Mountain States Legal Foundation’s Center to Keep & Bear Arms has filed an objection to the United States Forest Service’s (USFS) ban on target shooting in the Pikes National Forest to protect the Second Amendment rights of Colorado citizens. `
Target practice is one of the most basic uses of a firearm. In fact, it is an integral part of being a responsible gun owner. This necessity of firearms training has been around long before our nation was founded, but the U.S. Forest Service has decided to end target shooting in the Pike National Forest of Colorado. Not only is this ban a blanket violation of the Second Amendment but the “ban is unfair to the vast majority of safe and law-abiding target shooters in the National Forest.” While the U.S. Forest Service claims that the dispersed shooting ban was put in place to stop lead contamination from the bullets and to prevent any injuries or deaths, it provides no evidence that either of these issues are currently a problem.
In partnership with Greg Sutherland, Mountain States Legal Foundation has filed an administrative objection to the U.S. Forest Service’s ban on dispersed target shooting. Our objection states, “By restricting the people’s right to engage in dispersed target shooting within the Pike National Forest, the USFS is attempting to regulate arms-bearing conduct in violation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Under the proposed action from the U.S. Forest Service, almost 800,000 acres would be rendered unavailable for firearms related activities. Activities that have been taking place long before the Pike National Forest existed. The U.S. Forest Service cannot decide on a whim to halt firearms bearing conduct, as the Second Amendment protects individuals’ rights to do so. Under the landmark decision in Bruen, the Supreme Court said, “[w]hen the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct” and the government is required to “justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Because the Second Amendment protects arms bearing conduct, which includes dispersed target shooting, the U.S. Forest Service is required to prove that their new regulation has a similar historical example from the Founding era. Unfortunately for the U.S. Forest Service, no such historical example exists; making its proposed action a violation of the Second Amendment.
For an administration that constantly preaches how guns are a threat to public safety, they seem perfectly okay rendering 800,000 acres unavailable for dispersed target shooting. An activity, of which, primarily ensures that firearms are used safely. Target shooting ensures that the gun owner is proficient in the use of their firearm and that it’s used in a safe manner. One would think the most logical step would be to encourage target shooting so as to increase public safety, but the U.S. Forest Service seems to have a different mindset. The U.S. Forest Service’s apparent solution to a problem of its own making is to build at least 3, and up to 9 gun ranges as an alternative way for gun owners to engage in target shooting. There is absolutely no guarantee, however, that more than 3 gun ranges will be built or that they will even be able to handle the inevitable immense increase in demand for target shooting. You are talking about taking the amount of target shooting activity that would normally happen across 800,000 acres and condensing it into a minimum of just 3 gun ranges. The numbers just don’t add up. But the U.S. Forest Service says that any potential increase in demand is simply not their problem. If the amount of gun ranges built does not satisfy the increased demand, the USFS says it has no obligation to meet that increased demand. The USFS is washing their hands of a problem of their own making.
In the final line of our objection, we ask the U.S. Forest Service to reject its proposed ban on dispersed target shooting due to the constitutional deficiencies of the ban that violate the Second Amendment. Mountain States will not let clear violations of the Second Amendment, like these, go unnoticed and we stand ready to protect the right of Colorado citizens and all Americans to keep and bear arms.
