you got this right. Not only is the public not safe at candy rock gun club, but we don't feel safe at our own USFS office in Ebbetts Pass.
If you look at how CalFire is now treating us it seems to be a pattern of these forest agencies hating the regular people and only catering to certain special interests! How sad. I didn't know the gun kooks had them bought and paid for!
What are you people, naive or what? The USFS personell keep that gun range (they created it) so that they have a free place to go shoot with their friends. They've been covering up the crime for years. And they do not care about shooting near homes, either!
To the one who wrote about the crazy sob, you are so right!. low life scum of the earth they pick to show the world why the rest of them are like. now that we know, you all must be just like him...
This is the Candy Rock Gun Range, set up by and advertised by the USFS. They cannot deny it!! No matter how much they try to lie and cover up.
Maybe we should expose some of the DRUNKS that work for the USFS, and who their best friends are!
Do any of you realize that the Forest Service can only do what law and regulations allow them to do? They don't just make this stuff up. They are bound by certain restrictions that keep them from closing this or opening that without due process; a process that usually moves at a glacial pace. They are also woefully understaffed, particularly in the law enforcement community. There are valid arguments here about a de facto gun range neutralizing any other recreational use of the area and that likely illegal activity goes on, but you people don't seem to have any understanding regarding what it's possible to accomplish in the system the FS is forced to work within.
Whoa! Must be a FS employee. We might have believed that YEARS ago, but not now. When the county Sheriff won't have anything to do with it, you know something is very wrong. Corruption is what it is.
Yeah, law and regulation allows them to treat law abiding citizens like garbage and the criminals like sweet little babies because of personal friendships. The person who just called it corruption is right.
Why has all this been out of the press for so long? Seems kind of underhanded and corrupt to me. I thought they had run out the illegal shooters long ago. Instead, they have just been shutting people up?
And these creeps don't want to belong to an honorable gun club because they have rules and make the shooters respect others. Besides, the USFS has allowed this to be their personal GUN CLUB for way too long!!!
When you pick your leader as the one who threatens the President of the US because he is black, you should know you are among the worst criminals there are.
Now its clear who we are all talking about, the one the FS loves, their fellow drunk!!
re: Do any of you realize that the Forest Service can only do what law and regulations allow them to do?
By law the FS can close it. It just needs to go through the DEIS amd NEPA process, which the FS drags out as long as they can. There's a comment period to which everyone can comment if you know when it is, or the FS sends you the literature. You can e-mail the Hathaway Pines District Ranger to request one. However....the FS process is not, I repeat, not, a democratic one. They end up doing what they think is best, and as many of us have experienced they are pretty much in bed on that venue. With whom? For guns, it would be the NRA --National Rifle Association.
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