Every time I go out to my property at the bottom of the switchback, I feel like I’m risking my life. It seems everyone old enough to hold a gun — from .22s to giant handguns to .38-caliber rifles — is target practicing from the roadsides or gathering down on the beach “sighting in their guns.”
Combine this with all the drinking that is going on, as evidenced by the countless beer cans and bottles lying among the bullet shells, and it makes for a very scary situation. There are more than 40 bullet holes in one sign right on the bridge on our property. Hello! Wake up! Sober up! We have cows and horses grazing out here. People working on fences. Children playing on the roadsides, tourists biking, horseback riders, pets houses — just inches from where your bullets are lying.
While I am sure no one is condoning this lawless behavior, surely not our neighbors, still it is going on as we speak. I own a gun myself. I was raised in the subsistence lifestyle and I know most gun owners are responsible, but there are too many firearms out there right now in the wrong hands. All guns are dangerous. A .22-bullet can travel up to two miles.
I am worried sick that someone or someone’s animals are going to get hurt, that some unsuspecting car driving along East Road will encounter a stray bullet or that some innocent animals in someone’s pasture will be a victim of this insanity. What we need are tighter gun laws and more state troopers to enforce them.
And now for the really sad part: Just recently, on my property at Swift Creek, I found the bodies of two of my favorite eagles — one adult, one juvenile just out of the nest — lying under the cottonwood tree where they have had a nest for more than 25 years. It was so heartbreaking — especially to find the casings of the 22 long shells and empty box right next to where they were intentionally shot — straight up the tree.
Whoever you are, you were not only trespassing, but breaking the law. You purposely took the lives of two of nature’s most beautiful creatures, just to kill them. One moment they are sitting there, completely trusting of the humans and cars that are constantly going by, just doing their thing, feeding their chicks, delighting tourists and passersby, the next moment they are shot by some thoughtless, uncaring person who is probably bored and needs a living target for practice.
Please, if anyone out there knows anything about this, contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has retrieved their bodies.
By the way, it was hard to write this letter as I don’t want to offend anyone or get folks mad at me, but sometimes you just have to stand up for what is right and speak up and take a risk. I seriously pray that nothing more bad happens as a result of mindless shooting — whether to wild or domestic animals or humans or private property.
Mossy Kilcher is a lifelong Homer resident.
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