letters to the alberta primier
 

starting tuesday may 23/2011 i will be sending a letter a week to the primier till i get a answer on why the gov cant provide legel ranges for good tax paying people to shoot, hell the gov is giving edmonton 100 million for a new hockey house for the oilers , im a tax paying albertain paying for that no problem GIVE ME A PLACE TO SHOOT!!!!!!!!!

1.Run spellcheck on your letter before you send it.
2.Don't hold your breath waiting, asking/expecting for the G to buy/give you something.Go get it yourself.
3.Pull out your wallet and buy a club membership in your area, maybe think of support for the NFA/CSSA,they are the effective lobby organizations.

Don't waste your time !!!! .......... ED can't read !!! :)

Yeah see here is the problem gonehuntin. The olds range has been shut down, and all of the other ranges around calgary (except 2 commercial ones) have quit taking new members. I am having the same problem as the OP. So my choices are either **** off my neighbors and shoot in the back field, go to little beiruit aka sibbald public range, or go find a cutline and fling lead into the wilderness. I had a discussion with a well known gun smith in Calgary the other day and apparently this range closure phenomenon is happening elsewhere in the province. Maybe we need an albertan cfo instead of a guy from ontario?

Agreed that closures are affecting availability of ranges.Not good.Between seemingly anti sport shooting CFO's, groups getting whipped up and making noise complaints, etc. we have problems with the number of available ranges... the club I belong to is no exception.

Solutions???Ranges run by private enterprise, expensive, exclusive?Public ranges like Sibbald (little beirut??) , or safe areas on crown land. Private members only club maintained facilities, not for profit,decent yearly fee, good facilities, like gold if you can find them.

How long will it be before someone in the forestry is shooting down a cut line and hits a guy on a quad or a granola muncher on a bird watch hike?

isn't it ironic that there are more registered gun owners in Ontario than Alberta??

I don't really find it ironic there are way more people out there and northern Ontario is full of people like us. Our CFO does not seem to be overly helpfull to us.

letters
 

there is money the gov puts aside to fund non pro sports, this is a non pro sport if there are lots of people with lots of letters there will be a response , if people join together the voice is strong and loud, this could work all across the prov , there are a lot of gun guys in alberta, stand together, write a letter and the gov will notice. there was some talk about the building of a cps range, why just for them? we shoot to. the closing of the range has put them out to , if there going to build a range for them make it a large one and let the public in to. it would be nice to have a range for all guns with in a few hours drive. doesnt the lottery money go into funding non pro sports? it doesnt have to even be funded by tax money, but lotto money. range fees will pay for upkeep . my letters will start on tuesday and every tuesday till i get a response , please join in

This is an extremely depressing situation. I believe we can attribute this to the fact the media portrays gun owners and hunters as undesirables. The police and anti gunners also take advantage of this and play it to the hilt.
This generates reasons for the law to get continuously more agressive in handling situations where guns may be involved , Whether it is someone shooting gophers or just target shooting.
Most often call outs on gun reported incidents get played very publically and the fact that many turn out to be very legitimate in the end is lost by the media and certainly for reasons which work to the laws advantage never corrected. These leave impressions in the populace that these calls are always warranted for the good of everyone.
An atmosphere of fear has been created by the media, and anti firearm people , and fear generates monies and reasons to group up and fight the BOOGIE MAN.namely US .
The far greater realities of Drinking and driving.
Texting while driving
Phoning while driving
Reading while driving
And excesive speed on roadways , and not driving to road conditions are way more acceptable , because as the public perceives it to be something we do everyday!
The public have become accustomed and immune to this , BUT the sight of one individual going to a range or whatever other lawfull endeavour requireing a firearm , sends people scurrying and phoning authorities as something very evil is about to come down. SAD SAD situation.
Join the CFA , it,s NOT a lot of money considering you will pay $30.00 for a bottle of wiskey , or cigarrettes. and saying ; WHAT do they do for us? IS NOT a good reason to not separate yourself from your money . THAT is just a cop out for someone not wanting to be bothered. WE have strenght in numbers! IF ALL gun owners would join , WE would definately be a factor in how we are portayed by the public and politicians! IF you don,t vote , You have no say in who represents you. You are either part of the problem or part of the solution Which is it going to be?
Example is the NRA.

sadly too many people in our society will abuse anything that is free. So a free government range won't work. Join or start a group and buy some property and jump the hoops to make a legal range. Charge cost recovery rates for use and fight like hell to keep users from abusing it. Otherwise get on a waiting list with a good range, that has high fees because it is staffed to watch it, and they limit user numbers so you always have access.

You have hundreds of thousands of acres of crown land to shoot on. Or go to Homestead, or join a private range. Lots of options.

cfa
 

were was the cfa voice when the range was being shut down ? i didnt see them at any meetings, was that because i wasnt a member ? im sure some of the 1500 members of the olds range would be a member of the cfa . i would be happy to give a org money if they helped the cause , what do they do besides send emails to each other and collect 30 bucks from the members? do they help keep ranges and other shooting clubs open? have they wrote letters to the alberta cfo to help keep legal shooting spots open? i guess what im saying is, what do they do ? to me this is not a cash thing , the ranges in the area are not taking new members, no cash changes that ! Parfleche i dont want to come across as rude but a few people shut down one of the few places we could shoot legelly and no orgs help us at all. i get lots of useless emails now i dont need more, i think if the cfa could help they would have. is i not better to have safe places for people to shoot than to send them in the forestry and shoot were ever . besides murders and the odd person killing them self the last shooting accident was the cps at the forest lawn fac. by the old hub oil. if its controled its safe, random shooting is not

free and opps
 

okotokian rifles are legel to shoot on crown , pistols are not legel to shoot there it has to be an approved range and feel free to try and join a club all i have called in driving distance have said no new members or they are not approved for pistols , buckshoot im not thinking of a free range , fees will pay for up keep, we need more places like shooters edge the makes money . the city is going to build a range for the cps, why not make it large and have the public help support it .

Have you checked the range in Okotoks? Not TOO far for you. They handle pistols there. Good luck.

I am lucky enough to be able to drive an hour and shoot on the in laws farm, but I thought a closer range would be a little easier at certain times. The okotoks club is open all of about 17 minutes a week, I thought that was fairly useless so I didnt join. I dont have any resticted so the farm range it will be for me.

membership
 

hey thanks okotokian i was hoping to find a range that would suite all my needs but for now i will try joining the okotoks club 225 a year is cheap for a family membership ship , for the good of the sport i am going a head as planned to try and get a cps and public range in the city of calgary, control is safe

Im thinking around the end of time.

you think ed stelmach accually reads our letters, come on they dont care about hunters unfortently, the more letters that come in the more of a chance hunters have that they will accually read them.

Great. Coreya did have a good point about hours. It's a small club so not open as often as some larger clubs. The hours are posted on the site and if you are OK with them, then have at 'er.

to try
 

i think if you try and fail one shows courage to never try and just give up well , im surprised that not a lot of people who say they love the sport are not willing to even try , how do you think the anti gun people get heard , they unite to make a loud voice , there is strenth in numbers, this is why they get heard. we dont get heard because we dont unite . what does it hurt to send a email or a letter and voice your concerns on the poor direction our sport is going. would we give up on a big buck because the hill is to long and steep, its a lot more work dragging and dressing a deer than sending a email or a letter. maybe sending it to Ed is not the best person, maybe city councel would be better. i welcome any input, i do know the city of calgary is planning to build for the cps . so heres a brain storm instead of 10 lanes do 50 lanes have 10 for cps and 40 for public charge 20 bucks to go and shoot, i bet it would be filled daily, no selling of goods take your guns your ammo and go shoot. it could maybe make money instead of costing money, keep in mind there are going to build one anyway

That makes sense, and sounds efficient. Two reasons that that is unlikely to happen.Also, since the public is paying for the facility either way, why not have it so the CPS has exclusive use, makes sense, if you are CPS.