Sunday, January 25, 2004

well it's raining... i was thinking about going to t-wall tomorrow but it looks like i might have to settle for the canyon. Fisher and I went bouldering on thursday at hp40. It was a killer day and there were only a couple people climbing. Being from alabama I'm normally used to and come to expect run ins with the locals. But, i believe the new owner of hp has some issues that need to be resolved if horsepens is going to become an international climber friendly destination. The first of which being all of the guns. I'm all about the second amendment right to bear arms but whenever i see a 13 year old carrying a shotgun around large groups of people I begin to become concerned. Stereotypes and stigmas associated with the southeast are only exacerbated by gun weilding individuals who brag about their "having video cameras in every campsite." What about the right to privacy? Granted horsepens is private property but the very nature of hp40 is to provide some type of escape from the normal intrusion of city life. Climbers and visitors alike do not want to see M-16s, high powered hunting rifles, and shotgun weilding teenagers running around a public use area. I believe there is a lesson to be learned from "Bowling for Columbine"