Wacko gun people (Black Forest, Fort Carson: transplants, homes, neighborhood)

[Phil P]

I don't know if this was a Black Forest thing particularly, but growing up there, I always remember the sounds of gunfire ALL THE TIME. It really did sound like a warzone at times. It was from a bunch of different directions, with at least 7 or 8 distinct shooters. One guy used to go down in a ditch and fire off at 2AM with night vision goggles. I was down there this weekend and someone was firing off clip after clip from a fully auto... Black Forest is a residential neighboorhood (suppposedly), so I don't know why people (and the police too) thought it was okay to shoot all the time.

This is one oddity I didn't really care for about the Springs. Dragonman, although he is a cool guy with a solid, well run establishment, seemed to be a representative of a big class of people in the Springs: people obsessed over guns.

Thankfully, they shut down shooting along Rampart Range road because it looked like a ****pile and was actually pretty dangerous due to people getting drunk, shooting, and leaving their crap. I don't think this is common for most of the rest of the US but I could be wrong.

And then there's places like this:https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9984...7i13312!8i6656 with razor barbed wire facing outwards and a bunker... It's just weird.

Thoughts as to why this is?

[Vision67]

If they shoot "all the time" they must be aiming at targets and they must be good shots.

I haven't read about anybody there getting hit.

Some people who live in rural areas enjoy shooting guns. I'm shocked!

I used to own land out there and I subsequently sold it because I did not think I'd get along with the neighbors. One thing for sure is that I was not going to be able to change them.

If you don't like a place, don't live there.

[otowi]

I think there is or used to be a shooting range up that way, perhaps that is what you heard. I hear Fort Carson from where I live - various live fire range practice. Plus, they put in a public shooting range right by it that I can sometimes hear as well. It is usually background noise that you don't notice.

[coschristi]

Originally Posted by Phil P

I don't know if this was a Black Forest thing particularly, but growing up there, I always remember the sounds of gunfire ALL THE TIME. It really did sound like a warzone at times. It was from a bunch of different directions, with at least 7 or 8 distinct shooters. One guy used to go down in a ditch and fire off at 2AM with night vision goggles. I was down there this weekend and someone was firing off clip after clip from a fully auto... Black Forest is a residential neighboorhood (suppposedly), so I don't know why people (and the police too) thought it was okay to shoot all the time.

This is one oddity I didn't really care for about the Springs. Dragonman, although he is a cool guy with a solid, well run establishment, seemed to be a representative of a big class of people in the Springs: people obsessed over guns.

Thankfully, they shut down shooting along Rampart Range road because it looked like a ****pile and was actually pretty dangerous due to people getting drunk, shooting, and leaving their crap. I don't think this is common for most of the rest of the US but I could be wrong.

And then there's places like this:https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9984...7i13312!8i6656 with razor barbed wire facing outwards and a bunker... It's just weird.

Thoughts as to why this is?

They shut down Rampart? That's weird...my older boys just went shooting "up there" last weekend.

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by coschristi

They shut down Rampart? That's weird...my older boys just went shooting "up there" last weekend.

I thought it was closed down... unless they went way back.

Originally Posted by Vision67

If they shoot "all the time" they must be aiming at targets and they must be good shots.

I haven't read about anybody there getting hit.

Some people who live in rural areas enjoy shooting guns. I'm shocked!

I used to own land out there and I subsequently sold it because I did not think I'd get along with the neighbors. One thing for sure is that I was not going to be able to change them.

If you don't like a place, don't live there.

No one got hit (although a few almost did up on Rampart Range) yeah. But Black forest is a residential neighborhood (all have 5 acres), so it's not necessarily rural. I totally get wanting to shoot some, but the people up there take it to a whole new level. I mean 2AM? Really?

I don't think there's anything anyone can do about it, but it is annoying and strange. The thing is, it's only a handful, and most of the other people don't like it.

[Mike from back east]

IIRC there was one fatality a few years ago in the Rampart Range shooting area and I think I heard it was closed since it couldn't be adequately cared for or managed. My memory may be hazy on that one. One reason that area got a bad name was all the trash and damage left behind by what I'm sure were a small fraction of the overall user population, but it was enough to cause concern. The story in the Gazette that really iced the cake was photo's of a tree that had intentionally been "chopped down" by gunfire.

I suspect there are some preppers up in BF who expect some apocalyptic societal collapse any day now. Some wild-eyed folks have been predicting that for years, especially when the Great Recession hit and a black man became President - it brought out the loonies who listen to crazy talk radio all day and really have lost touch with reality.

I remember a guy like that I used to see in King Soopers at Union and Briargate. He looked and acted like that loud mouthed drill instructor guy in TV commercials, always wore camo, had a jeep festooned with NOBAMA bumper stickers and orated in the store about the coming horrors of ObamaCare. Haven't seen him for a good 5 years now, so I guess he's living off his stash of Y2K survival biscuits and water with his radio tuned to the National Defense CONELRAD emergency broadcasting channel.

There are a lot of nice folks up in BF but it seems the sort of place some people go to hide .... takes all kinds, eh.

[otowi]

Parts of the Rampart Range Road are in national forest, and it is legal to shoot in national forest unless posted. (There are plenty of posted places, though, along that particular road). There also used to be an actual range up there, which did close.

I remember one time a few years ago I was hiking at Lovell Gulch and had a ricocheted bullet whiz past my head because some people were shooting at a pull off on the Rampart Range Road that was posted as a no shooting area (obviously because of the nearby hiking trail).

[coschristi]

Originally Posted by otowi

Parts of the Rampart Range Road are in national forest, and it is legal to shoot in national forest unless posted. (There are plenty of posted places, though, along that particular road). There also used to be an actual range up there, which did close.

I remember one time a few years ago I was hiking at Lovell Gulch and had a ricocheted bullet whiz past my head because some people were shooting at a pull off on the Rampart Range Road that was posted as a no shooting area (obviously because of the nearby hiking trail).

Yikes! Those boys of mine had better be going to a legal area...

[TCHP]

Black Forest is county. It is not city. It has pockets of developments that can give the impression it is residential, but it is not. It also has areas that fall under commercial guidelines as well as agricultural guidelines. It would be important to note not just what zoning you are in around your immediate area, but what else is around you within a several mile radius. There are still a large number of 25-50-75 acre or larger "farms" within the forest that can right next to a subdivided and developed areas of 2.5 or 5 acres homesites. This is actually quite common through out the county in places like Falcon, Peyton, and Elllicot as well as the Forest.

There also are going to be a percentage of doomsday preppers that you encounter in almost any rural setting, like Black Forest, or the eastern plains, or the Rocky Mtns. I don't know that I'd say Cos attracts these in any greater variety than other areas of the state, nor would I say we attract gun nuts in any greater quantity. If you have personal experience of a neighbor frequently and indiscriminately discharging firearms at all hours of the night, I don't know that I generalize the area as gun nut haven anymore than you could call the same area eastern California, although there are a number of transplants from Cali living there as well.

The county is zoned and does have ordinances against noise as well as a host of other items. If there was someone discharging firearms at 2 in the morning within earshot of developments, that is well outside the limits of reasonable usage and the Sheriff should have been notified.

Self centered obnoxious gun owners are no more unique than self centered obnoxious drivers. Both can be deadly dangerous at any given time. Both can demonstrate disregard for those around them. Both may not fully grasp the implication of using their device in an unsafe manner. Unfortunately, anytime you begin increasing population density of an area, like what has been happening in Cos since around 1970, then you will encounter increasing percentages of people that will be on the fringe of rest of what society considers reasonable.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Where does the shooting along Rampart take place? I was considering riding my bike up that road.