Dear Editor,

The good news is that the new shooting center will be opened, and areas of the national forests will be safer with a reduced risk of accidental human ignitions from a careless shooter. It’s going to happen and it’s going to be the right thing to fund in the long run.

The weird thing is that all gun lovers in Gilpin County should be celebrating that they get a new shooting center close-by plus better management of our forests at a perilous time in trying to preserve them. Any reduction in human activity in our forests should be undertaken so that we give our forests the best possible chance to survive. Exchanging a shooting center for safer forests is the logical thing to do.

Some local gun enthusiasts act like a new shooting center is a bad thing for them. Are you kidding me? You don’t want to go someplace where other people go who are also part of the recreational sport shooting culture to discuss their love of guns? You don’t want to attend any of the courses or competitions that the center will make available? Why wouldn’t you want to support something that is dedicated to helping you enjoy your sport in a safe and responsible way?

The distance isn’t a problem either. It is further for the residents on the south side of the county to get to the Moffat Tunnel than it is to get to the shooting center off of Fall River Road. The location is absolutely within the legal definition of the 2019 M.O.U. with the US Forest Service that it be within a specified distance radius. It is, and the Forest Service is now obligated to enforce shooting restrictions in defined areas in the national forests when the center is operational.

But wait there is more. The shooting center is down by the river off of I-70 so there will be no noise pollution in Gilpin County even when all 45 lanes are being used. The river and the traffic will muffle the sound, so it never gets to Gilpin. The distance actually is a benefit because Clear Creek has to deal with it.

Because it is right off of I-70, it has a real chance of being successful because they have a much wider demographic to appeal to. A 3rd party vendor will handle operations, so Gilpin doesn’t need to contribute anything to the operations of the center. The vendor gets the profits and pays the operating expenses. Building and grounds will probably be leases at something like a dollar a year.

I was hoping for a yearly percentage override on net profits to repay the county for fronting the money but that’s not how things work in public financing. It’s still a good deal and the cost is really minimal. The $400k out of $2.8mil is roughly 14 cents on the dollar for investment. To get the same restrictions on forest service land if Gilpin went it alone would still be $1.8mil with the CPW $1mil grant. You wouldn’t get any more areas closed if you spent $1.8mil instead of $400k.

It’s a great deal plus you get a 21st century shooting range that real recreational sport shooters can enjoy for decades to come and our forests are going to be protected just a little bit better from the follies of humans.

Wes Isenhart

Black Hawk