Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Standard-Examiner: Weber Invites State Lawmakers to 'Eat and Shoot' at Gun Range

Kinda has the flavor of one of those creepy and ubiquitous condominium time share promotions, dunnit?

This morning's Standard-Examiner provides a fascinating glimpse into the schizophrenic Utah Republican mindset, with this morning's front page story, reporting that our all-Republican Weber County Commission has has invited Utah Senate and House legislators to a "gala" "January 28 "dine-and-shoot event which aims to showcase the Swanson Tactical Training Center in Ogden's Industrial Park and opens with dinner at 6 p.m. followed by 7 p.m. target practice." Seems that at least a couple of our purportedly "tight fisted" Weber County Commissioners are keen on dropping a cool $3.8 million taxpayer dollars for the public acquisition of a financially troubled and currently privately owned facility which features, among other things, two indoor shooting ranges and (get this) a "mock urban environment," where Weber County gun fanciers can finely hone their "urban combat" tactics:
Kinda has the flavor of one of those creepy and ubiquitous condominium time share promotions, dunnit, where "prospects" are offered a free "rubber chicken dinner," in exchange for being subjected to a high-pressure sales pitch? Most condo promotions don't involve "free guns and ammo," along with the free dinner, of course.

Our Weber County Commission is of course merely "pitching" the the state legislature to throw state funding toward this numbskull project, so it won't detrimentally affect Weber County taxpayers, right?

We're scratching our heads wondering what happened to the hallowed GOP principle, i.e., that commercial projects such as this ought to be left to the "private" economic sector.  Plainly, in this instance, it's one which, if our Commission has its way, will be honored in the breach, rather than the observance.

We'll file this story under the WCF topic category "boondoggle" this morning folks, and invite all Weber County (and indeed Utah) voters to make a mental note, as more than half of our Utah state legislators and two out of our three Weber County Commissioners prepare to tout their "fiscal conservative" credentials (so-called) during the upcoming Utah 2014 General Election run-up.

We'll be standing by, eagerly awaiting our WCF readers' ever-savvy comments.

4 comments:

CJ said...

One of my friends wishes they would invite Dick Cheney, and I suggested, "Yes. Fully-loaded."

Ben said...

So where are small gubmint Republicans who once again prove they are full of it. Small government, small government. ...ooohh I'll take one of those!

Stacey J. said...

It says they will provide the guns and ammo. Who's paying for that ?

smaatguy said...

"they have spent 10's of millions...this just too good to pass up"....says Allen Christensen with his head up his.... apparently the public isn't using it and thus its a financial failure....so the question begs....who is to gain from the purchase of this facility?...always follow the money. There is no way they spent tens of million on this joint...so we're talking 20 million minimum....hogwash

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