Arrrgh!!! just need to vent

[Husqvarna]

My local gun range is burned to the ground, this is the third in the area ):

there has always been trouble now and again with teens breaking in, looking for money or guns I guess but i went up to look at ours and this is very targeted arson, a range naturally of the beaten path due to it being a range so even thou the fire brigade is mere minutes away nobody noticed it. the clubhouse is gone, olympic trap machine and sporting machine destroyed, our shooting benches/huts

the third in our area, and one of them was just a pistol range so noting to do with hunting

Hunters are getting death threats, they are even doing terrible hiphop about it (and I like hiphop)

from the same geniouses who attack fur farms and release thousends of minks to starve to death

I am no stranger to a little civil obedience/activism I am pretty left wing myself but ffs find a worthy cause, at least pick something that affects people, pick something were you risk something yourself. i got beaten up by skinheads as a teenager, cowards that doesn't understand the underlying ecology and destroy a national pasttime, hunters are the most law abiding citizens in Sweden, we have to be otherwise we don't get a license. and hunters do and pay for the majority of wildlife preservation

[5.56RifleGuy]

Im sorry to hear what has happened. I hope that the responsible parties are caught and dealt with appropriately.

[BarryLee]

Sorry to hear about these activities and it bothers me they may have been committed in the name of protecting the environment. It never ceases to amaze me how so many of these groups react on raw emotion without really understanding sometimes very complicated issues.

[Husqvarna]

they've even set fire to an old abandoned army range, hope they step on a forgotten land mine.

several hundreds of years old landmark historical buildings nearby for one of the sites.

for years they have destroyed our stands out in the woods, sabotaged really, with some pretty nasty falls with old hunters as a result.

the only thing it does is to limit the amount the hunters train and that isn't good for the animals.

hunting is the most enviromenatally friendly meat, why can't they attack meat processing plants that even I can agree can be animal abusive

[Husqvarna]

I have never seen anybody who isn't a hunter out doing stuff for the animals, where are they?

I haul saltstones, I clear create habitats, I hunt predators, i feed pigs to got em of farmlands, I stopped and helped deal with animals in car collisions

[arch308]

Stupid is as stupid does!

[Skans]

why can't they attack meat processing plants that even I can agree can be animal abusive

So, you're ok with their methods......just not their target!

[ScottRiqui]

So what's the general attitude in Sweden regarding these types of activities?

Here in the United States, those people would be labeled "eco-terrorists", and their activities are generally frowned upon, except by other like-minded extremists.

[Husqvarna]

re Skans

no I just wrote in haste

but there are targets out there i wouldn't sympathize with, some industrial meat/cattle plants where the animals live in filth and are treated very badly for example.

A farm nearby had cows walking up to their udders in poo, they had to shoot them all because they were so sick, that sorta thing

or some factory that pollutes like crazy or something .

can't say i care if the royal family gets their mink furs either, those animals are trapped 10 each in a shoe sized wire box, whole year litters die in sickness sometimes.

Or if somebody did some sabotage to bofors who sells guns to any crazy dictator i wouldn't sympathize with them much either, non violent actions naturally

[Husqvarna]

Scott I live in a small village in the country side and the whole hunting (especially re wolves) is a hot topic. the eco activists have mostly been a joke sorta, a few major actions in the 90s but quiet for a while. loads of propaganda from both sides. there are just as militant wolf haters. the wolf haters are being portrayed as white trash country folk and the wolf lovers as upperclass out of touch people from the cities, with the latter being more true then the first

(I am not a hate but something has got to be done, more and more are creeping into populated areas maybe akin to your coyote thing)we got to hunt them a couple of years ago but it was stopped again, we now have a couple of hundred but only on a small part of the country, that is the main problem, the saami people (our "natives) have special rules and wolves near them and their reindeerherding business ( which is also heavily reliant on gov subs) are killed or moved)

the few we got has started to become a nuisance, plenty of hunting dogs and sheep killed

we do have a green party in parliament but they are more housebroken by know, they used to be loonies

like many hot topics there is probably a big silent majority that doesn't care either way

[Shadi Khalil]

I'm sorry about your range but I can't sympathize with people who attack the property of others. I too am a proponent of animal rights and believe that industries who harm animals should be penalized for it. However, I don't believe that fire bombs, sabotage and violence are any way to go about changing a practice. As an Arab American, I know first hand how the actions of a few fanatical idiots can ruin a perfectly legitimate cause in the eyes of the public. In free societies there are much more effective ways to go about change than senseless violence.

My first range/club, Shooters Paradise, burned to the ground sometime ago. To me, it really was paradise. I was a member and had made friends with a few of the guys on the staff so they let me have the run of the place on a slow day. It was one of the few places in the world where I could truly relax.

After it burned down, I checked out a few other N.Va ranges in the area but none were the same. To this day, I still have not found anywhere locally to call my own. However, my in laws in MD have a backyard I can shoot in and that's even better than my old range. If it was only 120 miles south of MD it would be perfect.

[ltc444]

As I learned during the 60s and 70s there is nothing more dangerous than a Pacifist/ecologist on a mission.

[Husqvarna]

I don't even think that violent actions help activist at all, non violent "actions" gets better press, they can get the word out more. If they had chained themselves to the shooting wall they would be national news, this doesn't even get a blurb in the local paper

[kilimanjaro]

Rebuild it, better than before, and install security to catch them at it next time. These people are terrorists, nothing more, and should be in jail for long terms.

[jason_iowa]

WOW!!! That is crazy. I feel for ya man. I hope they get them and they spend some time in the pen.

Side note on the anti furs. They really don't realize how much suffering they have caused. In iowa anyway we are overrun with fur bearing animals I see more mangy malnutritioned fur bearers then I ever have. Not to mention the yotes and coons running around tearing stuff up in town. I know no one who is pro animal cruelty but that's the end result from this anti fur movement. Its really sad.

[Webleymkv]

I still, for the life of me, cannot understand what purpose acts of vandalism and violence serve when one is protesting something. It would seem to me that the whole point of a protest is to bring your argument to the forefront and change enough people's minds that your point of view is embraced by the majority. However, when you do things like burning other peoples' property, make death threats against hunters, and throw paint on people, you're not likely to make people view you, and by extension your argument, as anything but unstable and extreme.

If someone wants to have a rational and civilized debate about something, I have no problem with it and will be more than happy to engage in discussion. But when someone resorts to arson, terroristic threats, and assault, then they lose all credibility with me and I have no interest in what they have to say.

I can't help but wonder if the people doing these sorts of thigs are truly delusional enough to think that they're doing something positive, or if their "cause" is merely a convenient excuse to indulge their own dark and destructive desires and fantasies. The truth of the matter is that hunters have probably done more real good for conservation and maintenance of a healthy ecosystem than any other group. Theodore Roosevelt, who was instrumental in the founding of the conservation movement, was himself an avid hunter. Likewise, overpopulation of a particular species can be just as harmful, if not more so, to the ecosystem as underpopulation. I wonder if those so vehemently opposed to the hunting of wolves would be so sympathetic once the wolves start eating their cats, dogs, and children due to overpopulation and lack of adequate food supply.

[Skans]

cannot understand what purpose acts of vandalism and violence serve when one is protesting something.

It gets these people on TV.

[Husqvarna]

they have a confession for the first 2 arsons but that seems to be a loon


there is one range left in the area untouched, we need to get certified each year to be allowed to hunt moose, bear, boar and so on and all the ranges are small and mainly for each hunting club, so now one club with two booths will have to take everybody, just not enough time for it

and hunters who are responsible for searching for animals involved in traffic collisions are now on strike due to the wolf issue, lets see if that gets any press