With its association with the Centre for World Peace and Health on Holy Isle, some readers may be interested to know about this campaign and the latest developments in trying to stop the establishment of shooting ranges beside Samye Ling. Please see below for the link to the petition.
A message from friends of Samye Ling Monastery:
As many of you will know, a recent application to grant planning permission for a high velocity rifle range beside Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Buddhist Centre as a “local development” was declined by Dumfries and Galloway Local Authority on 16 April 21, as the actual application site was in excess of 2 hectares.
However, Eskdalemuir Community Council has now received notification of a renewed application from the developers to proceed as a “major development”, with a Proposal of Application Notice (POAN) having now been submitted to Dumfries and Galloway Council to approve their proposed rifle range.
Over 20,000 people previously signed a Change.Org petition in opposition to the development of a firearms range beside Samye Ling.
There is currently nothing in Scottish Law to nationally prohibit the approval of such firearms ranges close to places of national spiritual, tourist and cultural importance in Scotland.
As many of us feel strongly about this, a Petition to The Scottish Parliament has now been created requesting that The Scottish Government legislate to create firearms exclusion zones around places of national spiritual importance and religious worship in Scotland.
The petition below is now open to collect signatures for 4 weeks, (starting from 26th May).
As the oldest Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in the western world, Samye Ling has globally attracted international visitors and tourists (the monastery is officially listed as a national tourist attraction by Visit Scotland) to Scotland seeking peace of mind for over 50 years.
Petition signatories need not just be people resident in Scotland, anyone can sign wherever they live, and no set minimum threshold number of signatures is required to merit consideration by The Scottish Parliament.
Therefore, everyone supportive of creating a firearms exclusion zone around places of national spiritual importance and religious worship in Scotland, can now sign this petition for the next four weeks.
The link to this official Scottish Parliament Petition is here
You can also help by sharing and making your friends aware of this.
Thank you for your support.