The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released a resource management plan for Ironwood Forest National Monument that proposes to ban recreational shooting in the 128,000-acre Ironwood Forest National Monument. The Monument is currently open to dispersed recreational shooting. However, if BLM's preferred alternative (Alternative C) is adopted, ALL recreational shooting will be banned.
It is critical for BLM to hear from gun owners during the comment period, which closes May 30th, recreational shooting must be preserved in the Monument. Make no mistake, this is just the first step to banning all firearms and their usage on public lands. If the federal government can ban shooting on a vast rural area like Ironwood Forest National Monument, it can and it will ban shooting on all public lands. They must be stopped now!
BLM held 5 public meetings and, thanks to your actions, NRA members packed the rooms to protest the proposed ban on recreational shooting. As those attending soon found out, the meetings were largely designed by BLM to explain its plan, not to listen to what NRA members and recreational shooters had to say. But, your activism did not go unnoticed. Radical environmentalists intent on keeping everyone, including gun owners, off "their" public lands have organized in support of BLM's preferred alternative.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) issued an "Action Alert" to its followers calling NRA members who attended the meetings "reckless recreational shooters." The responsible, law-abiding citizens they attack are the same shooters and hunters who pay millions of dollars every year in Arizona for conservation projects and wildlife habitat through license fees and taxes on ammunition, firearms and other sporting equipment. The Center for Biological Diversity has a long record of attacking responsible gun owners and hunters. in fact, it is the driving force behind an attempt to ban the use of all lead ammunition for hunting in California. The proposed ban has no basis in sound science.
We must not allow these radicals to prevail. Let your voice be heard! Please send written comments to the BLM and let them know that recreational shooting is a legitimate use of public lands, and a legitimate and traditional recreational use in Ironwood Forest National Monument. The growing campaign to ban recreational shooting on federal lands in Arizona and throughout the United States must be stopped!
Comments are due by Thursday, May 30 and can be submitted by mail to Mark Lambert, BLM Planner, Tucson Field Office, 12661 E. Broadway, Tucson, AZ 85748, or sent via email to [email protected]. To review the management plans, go to www.blm.gov/az/LUP/ironwood/ironwood_plan.htm.
More Like This From Around The NRA
