irresponsible gun use

What's with the / ?? Is that an automatic censor, something we're suppose to use and not some evil company's name? Couldn't find anything about it in the search.

didn't some ass shot a hole in the Alaska pipeline a few years (decades?) ago?

I thought my uncle said something about it causing a whole bunch of environmental damage

COMPNOR: It's shorthand for a science and technology site called slashdot.

makes sense. thanks

"You have to remember that at least half of the country is made up of morons, as a result you get this."

Whew, that's a pretty strong indictment of your fellow man, no? Sure hope you're wrong.

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Nope if anything I think I underestimated it. Everyday I live my statement seems to be proven more correct.

A couple photos I took recently of a high voltage power line, also in Oregon (not that it doesn't happen everywhere). It seems incredibly stupid to me to shoot at something like that.

This is one of my personal pet peeves. The world is full of people who have absolutely no regard for anyone else or other people's property. I like to shoot on public land and it infuriates me to see shot-up TVs and stuff. I hope it's a very small percentage of shooters who do this kind of stuff.

I was raised different. Never once have I thrown a paper cup or soda can from a car. Why do people think this is OK? I'm guessing that their parents were also idiots who never taught them any better.

I've never considered myself to be an environmentalist but as I get older I've come to realize that growing up on a farm taught me to be much more of a "practical environmentalist" than 95% of city folks.
We reused everything because we were cheap, and grandpa lived through the '30s. We didn't know we were recycling. We even recycled cow manure on the garden.
We lived cheap and saved up when we wanted to buy something. Our "carbon footprint" was very small. Saving mother earth? No, just being frugal. Probably had something to do with Grandpa and the 1930s.
Occasionally junk would get dumped on our property and we had to clean it up. Do city folks think that if you dump it in the country it magically disappears?

Vandalism happens everywhere, they use a variety of objects to destroy things...a firearm is just one of them.

I dont belive hunting season is open there yet, maybe archery. So was it "hunters" or vandals?

As I recall, the Roman Empire had a big problem with Vandals. Vandals are vandals whether they destroy stuff with guns, cherry bombs, baseball bats or cars, but irresponsible gunshots have potential of collateral damage. Such as public perception of gun owners in general. But gun vandalism is more about the psyche of the vandal than the psyche of the gun owner.

I recall reading in high school that when the 200 inch pyrex mirror for the Hale Telescope at Mt Palomar Observatory (San Diego) was shipped cross country by rail from Corning Glassworks in New York to Pasadena California, it was encased in armor plate based on the certain knowledge it would be a tempting target for random plinkers along the way. Gun vandalism is not a new phenomenon.

People in my neck of the woods shoot up all the road signs. Scary thing is that there are often farms and homes in the firing line of these shot up road signs. The area is rural but not vacant. I personally want to pistol whip these fools.

Taliv,

Amazing how some people cease to think with a gun in hand, albiet the majority of those generally exhibit little sense most all the time.

Early this month (Sep) some brilliant thinking dove hunters decided to flush the doves and wait for them to set down on the aerial cables here in Middle TN, then they shot the heck out of them. Figured that you might have seen it on Nashville news.

Results were = 4 counties without TV, Internet, Cable phone, and oh yeh, the cell phones are carried to the towers via cable also.

Cost = 1 small length (500 ft) of optical fiber (mainline) 10K+. The labor for all that crew for 3 days is still unknown.

Long story short, we (consumers) normally pay the bill in the end. Although this time they were still wearing the cable out as the initial cable crews arrived in the area.

FYI,

LP

I was taught to never shoot at birds on a wire, or at poles, signs, insulators. Fire at a legitimate intended target, but be responsible enough to think through the consequences and avoid unintended damage.

The mindset of people who vandalise mailboxes escapes me.

My main hobby is photography. I have a cemetery that I've been shooting year round for a couple of years now. Last time I was there a sign saying there was a bounty on vandals had been shot with 00 buck. <deleted -- Sam>

I live in New Mexico and we have a lot of BLM land around here. One area is designated as a hike and bike trail and runs along a ridgeline for several miles. The surrounding area is frequently used for shooting activities, fine and good. But the hills near the hike/bike trails have very prominent "NO SHOOTING" signs posted frequently along the road facing the trail area. Now, there are thousands, no, many thousands, of acres of land that are very well suited for target shooting across the road. But where is the best place to pick up brass? Right around the NO SHOOTING signs, of course. I guess it's just a matter of time until the BLM closes the whole area to shooting. All it takes is a couple of "idjits" to ruin it for everyone.

I used to live really close to this old graveyard. All the graves were unmarked except for one. Mattie Earp. Wyatt Earp's first wife. I used to go out there with friends. One day we showed up and her grave marker was shot up with birdshot. I couldn't believe someone would do that. Eventually someone replaced the marker and also moved the location so no one would try to dig her up since it was not too long after Tombstone came out and people would actually know who she was.

Quote:
"You have to remember that at least half of the country is made up of morons, as a result you get this."

Whew, that's a pretty strong indictment of your fellow man, no? Sure hope you're wrong.

Nope if anything I think I underestimated it. Everyday I live my statement seems to be proven more correct.

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It's a fact. Half the people are going to be below average intelligence. Of course the other half, to which we all belong, will be of above average intelligence!

I do love the shot up signs directly in line with houses, roadways, etc. It's a wonder to me that they knew which end of the gun to point at the sign.

people that do stuff like this need to go to jail they make gun owners look bad and must gun owners are good people but a few idoits make you look bad

The truth is the google should have buried that line from day one if they wanted that link to stay up. There are plenty of other things that will down a fiber line on a pole (especially through the forests of Oregon).

Of course, that definitely does not excuse what these people are doing. It's not only destructive but very dangerous to other hunters.

note the political tone of calling them hunters....

I would wager that they are actually:

1. vandals, under the age of 21, out for the sole purpose of getting their kicks damaging property.

or ...

2. Ludites, purposefully targeting Googles infra-structure to advance their anti-technology agenda.

Did they have a hunting license?

Did they tag and remove game?

If no... then they are not hunters.

I suspect that their choice of words is deliberately misleading.

After leaving a local range for the first time, I pulled up tp the stop sign at the highway and saw that it was shot full of holes. What kind of an idiot shoots at a stop sign just a few hundred yards from the range? Shooting accross 2 lanes of traffic even!! I have been shooting since I was nine (almost 50 years) and NEVER shot at a road sign. That's about as irresponsible as it gets imo.

Clearly, there are quite a few hunters on this forum who take offense at the notion that those who were shooting the line could be also be hunters.

Well, considering this remark from the original post....

'Every November when hunting season starts invariably we know that the fiber will be shot down, so much so that we are now building an underground path

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It would seem that hunters are in fact the ones shooting the line down.

Vandals vandalize year round....there is no "vandalization season".
But if the line is being shot down only in November, at the start of hunting season, then it's too big of a coincidence for it to not be hunters.

I know that most hunters are law abiding and gun safe folks, but certainly not all.

I suspect it to be vandals who happen to be hunting. The hunting brings them out into the woods, but they are still vandals who have no respect for others property.

Speaking of road signs, a friend of mine who lives out in the country had some neighbors down the road (teenage boys who recently moved there from Portland) who thought it fun to shoot a nearby road sign across the road. Another neighbor warned them about it, then a sheriffs deputy warned them, then my friend found a .22 bullet hole in the hind quarter of one of his horses. The horse pasture was at an angle to the sign, and the dents in the sign clearly show the bullets ricocheted that direction. They had also used a 30-06, and there are houses through the woods behind the sign.

He called the police to report it, and the older of the two boys just turned 18 and now has a felony (I think) arrest record. It's too bad it had to come to that, but what else can you do?

The people around here thank that if they are on their own land they can do anything that they please. I am the only one that uses backstops when shooting.

I suspect it to be vandals who happen to be hunting.

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Or hunters who happen to be vandalizing.