Not exactly correct.
A Sunday report by Channel 7 suggested that the Forest Service is rewriting sport shooting rules in the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest because of the tragic July 3 shooting of Glenn Martin who was camping in the Pike National Forest.
It’s true that sport-shooting restrictions are looming for the Arapaho-Roosevelt forest that stretches through Boulder, Clear Creek, Larimer, Gilpin, Grand, Park and Jefferson counties.
What isn’t true is that the new rules were a response to Martin’s death. In fact, the Forest Service published the rules change on May 8, and public comments were collected through June 3, long before the shooting in a completely different forest occurred.
The Arapaho-Roosevelt plan will identify specific areas where sport shooting is allowed, then ban the rest of the forest against that recreational use. Hunting would not be affected.
According to the notice for public comment published in May:
Due to increasing residential development, housing density, public use, increased public participation in recreational sport shooting and associated health and safety issues; the Forest Service is considering amending the Forest Plan to include direction for managing recreational sport shooting.
People getting shot in Arapaho-Roosevelt is not the issue. Rather it’s the noise complaints by folks moving into the forest’s back yard that are the problem, as per usual.
The Coronado National Forest closed down the Tucson Rod and Gun club range on the basis of three noise complaints. Forest Service hired an incompetent and unqualified individual to perform an environmental impact statement which would support them, and ignored the fact that TRG had been there decades before there were any houses in the area. USFS made their decision then looked for ways to justify it. Don't let it happen in Colorado without raising a big big stink or they will eliminate the areas where shooting is allowed.
BS