To put this issue to rest once and for all.

I received this yesterday from Mike (as did a whole bunch of others):
A lot of people have asked me for an update on my situation at the West Shore Sportsman’s Association. The hearing on my video safety violations was held last night (Wed., Nov. 12), and the bottom line is that the members of the Board of Directors and club officers who were present voted to return me to good standing in the club, and to pursue no further disciplinary action against me.

I thank them for reaching that decision.

As some of you know, several officers and BoD members resigned their positions, apparently as a result of issues surrounding this whole affair. In all honesty, I have to admit that I have had hard feelings about the way this matter was handled. I felt that it was driven by personal vindictiveness by some individuals. I may be wrong about that, but I think you can understand why I would perceive it that way.

Be that as it may, I want everyone to know that I believe the five board members who conducted the hearing last night harbored no personal animosity towards me. I think they are all truly interested in WSSA being a safe club with a secure future. They were interested in hearing my side of the story, and they treated me very fairly. I couldn’t ask for more than that.

For my part I recognize that some practices that I engaged in are not safe. Particularly bullet strikes on the range floor. When I first joined WSSA in 1985, the club was truly “in the woods”. But in the ensuing 30 years the real estate outside the club boundaries has become developed land, and the mountainside no longer functions as a berm of last resort in the event of bullet skips.

That’s something we’ll need to address with target placement and stage design in our competitive shooting clubs too.

Even though this was just a matter of club discipline, and not a murder-one, death penalty case, it has still been a surprisingly stressful couple of months for me. I’m glad that it’s over. I want to thank Mary Pat for all her support and love during the process.

I’d also like to thank all of you who encouraged me through emails, phone calls and YouTube and Facebook comments. It was much appreciated. And, finally, I owe a big debt of gratitude to all the WSSA members who turned out at the October club meeting and supported me. It really meant a lot to me.

Thanks to all of you.

Mike Beliveau