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Can't Miss It: Weekend Edition Nov 20-22
Police forces from the Snohomish County Sheriff's department and the Sultan Police department swarmed on the semi-annual Fantagraphics Shoot-out party on Saturday, shutting down the festivities after only a measly two hours of shooting, which wasn't nearly enough time to shoot all the tvs, computer monitors and lawn mowers hauled out to be shot (see our coverage of the 2005 party here). Apparently, according to these cops, it's somehow "illegal" to dump a lot of junk on some random unknown stranger's private property in the woods and shoot it with guns. Wow, really? Who knew?
No arrests were made, no tickets were given and no one got shot. Still, it's a drag that the lawn mower only got two or three bullets in it and some of those computer monitors are still relatively intact. Tragic, even. More details and tons of crappy cellphone camera photos with an ever present finger obscuring the images after the jump.
The day got off to an okay start. As if sensing we would be getting in to some kind of trouble that day, Jacob Covey had the foresight to tag the front of the company van with the relevant information to ensure maximum discretion should we have to make a getaway and not want to be identified or anything.
The weapons used included a 12 gauge shotgun, a 300 winmag rifle with a telescopic lens, a 45, a 44 magnum, a 357 magnum, a 10m and 9m. Also some bayonet knives in case any targets resisted the bullets or if we ran out of ammo.
The few targets that managed to get shot before the party-pooping cops came out to enforce the precious liberal "laws" included some tv sets with glass so thick they should have been bullet proof, and a bottle of massage lotion that Gary said needed to be shot because it had an "inappropriate viscosity," whatever the fuck that means. Anyway, he shot it with vehemence and it exploded.
When the cops showed up, they cordoned off the forest service road with their cars...
...and got out with their hands on their guns (still holstered) and ordered everybody to get in front of the van and keep their hands up. Gary was furthest away and couldn't hear what they were saying, so for some inexplicable reason his hand seemed to go for the gun in his holster. The cops didn't seem to like that and started yelling. He put his hands up and one of the cops came over and took the gun away from him. After the cops were talking to us for a while about how what we were doing wasn't exactly legal (technically) and how we were on private property, blah blah blah, we all eventually lowered our hands, except for one of us who will remain nameless. The cop noticed and paused in his speech to tell her, "Maam, it's okay to put your hands down now." Everyone enjoyed a hearty Ha ha.
When the cops asked if we had hauled all the junk targets out ourselves or if we just found them there, there was a momentary temptation to lie and say we just found them there. But then why do we have this ridiculously humongous van in the middle of the woods? Cops don't like being lied to so we cooperated.
All things considered these cops were really cool. They could have thrown the book at us and sent us off to Guantanamo but they didn't and for that they can have lifetime subscriptions to The Comics Journal if they want, plus some free ads if we're not sold out at press time.
As mentioned earlier, all these cell phone camera shots suck. Jacob took pictures with a real camera and will hopefully post them to the FLOG at some point between now and when we all die of old age. Just put the FLOG in your RSS feed and maybe something will show up.
So now the only question remaining is: Where will Fantagraphics hold the semi-annual shoot-out parties in the future since it's evidently not cool to just do it on random spots found in the woods? Is there anybody out there reading this who owns land with cool neighbors who won't call the cops? We still have a tv to shoot. Seattlest and Fantagraphics beseech you...
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Dude. Aren't computer monitors pretty damned toxic for the environment?
What the hell? This is a fucked up post about a pretty fucking stupid activity. Jesus Christ.
When did this become White-Trashist instead of Seattlest?
Yes, CRT monitors are full of heavily leaded glass. I'm all for shooting things in the woods, but I'm not for polluting the woods with heavy metals.
I'm a long-time Seattlest fan and far from an environmentalist, but you should be ashamed of yourself for what you and your white trash friends did, not propagating it on an online blog about Seattle (for multiple reasons).
If this post is not deleted soon, I will be even more disappointed in Seattlest than I already am.
Silvie -- Any chance you're going to comment on the environmental impact of your activities?
Or should we call the police and ask them to "reconsider" their decision not to press charges?
Aren't the plastics also full of neurotoxic fire retardants? Jesus Christ, grow up and throw water balloons or something next time you need to go assert your ironic post-gender manliness.
In this thread an Emasculating antigun feminazi tries to troll the seattlest comment system by posting as guest multiple times.
I don't see any comments about guns. I see comments about the profound stupidity and ignorance it takes to blow up toxin-laden machinery IN THE FUCKING FOREST.
Fuck Fantagraphics and fuck Silvie.
The environmental impact is the biggest cause (there's a REASON you're supposed to PAY places to recycle them, y'know)... but compounding the idiocy is the fact that this was done on some unknown dude's private property without his authorization, and then making a post about it on a blog about Seattle.
Environmental facts aside, becuase it's so blatant, what's the purpose of putting this on Seattlest? What part of the brain told you this was something to blog about? Bragging? Complaining? I just don't get why it's here in the first place. Seems like you'd wanna keep the idiocy to yourself, lock it away in a closet and hope nobody finds out.
Fantagraphics must be really proud of themselves right about now.
You crazy kids!
Now I know whose ass I'll be kicking at cafe presse on Sunday afternoon.
So, Fantagraphis idea of a fun thing to do is to goo out and shoot stuff, resulting in a lot of litter and pollution?
Are you guys all 12?
Those Fantagraphics nerds should switch to more mature recreational pursuits, like the fine art of penis swordfighting.
My name is Jacob and I am a Fantagraphics employee who doesn't want to be the face of this event but want to clarify a couple of things. I attended this shootout and can attest that we pretty much left the place cleaner than we found it, having removed other people's earlier shooting debris in the process of our cleanup. All of the items are being PROPERLY, LEGALLY recycled and dumped for the usual fee.
And we're not all 12 but those of us in attendance most certainly still thrill at the sight of minor explosions and such. And, specifically, I enjoy the opportunity to see someone put a bullet through the computer that I have loved and hated for years.
I don't believe that part makes us ignorant or stupid or worthy of an ass-kicking. (Perhaps eye-rollingly simple-minded?) On the other hand, I appreciate the comments about the monitors being toxic. I had no idea the stuff inside of monitors was such a terrible thing and thought of this as simply a littering issue. Knowing that now, I still don't know that we created some horrible ecological issue BUT the information that this is dangerous stuff would stop me from doing it again, even if only since I had to touch this mysterious stuff.
The romantic vitriol about the debris being on some "unknown dude's private property" needs to be amended not as us trespassing onto an honest farmer's homestead but onto the land of an enormous logging/timber company, as is the case with so much of the Northwest landscape.
I'm only sorry to have to drag two guys wanting to go home out into the middle of nowhere to deal with us not knowing what kind of people-with-guns they were dealing with.
Does all of this belong on Seattlest? Beats me, I'm just visiting.
i'm sure all the toxic chemicals from the monitors ended up on the fantagraphics employees when they hauled it all back to the van. i hope none of them planned to have children.
in addition, i believe the "private land" was not an individual's but a multi-million dollar corporation's that chops down trees by the thousands everyday and makes money off it, legally.
-m
I had no idea that trespassing on private property was OK, as long as it was the private property of a corporation! Whew! They're so evil they don't deserve to have trash-free land! And any trees the evil corporation replants over the years can enjoy all the spew the citizens leave because that's what corporations deserve! So what does it matter if you add to the mess, right?
Apparently, the Fantagraphics brats researched this evil logging corporation to determine that they were deserving of having their rights violated. Whew! Judge, jury and...pollutioner!
Lots of standing trees in those photos. Who cares? They'll be cut down someday. Might as well spread a little toxin today! And hey...what leaked out of those jugs when you shot them? Did you clean that up, too?
Not only do the Fanta brats admit they were trespassing, but their defense is "Everybody does it". Apparently, the Fanta brats have been doing this for years, if their comments on other blogs are any indication. It's OK to use other people's property as a "dump" if "everybody does it" and it's OK to litter as long as it is on the land of evil corporations!
Thanks for that demonstration of eco-responsibility.
I wonder if they cleaned up their crap in past adventures on this property, or if they only managed to deal with their mess after they got caught by the cops.
Absolutely moronic. And that assessment doesn't include being dumb enough to put your hand anywhere near your gun on first sight of the cops.
That's downright brain dead.
Now that we know that private property is OK, but corporate property is not, dumping my trash on Fantagraphic's doorstop will be socially acceptable, considering some of the Eros porn crap they have published over the years. Lots of dead trees in all that.
It's the least they deserve.
Jacob:
In addition to being loaded with heavy metals, monitors don't really produce that great of an explosion. Next time you guys should invest in some Tannerite, waaay more fun and non-toxic too! Oh, and there is plenty of DNR land/gravel pits that you legally shoot on around here.
Thanks for the articulate response, Jacob. I still don't condone what was done (for many reasons, primarily ecological). I disagree with the justification behind trespassing, and am also skeptical of the condition the site was left in on previous trips, but it's good to hear you won't be playing with toxic CRTs anymore.
I'm glad you posted here to clear a couple things up, unlike the author, who I think should explain the purpose of posting this on Seattlest.
Silvie's a troll on his own blog.
I work at Fanta, too, and wanted to comment on the trespassing issue. Although I didn't participate in this particular event, I have been out there (in Sultan basin) several times in the past, and honestly, I had no idea we were ever trespassing and I doubt anyone else did, either. I don't know how Gary discovered this place years ago, but he's been going there since around 1990, and all the times I've been out there over the last 12 years, there have always been many people shooting things -- lots of things! -- and I sincerely thought it was a dedicated shooting area/landfill. It's right off a road and can be seen by every car driving by, there's never been any kind of secrecy involved with what goes on there and I've been there probably ten times where no one -- including cops -- has ever stopped while driving by and said "stop!". So the whole "trespassing" criticism is kind of a canard. Whomever owns this land has been at least tacitly condoning what's been going on there for at least a decade. Perhaps the land has new owners now, I dunno -- this was the first time in a couple of years the Fanta crew had gone out there.
Also, I don't think the folks who went this weekend were truly aware of any ecological hazards vis a vis the computer monitors. We're actually a pretty lefty and green bunch in general.
"Seattlest is a website about Seattle and everything that happens in it. That means news and events, restaurants and bars, happenings and goings-on"...so why are you questioning why this was posted?
#17 missed the point; no one said it was right or smart. i'm sure s/he is morally superior to all of fantagraphics' employees. why must you revert to name calling, libel and straw man arguments.
why does no one get the absurdity of the situation?
-m
ps-i'm not a fantagraphics employee
I think the point being made about "Why is this here?" was more along the lines of "Why would you want to make this public?" or "Why would you think anyone would want to read this?" more-so than "Why Seattlest?"
i think it may have something to do with the heavy metals like mecury that are found in many of your targets. as long as you shoot them near your well, its OK with me
What a bunch of whiners. I'm just bummed out that I wasn't invited with my 12 gauge to blast some tv monitors too.