Feds seek to ban the public from more public land!

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposes to close to target shooters 486,000 acres which are within the Sonoran Desert National Monument (SDMN). Presently, an estimated 63 sites in the national monument are used by shooters for their recreational activity.

The plan also addresses other issues of importance to shooters and hunters including the designation of roads and trails for motorized vehicles and areas that could be managed as wilderness.

This plan appears to be similar to other federal designs for other states including Utah.

I find it troubling that I must remind the BLM, Congress, and everyone else in the federal government that public land does not belong to radical environmentalists nor to the BLM or any other government entity. Public land belongs to the public. The BLM must respect that ownership. The BLM's only role is as a steward to manage the land for the benefit of the public -- not for a handful of bureaucrats and radical environmentalists!

I support and urge immediately turning over to the applicable states all federally-managed lands not needed and used "for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings" as specified in Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution. Pending that act:

I oppose any effort to designate any new area withing the SDMN or any other federally-managed land in the US as wilderness, wildland, or any other new restriction on public use.

I oppose any new restriction on hunting or on the possession and use of firearms within the SDMN or any other federally-managed land in the US.

I oppose any new restriction on any other reasonable form of recreation within the SDMN or any other federally-managed land in the US.

I oppose any new restriction on the reasonable exploitation of natural resources within the SDMN or any other federally-managed land in the US.

I oppose any new restriction on reasonable grazing within the SDMN or any other federally-managed land in the US.

I oppose the closure of any roads or trails within the SDMN or any other federally-managed land in the US.

I support and urge permanent removal of all current unreasonable restrictions (including road and trail closures) on public use of the SDMN and all other federally-managed land in the US.