Guns blamed for starting US wildfires

[farmer-el]

Will we ever win!!!!!

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Gun...fires-20120704

Spokane — In the tinder-dry US West, where campfires, fireworks and even lit cigarettes are banned across public lands, another fire-starting culprit remains free of most restrictions: Guns.

This year, officials believe target shooting or other firearms use have sparked at least 21 wildfires in Utah and nearly a dozen in Idaho. Shooting is also believed to have caused fires in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

Officials have been asking the public to scale back shooting as legions of firefighters contend with one of the busiest and most destructive wildfire seasons to ever hit the West.

But many in the region avid proponents of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, so most state lawmakers are hesitant to enact any formal restrictions.

"We're not trying to pull away anyone's right to bear arms. I want to emphasise that," said Louinda Downs, a county commissioner in fire-prone Davis County, Utah.

"We're just saying, target practice in winter. Target practice on the gun range. When your pleasure hobby is infringing or threatening someone else's right to have property or life, shouldn't we be able to somehow have some authority so we can restrict that?"

Scepticism

The state's Republican Governor Gary Herbert took the unusual step of authorising the top state forest official to impose gun restrictions on public lands after a gunfire-sparked fire. Herbert said his decision doesn't limit gun rights, but is a common-sense response to dry conditions.

Guns rights advocates are sceptical that firearms use can cause so many wildfires.

Clark Aposhian, chairperson of the Utah Sports Shooting Council, said that perhaps 5% of the wildfires in the state have been caused by target shooters this year.

"I don't know how much of a problem it really is," he said.

Officials believe steel-jacketed bullets are the most likely culprits. One shot that hits a rock and throws off sparks can ignite surrounding vegetation and quickly spread. Popular exploding targets are also blamed for causing wildfires.

For weeks, state officials have said they were powerless to ban gun use because of Second Amendment rights, but legislative leaders say they found an obscure state law that empowers the state forester to act in an emergency.

Incomplete statistics

Among the recent fires, target shooters on 21 June ignited a blaze south of Salt Lake City that forced the evacuation of about 2 300 before it was contained.

Aposhian said his group will conduct tests to determine if the steel-jacketed bullet theory is true. If there are limits, "we want to make sure it is not knee-jerk legislation to ban guns or ammunition", he said. "If it turns out the problem is with a few types of rounds, we will not be an apologist for them."

There is no need for such tests, Utah state fire marshal Brent Halladay said. With steel bullets, "you might as well just go up there and strike a match", he said.

Statistics on wildfires caused by firearms are incomplete because the federal government does not list "shooting" as a cause on its fire reports. But some officials write in "target" or "shoot" as a cause, said Jennifer Jones of the National Interagency Fire Centre in Idaho.

On land managed by the US Forest Service only, the centre found 17 such wildfires in 2010, 28 last year and 13 so far this year.

This year, the federal Bureau of Land Management said 11 of 31 wildfires it has battled in Idaho have been sparked by shooting activities.

Independence Day celebrations

Officials at Arizona's Tonto National Forest had seven wildfires caused by firearms in 2010, 10 in 2011 and at least five so far this year. The potential for fire is so great that shooting for several years has been prohibited on BLM property in the Phoenix area.

In one case in the state, prosecutors said five friends at a campout and bachelor party set off a fire on 12 May when one loaded an incendiary shell, which burns rapidly and causes fires, into a shotgun and pulled the trigger.

Meanwhile, firefighters are wary of more wildfires with the arrival of the Independence Day holiday on 4 July.

"Many people use these times to show patriotism as well as support for the Second Amendment," Aposhian said.


- AP

[pdh]

Who you gonna call???


Mythbusters!

[Bighunter]

Clearly shows you don't need flint or a lighter in your go bag. You just need another gun to start fires.

[pdh]

You just need another gun to start fires.

Another CFR motivation

[ikor]

Just like the press to speculate about GUNS, yet ignore a far more probable cause...arsonists...azzholes who set fires for any of a hundred reasons from hating the government to some imaginary slight, to just so they can watch 'em burn.

I know some really good arson investigators but I have also seen some who could barely tie their shoes. When people die and millions of dollars in property are lost, the pressure gets serious for authorities to find some cause or other for a fire. Shooters are an easy 'out' for one who has no idea of what started the fire in question., although apparently at least one fire was, indeed, started when an idiot fired one of the 'Flamethrower' shotshells at a party and no one checked to see if all embers were out before they left the area.

Years ago it was standard to blame the railroads, since once in a great while hot brake linings would, in fact, throw out pieces that did start a fire. Today technology has stopped that so other causes have been discovered that...sometimes...are very convienient for an investigator who is under a LOT of pressure from bosses, politicians and the public.

Take these reports with a grain of salt.

[Manservant]

The problem with this kind of reporting is that despite intelligent people taking it with a grain of salt, the vast majority of mankind is irredeemably stupid. It is this large group of stupid people, whom all have voting rights, that can royally f*ck everything up for the rest of us. That is why I hate reporting that is sensational and inaccurate, the gullible: ignorant believe it.

[JPretorius]

Well....
In the Western Cape we had speculations that in our dry season, which is late summer, local people start the continuous mountain fires, as they know the emergency services are so snowed uddner, that they will enlist the help of "freelance" fire fighters to help kill the blazes, at a fee of course....

[Psychosis]

Were they using incendiary rounds ?

[ikor]

Well....
In the Western Cape we had speculations that in our dry season, which is late summer, local people start the continuous mountain fires, as they know the emergency services are so snowed uddner, that they will enlist the help of "freelance" fire fighters to help kill the blazes, at a fee of course....

Exactly so, and here in my area so called 'worm grunters' who gather earthworms that are sold as fish bait find it much easier to do when ground has been freshly burned over and will deliberately set fires for the purpose.

It was once so common that the Forest Service now immediately posts all such burns as off limits, although they still manage to sneak in and do it anyway. In case you are laughing, I know of a couple of these guys the IRS prosecuted who were estimated to have made over $100,000 a year tax free cash for several years running doing this...plus welfare, plus growing some homegrown weed, plus doing a spot of burglary on the side, etc. They did well enough to have several paid for new 4WD pickups and build a couple of nice houses...also paid for.

Old time woods arsonists would sometimes tie a railroad flare to a pig's tail and pop the fuze in tinder dry woods...does an excellent job!

[414gates]

I'm holding out for the report that claims target shooting increases global warming, and calls for a carbon tax on shooters, per round, larger calibers paying more.