Shooting resort ricochets

It looks like this shooting resort issue ain’t nearly ready to crawl into a corner and die. Though the governor put the kibosh on the idea, some folks in Rota have expressed interest in hosting the bang bangs.

As I’ve said, I’ve got no vested interest in the issue, and, furthermore, I personally don’t care about it one way or the other. But I have to admit I do get a chuckle when people who have never fired a firearm in their lives insist on lecturing the rest of us on guns. I’m none too happy with the prospect of the village idiot being able to draw a bead on me with a .44 magnum…but I’m none too happy when he runs over pedestrians on Middle Road at 1 a.m. on government payday, either.

Call it instinct; I harbor a distrust of any male who never hacked a tour of duty in the military or as a police officer and who immediately starts sobbing in his beer when he hears the word “gun.” Vets and cops, as professionals-in-arms, have earned the right to an opinion on the topic.

By contrast, when some office-dwelling dweeb wants to whine about shooting irons, I’m not too inclined to listen to him. I don’t mind too much if the womenfolk are averse to the shooting realm; women have got more sense than males do. Women don’t fritter away their time rebuilding carburetors, re-packing wheel bearings, or scrubbing gunpowder stains out of barrels with Hoppes Number Nine.

As far as the shooing resort gig is concerned, I’ll confess that I’m a bit unclear about it. Guam recognizes the 2nd Amendment, and, from the sheer legal logistics of the situation, would seem like the logical place to fire up the firing line.

What’s more, if a rifle range is in the works, it seems like a lot less efficient than a pistol range. A lot of folks like to blaze away with pistols at a 50 or even 20 foot range, but most neophytes aren’t all that excited about shooting rifles at the conventional distances of 100 yards on up to 400 or so. Rifle shooting closely approximates actual work, which is, of course, something to be scrupulously avoided at all costs.

But I’m just a guy on the sidelines, and I’m sure the investors have a much better idea of what their market wants and doesn’t want. In the United States, shooting businesses range from hourly range rentals (either in doors or out), to membership in trap and skeet clubs, to various shooting schools that offer courses of several days’ duration.

As for us here, rest assured that the shooting resort issue will be approached by many with nothing but raw emotion. But if the community decides it lacks the maturity and responsibility to have firearms, this self-diagnosis is, in itself, a newsworthy item.

Ed Stephens, Jr. is an economist and columnist for the Saipan Tribune. “Ed4Saipan@yahoo.com”