Blackpowder shoot in city bad idea

Last week city leaders proposed amending city law to allow blackpowder shooting, under permit, in city parks.

The story didn’t mention which park the city would allow the shooting to take place, and since the city pool, while it is certainly a lemon, doesn’t deserve being riddled with bullet holes, we’ll have to assume it’s River’s Edge Park.

River’s Edge Park is surrounded by homes on three sides and the Flathead River on a fourth side. I suppose our fine blackpowder friends could shoot toward the river, but wondered who would police it if they were shooting that direction.

After all, consider yourself a boater minding your own business when a black powder bullet whizzes past your head.

But I guesss that’s not the plan.

The shooting, as I understand it, would actually be allowed to the north. Backstops would be set up and the shooters would shoot off into a private woods.

Make no mistake, this is a bad idea. When the city embraced the area as a park, was the vision really to allow blackpowder shooting?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-gun, but I am pro-safety and this plan doesn’t seem, in any sense of the word, smart or safe.

The golden rule of gun shooting is that you know your target and you know what’s behind it .

How can a shooter know who or what is walking in a woods behind a shooting event in a city? It doesn’t matter if it’s private property. That private property, like it or not, is adjacent to a very public river.

One could assume that there’s not much walking around behind a shooting range up, say, the North Fork. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about guys with guns shooting within a city limits.

That just doesn’t sound safe to me. Nevermind the noise. Nevermind that it’s wholly inappropriate for a city park.

You’ll never, ever, convince me that it’s safe. Police in the past have been more than willing to hand out tickets to people with BB guns who have shot birds in the city limits.

Now suddenly it’s safe to shoot a black powder rifle?

Give me a break.

This community has a safe and appropriate place to have a blackpowder shoot. It’s right up the

road a few miles north of town at the North Valley Sportsmen Club shooting range.

That’s where a blackpowder shoot, if it’s going to happen, should take place.

Chris Peterson is the photographer for the Hungry Horse News.