The state's answer always seems to be "close it down" or pressure land owners to close something down.

The worst in my view was when Kipu Falls outside of Lihue was blocked off.

I would be angry if a public range was closed because of stupid tourists.

There are PLENTY of places to hike in Honolulu, do they really have to hike up  a backstop to a shooting range?

There are PLENTY of places to hike in Honolulu, do they really have to hike up  a backstop to a shooting range?

Holy crapola! I knew it was expensive but I didn't realize HOW expensive ONE flight for an MD500 is!

Howzit Ren,
Yeah, it's not cheap and maybe even more now with the MD520... And that's per flight hour so it adds up quick.   I'll ask my friend the next time I see him, he does say they're up pulling folks of the crater quite often.
Boomah 

Holy crapola! I knew it was expensive but I didn't realize HOW expensive ONE flight for an MD500 is!

If I'm not mistaken your first helicopter ride with hfd is free for lost/stranded hikers. They used to charge but stopped because lost people tried to find their own way out instead of calling for help and paying. At least that's what I've heard.

I think HICARRY could give us a little more outlook, he works in this realm of disaster / medical recovery.

I don't know the cost per hour to run the HFD helo, but $5,000.00 an hour sounds a bit high. A little research shows some organizations run on the low end of about $250.00/hr while a fully equipped and staffed medical helo could run 2,500 - 5,000/hr. I do know that the USCG C-130 (I just finished a mission with them to the Central Pacific about 2 weeks ago..."shark" bitten fisherman...) runs about $10,000/hr.....

What does a whizzing bullet past your head even sound like?   I go up that trail all the time. Been doing so since 2000 and have never experienced anything whizzing past my head. 

Sometimes you can hear a ricochet, but it is clearly coming from the range below.

Instead of wasting thousands and thousands of dollars rescuing trespassing idiots, why doesn't the city use that money to erect a chain link fence with barbwire around the base area of Koko Head Trail? Kill two birds with one stone, right?

The people who use the trail will most likely tear it down and trespass, which they are already doing now. As posted before, signs warning them of an active range did not discourage them. I admit I hiked that range once with the Singaporean Army. Great views, but it doesn't precede Oahu's only public range. People can hike other places i.e. Diamond Head, Aiea but we can only shoot at ONE place. I can only imagine that the wants of the trail versus the wants of the range users will come to a debate in the near future. That's where we need to be united as a community. Vendors, users, other stakeholders.