BLM bans target shooting at southern Ariz. monument

The federal government is banning recreational target shooting at Ironwood Forest National Monument in southern Arizona because of damage to cacti, trees and rocks with prehistoric carvings. The Bureau of Land Management said studies found that shooters damaged resources at more than 30 sites and that designating a few areas for shooting would just concentrate damage there. The BLM's decision is supported by conservationists and opposed by advocates for gun owners, the Arizona Daily Star (http://bit.ly/15ggQfB ) reported Tuesday. Todd Rathner, a national board member of the National Rifle Association, said it's absurd that there's no place on a 129,000-acre monument for recreational shooting. "Obviously they bent to the will of extremists who have been putting pressure on them," Rathner said. The BLM proposed a similar ban in the larger Sonoran Desert National Monument north of Ironwood Forest, but the agency withdrew the proposal last May because of complaints by the NRA and other groups...more