Earlier this month, I wrote about a bunch of California liberals trying to kick a gun club off their land. The Mayor of the town even admitted that they hoped to evict the gun club, they just "haven't defined a clear path to do that" yet. Reader Frank Tamer whines:

For your information many of the people in that community in Azusa are REPUBLICANS, even own guns themselves. The fact is that the residents were mis-represented by the media. No one explicitly stated they wanted the gun club to be moved except the Mayor. The vast majority of the residents just want some type of restriction on when and how much they can shoot during the days, especially Sundays and the caliber of weapons (no fully automatic, etc.). The gun club was started in the late 40's but apparently ITS LOS ANGELES and its grown a little there. Imagine having a full outdoor gun range operating 50 hours per week within miles of thousands of residents. The other issues related are the san gabriel river which runs a few hundred feet from the gun range. there are concerns over how people can enjoy one of LA's last remaining natural resources with that constant noise going on as well as the lead run-off from spent bullets - this effects any visitor to the River - of which there are many. No one knows if they ever spent money to fix any lead issues there. so , think before you rant in the future. What about the people/land owners there before the gun club - the orchard farmers who grew oranges in that valley. And, what about YOUR house - you can't deny there was something displaced to make way for your home. You people think inside a box.

First of all, Republicans in California are commonly known as Democrats in the rest of the world. That the Mayor is the only one who has gone on record as saying they're planning to force the gun club out, is not very comforting. Not to mention that the Mayor is a public servant and usually has the power to make things like that happen.

You're also very quick to put restrictions on what private people do on private land. (Private means land that is NOT yours.) You suggest restrictions on specific calibers for no particular reason. Why is .30 caliber more tolerable than .45? You suggest making it illegal to shoot on Sundays, again with no apparent reason. What is so special about Sunday? (You'd better not bring religion into it, this is government we're talking about and we wouldn't want to mix the two.) You also give no reason why full auto fire should be prohibited, nor do you cite any evidence of adverse environmental conditions (outside of "noise"). Instead you advocate using the threat of lethal force to limit someone else's rights.

You also throw a few red herrings in there about people enjoying the environment, and everyone's home displacing something else. None of this is relevant. You should not expect people to change their behavior, just because you choose to try to enjoy the environment in close proximity. If they move further down the road, what's to keep you from driving down there and doing the same thing again. There is plenty of environment out there; if the noise bothers you, go enjoy it some place else.

Also, this gun club (nor my home) hasn't displaced anyone. This is private land that is privately owned. I presume it was gotten legally, and not stolen from anyone. At least, nobody appears to be laying claim to the title. I didn't kick anyone out of their home so that I can enjoy this piece of property, and neither did the gun club. If people were growing oranges there at one time, in all likelihood they left their voluntarily. Nobody appears to be disputing that the property is not being rented legally on the free market.

Look, if you want to make the owner a tender offer to buy the land and kick the gun club out, than so be it. That is your right. But don't use the mob rule and the police power of the government to get your wishes. That kind of logic has been used throughout time to keep minorities from moving into neighborhoods. Trying to control what people do on their own land is just plain wrong, no matter how many people vote in favor of it.