Sunday 3 June 2012

Happy birthday day to you! BANG! BANG!

When it comes to guns, one can never leave out Texas, yes the perennial home of the cowboy on his horse, with a bottle of the cheapest whiskey, chewing tobacco and looking for Miss Sally.  All this while carrying two six shooters and a sawed off shot gun, just in case Miss Sally has a husband.
Yes in Texas it seems the movies were right.  They love guns more than women, so why not take their love for guns to the next level.   
One eager entrepreneur trying to live the American dream has either hit the jackpot or had too much cactus juice decided to open up a gun range for kids!  And it gets better, host birthday parties.
I can just see it now, little Tommy and his friends come to celebrate his 12th birthday party with mum and dad.  Out comes the clown with all the goodies and bang, little Tommy shoots the clown for not having enough lollies.  It seems unbelievable but I kid you not.
The man behind this brilliant idea is David Prince, a businessman from Lewisville who has found investors to back his plan to set up what he calls "one of the highest quality state-of-the-art air-conditioned gun ranges in Texas."
The age limit for the gun range is eight or tall enough for the kids to reach over the gun table.  Because its safety first at what is to be called the Eagle Gun range.  And it gets better, the so called state of the art facility will have two rooms just for birthday parties for kids.  I hope the clowns at this place get hazard pay.
When asked about his bright idea, David eagerly explains And what does the local council reps have to say on this latest business venture.  Denton County Commissioner Hugh Coleman said he was happy to have the facility in Lewisville.   "I am thrilled to add jobs and add to the tax base, and I think gun rights are for everyone," he said.
"One of the reasons we're doing this is, when I had my boys, I didn't have a place to take them and educate them about how to handle a gun safely," Prince explained. "I really want families to be able to take their kids here and teach their young shooters how to shoot safely."  "The age limit is eight years old. You have to be tall enough to get above the shooting table,” Prince said. “They're not gonna be left unattended. Parents are gonna be one-on-one, or if there's not enough parents we'll have range safety officers here to show them how to do it safely."
It seems that the recession is the reason for anything and everything these days.  However not all Lewisville residents are over the moon with the idea.  Dawn McMullan is a mom raising two sons in East Dallas, and she's done some gun control advocacy in the past.  "It makes me very nervous," she said. "I think eight-year-olds, developmentally, can't tell the difference between play and reality sometimes." 
So it seems that a birthday party with food, clowns and lots of games just isn’t enough anymore.  Now the secret ingredient to give that birthday party an extra kick is a healthy dose of lead.