Snakes and guns
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WYOMING AND UTAH
Gun advocates keep turning up pesky impediments to their right to use guns any way they want, and when they do, they usually contact their state legislators and demand action. So recently, a Wyoming legislative panel endorsed a proposed bill that would permit silencers to be used while hunting any wildlife in the state, reports the Billings Gazette. Yet the regulation prohibiting hunters from using silencers on their guns was created entirely for safety reasons. As one reader commented: “This is a terrible, terrible idea. I have absolutely no problem with guns or hunters, but I like to know when someone is shooting a rifle around me when I’m out hiking.”
And in Utah, a bit of brouhaha has erupted over the lack of human-shaped targets at public ranges run by the Division of Wildlife Resources. Supporters of targets that resemble people charge that squirrel and rabbit silhouettes or bull’s-eyes just don’t cut it when you’re training in “lawful self-defense,” reports the Salt Lake Tribune. The state agency, however, gently reminded the complainers that “in hunter education, we drive home the lesson that you should never point your firearm at something you do not intend to shoot — like other hunters.” To state Republican Sen. Mark Madsen, however, not allowing human-shaped targets at taxpayer-funded shooting ranges is nothing less than a “dangerous precedent.”
WASHINGTON
A 15-to-20-pound, 6-or-7-foot-long Burmese python, variously described as albino, yellow or “closer to brown with some yellow areas,” escaped into a park in northeast Seattle, a situation complicated by initial confusion as to which park it had chosen, reports resident Dorothy Neville. Fortunately, after city police started tweeting people in the area about the dangers of this “ambush predator,” the snake, under the moniker “Ravenna Park Python,” suddenly began tweeting back: “Just out for a stroll, er slither, on a beautiful day. Heard there was some commotion on the other side of the park. …” The python, whose owner named it “Timid,” remains on the stroll.
Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. Write betsym@hcn.org.
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They reduce, but do not eliminate sounds from firearms. Much
like a muffler on a car, they quiet the sound from a hearing
damaging volume to a loud but not painful level in common big
game rifle and handgun calibers.
Some European countries require all hunters to
use suppressors, both for the health of the hunters and to
provide a quieter outdoor experience for other users.
Spy movies aside, they should be allowed for reasons of safety.
A nearby hiker would still hear the gunshot, but it shouldn't be
as startling.