South Dakota doesn’t need saving

Greetings. Boy, its been really nice weather since those 100 degree days. Now, if we can just continue on with some rains, I think we will make it through the dog days of summer. Some say that after the bike rally is over, it is downhill from there for summer ending as well.

We in the House of Representatives had a caucus get-together. We do this after the Primary Election on election years mainly to reunite, visit about how the Primary Election went, and come up with a game plan for those of us that have a challenger in the General Election Nov. 3.

I hear a lot of groaning amongst some legislators about having to run for re-election every two years for both the state House and the state Senate. Also, our lone federal congressman, Dusty, is on a two-year term as well. Our U.S. senators, Rounds and Thune, serve six-year terms. Everyone else is a four-year term except for the Public Utilities Commission, who are on six-year terms.

Me? Well, I actually like running for election. Maybe its because of the great citizens in District 30, or just the need to get out and visit with everyone regarding what we, as a state, can do to make living in South Dakota a little better.

Don’t believe those political signs that one governor candidate had reading something like “save South Dakota, vote___.” It was proven that campaign slogan failed as evidenced by Gov. Rhoden receiving 71 percent of the vote to his competitor’s 29 percent.

So, what did we House Republicans do for our summer caucus? If you guessed golf, you’d have been right any other year except this one. We went shooting! Shotguns, 12 and 20 gauge, skeet and trap, yep. Pistols, 22 caliber, 9 mm, rifles including long range, with the newest caliber 6.5 Creedmore. Now, I’m a .270 Winchester guy, but now I have two 6.5 Creedmores, one Brown bolt-action and one Henry lever action.

So, where did we do all this shooting? Thought you’d never ask!

We went to the brand new shooting range located 10 miles north of the Flying J truck stop at exit 61 on Interstate 90. This is a state-owned facility. It is a completed $20 million gem managed by our Game, Fish and Parks. It’s ranked the largest public shooting range in the United States. It’s called the Pete Lien and Sons Shooting Sports Complex, built on a massive state-of-the-art 400- acre outdoor shooting facility.

It’s address says its in Piedmont, but its a long way from Piedmont; trust me. It’s open year round, seven days a week May- August 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and September through April 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It’s open to the public, but there are membership-required areas such as the long range bays, tactical training baysand the shotgun sports zone. There is also a dedicated archery range.

Needless to say, the House Republican Representatives had a blast (pun intended) spending the entire day shooting and socializing. I was going to use my rifles, pistols and shotguns, but thought I better not miss. Kind of like the person who takes his own pool cue to the bar, you’d better play better than everyone else. I just used the weapons available and shot remarkably well. This was a very fun event and actually shows one more reason why living in South Dakota is so great and we don’t need someone to “save” us.