Show #36 Steel Challenge sold & the hero from Colorado

[Marshal Halloway]

Show #36 Steel Challenge sold & the hero from Colorado

http://www.downrange.tv/podcast.htm

This week's references
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SHOW #36: 12/12/07

     

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STEEL CHALLENGE
       
        USPSA

     

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  MICHAEL BANE BLOG:

     

The Stand
         
          Gun Free Zones
         
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          CHIAPPA "LITTLE SHARPS"
CHIAPPA "LITTLE SHARPS"

[karlrehn]

Mike is wrong on his support for moving the match from California.
I have been a regular at the Steel Challenge since 1991. Kerby Smith moved the match from Piru and killed it for awhile in the 90's.
It wasn't until Mike and Mike brought it back to Piru that it was revived.
Moving the Steel Challenge from Piru is like moving the Indy 500 from Indy or moving the Kentucky Derby out of state.
USPSA's idea of a "good place" to run a major match is Barry, IL which is not a vacation destination for anyone other than shooters who enjoy spending 8-10 hrs a day at the range waiting to shoot a couple of stages per day.
This is hard on shooters with non-shooting spouses and family members and people short on vacation time who are not pro level shooters.

I go to Steel Challenge for the match and for the vacation in a place where there are other things to do.
Most of the ranges big enough to support the match are in places like Barry, not like places like L.A.

Keeping the Steel Challenge in the L.A. area makes it easier to get media attention because of location.

[Michael Bane]

Karl;

I totally understand your points. I, too, love Piru, and Mike Thompson, who owns the range, is a long-time personal friend. I also hate that the state of California, over which none of us apparently have any control, is apparently hell-bent on banning all guns. In a very short time, running any kind of pistol match in California will simply be untenable. The danger to a match like the Steel Challenge is that it gets caught in the California gun crunch.

When I go to LA, I cannot legally carry a gun. When I leave the range, my competition guns must be unloaded, boxed, locked and in the trunk and inaccessible, or I am guilty of a felony. 

I'm not a big fan of Barry or anywhere in Illinois for exactly the same reasons. I can't quite grasp why our premier matches are in states that would put our butts in jail in a heartbeat for the slightest reason. Yes, Quincy hangs a "Welcome Shooters" sign across their main street for big USPSA matches, but carrying concealed in IL is a felony, no exceptions!

I think we should start moving our matches — and our money —   to states that wholeheartedly support what we do. The U.S. Shooting Academy in Tulsa is a spectacular facility in a state that fully supports RKBA...it's a "Shall Issue" state with broad reciprocity on other state permits (my CO permit is good there). The range is 10 minutes from the airport surrounded by lots of inexpensive hotel rooms and some spectacular restaurants close by (I ate at some when I was there a few months ago).

Major shooting facilities are being built or are planned in Florida — where the concealed carry revolution began — and outside of Denver. As the war winds down, some of the big training facilities are going to be looking for more civilian participation (some already are) and hosting a big match fits the bill perfectly.

I know it's not fair, but we shooters have been the "town punch," to borrow a phrase from Andy Sipowitz on the old NYPD BLUE series, for too long. No matter what horrific gun laws a state passes, we keep spending money there. Where is the sense in that?

Michael B

[Hazcat]

MB,

I have been saying the same thing for quite some time.  If a state doesn't like the 2A then we should not throw money at that state.  CA and IL bing the most egregious examples.

My club here in FL is planning a major overhaul and new ranges for Cowboy and Action pistol (IDPA and IPSCA?).  When we are done we will plan larger matches there and I am hoping the national shooters and shooting industry will help support us and others like us so that gun friendly states will benefit from our dollars instead of "enemy" states.