I'm all for safety especially when life's and homes are at stake but if blame is going to be placed lets make sure ALL I repeat ALL the facts are in. If you drive out to the west side of Utah lake you will see a lot of signs stating that all the safe target shooting spots are know off limits to the public because law enforcement agencies have confiscated them to be used for their own target shooting, (Hmmm if the public is starting fires with their bullets who's to say that the law enforcement officers shooting in the same areas aren't also starting them, they are shooting targets does this not make them target shooters as well)there by pushing the rest of us out into the dry brush. And know Herbert wants to put even more restrictions on target shooters. Will those restrictions also apply to law enforcing target shooters... I highly doubt it. Give us our safe shooting areas back and blame your self's,the increase in fires is because we got kicked out of the safe ares and know we have to go find what few shooting spots are left and they are not always safe spots! Thanks a lot for giving us the boot and then blaming us when some of us have no choice but to go out into the dry brush! Not everyone can afford to pay to shoot indoors especially with the cost of ammunition Constantly going up!

Mainstream media has had an anti-gun stance for years. The wildfires are simply another mechanism to be used to demonize firearms by local media. Like many shooters, I've fired hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo and have never seen even a spark. Granted, there are those who shoot tracer ammo and this is problematic during dry times such as these. It wasn't so long ago that one of the SLC news stations aired a segment on Tannerite and the conclusion was that it was unlikely to start a fire. Regular lead or copper jacketed bullets will not produce a spark on regular outdoor materials such as rock, sand, etc. I would find it highly unlikely that any steel cored bullet would cause a spark. I challenge the local media to investigate and document instances where 'target shooting' has caused a fire, and show the conditions under which firing a gun would tend to cause a fire. If shooters how their activity caused these fires, such a 'Perfect Storm' of conditions might be avoided.

As a gun owner and someone who enjoys target practicing I agree that we all need to take a break and be safe! Going indoors it is a choice we all still have. I truly do not feel like I or anyone is being punished for someone else's mistakes. I feel there is an honest reason to restrict the chances of causing devastation. Plain and simply lets be safe when risks are a factor!

Seriously, you can't take a few weeks off of a recreational activity to help save homes, lives, wildlife, lands? Driving is a necessity in our soceity, target shooting isn't. Why take any chance at this point. Same thing with fireworks. It is a shame for the people who have the firework businesses but is the risk really worth it? Sometimes life doesn't go the way we plan and we just have to deal with it. It won't hurt anyone to not shoot for awhile or not set off fireworks but the results of doing so in this dry period could hurt someone. Take a minute and think about others. Even if you don't think you can start a fire with a target shooting, things happen and even the most carefully thought out actions by the most responsible person, can just go wrong sometimes. There is no guarantee so if the conditions are dangerous, why risk what could be someone's life or livelyhood. Maybe we should all chip in and pay it forward a bit. Make a donation to a firework stand. If you were planning on buying fireworks but are not going to because of the dry conditions, make a small donation instead. It is really a bummer for the people who have invested or the fundraisers that rely on the sales of fireworks. If you can afford to buy them in the first place you can afford to make a donation. Lets all do something nice for someone else. A little bit of good will by the masses, goes a long way.

Well now who said anything about going out by a huge forest, fire and shooting bullets around fire fighters? That would also be an idiot! lol

Its not like the Governor is coming into our homes and taking our guns. There is a simple ban for the safety of our public workers and land. Yes most of the fires caused by target shooters were done so out of stupidity. Utah is a state of extremes. SO a few morons caused THOUSANDS of dollars of damage of course the state is gonna freak out. What happens when utah freaks out? Ban and abolish everything. I think in this case it is one of the better responses. So what I cant go out to BFE to fire off a few rounds. Either I can save some money for a few months or take it out to a gun range. At least that way I KNOW I wont be putting those brave firefighters in any danger for a simple hot round or ricochet.

Always an attack on guns! Cars have started as many fires, yet we are not banning them. A gun is a tool, made of metal, as is a car, and when you put an idiot behind either, you will always get bad results! There are only a couple bullets that can start fires, tracers being #1, some have a metal core, and they are too expensive to just go target shooting, unless you're an idiot of course. Now, any smart person would never shoot a tracer in the dry summer. There are idiots out there who will do this I'm sure, but why do we keep allowing idiots to drive, yet nobody will do anything about that? Always another way to try to get rid of the guns! Most ammo for guns is composed of led with a copper, or brass jacket. I'm not sure why in the movies bullets spark every time they hit something, but it is not so. I know it makes it look good, but ignorant people suck this up! Anyways, led, copper, brass, will not spark no matter what they hit! Just not going to happen... So, my thoughts are either they are having a smoke, or standing in a weed patch, and the shell that gets kicked out may still have hot powder residue. Maybe there are even people who shoot exploding targets, but that doesn't mean we are all idiots...