I slept in today, woke up around 7 to the sounds of two rifle shots close by. I expect it was my neighbor protecting his menagerie from a coyote. An hour or so later my other neighbor started up with his pistol. He target-shoots, often in rapid fire.
I did not get the urge to round up the other neighbors, make placards, picket the shooters’ driveways, report them to the EPA for causing lead pollution, publish anecdotes on the fall of Rome due to lead poisoning effects on the central nervous system, assail county planners and commissioners for permitting noise pollution and other breaches of my country tranquility, enlist the services of the sheriff to secure and defend my picket space, haul out decibel-measuring equipment, or any of the other hyperbolic responses that made news this summer over similar stimuli.
If anything, my neighbors put me in mind to be extra sweet to my lovely spouse today so that she might throw a few clay pigeons later on for me to break with the 12 gauge.
Update 9/2/07
The fabric, trade named PELLET-XXT, has proven that it can withstand the impact from lead pellets fired from shotguns at a distance of 80 yards from the shooter. The curtains are installed at the shooting range to prevent lead pellets from entering environmentally sensitive areas. When the lead shot pellets hit the fabric, they lose all or most of their kinetic energy and drop to the ground near the fabric. The spent shot can then be collected on a mat fabric, sand or gravel bed so the lead can be recovered and recycled with overall minimal environmental impact on the surrounding areas.