California Vote Shows System Worked… For Now

Yesterday, the democratic system worked in California. For months sportsmen have been waiting for this moment. For months they’ve been calling their legislators. They’ve driven thousands of miles to the state capital to overwhelmingly pack hearing rooms with opponents of SB 1221.  They’ve answered every false charge with the facts about hunting with hounds. They’ve exposed the real agenda of the proponents of the bill.

They watched as anti-hunting Senators added the hunting ban language to a bill that was originally about air quality standards. They watched anti-hunting groups lie to members of a Senate Committee without being challenged to back up their false claims. They watched formerly pro-sportsmen legislators with the opportunity to kill SB 1221 switch sides “so that debate could continue.” They watched as a Republican Senator, recently endorsed by the Humane Society of the United States for his Congressional race, supplied the deciding vote on the Senate floor.

They watched and wondered. Were their efforts making any difference at all? Many of them contacted the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance to search for new methods of attack. A new strategy. Something.

Their Efforts Paid Off

Why the Lies Being Told in California Should Worry Sportsmen Nationwide

It’s easy to understand why California Houndsmen are up in arms as the animal rights lobby continues its push to ban hunting with hounds for bobcat and bears.  But what you might not know is why it should matter to sportsmen in the other 49 states.

Three Things to Know About Your Hunting Rights

1.  Your Hunting Rights Are Not Absolute.

Your right to hunt, fish, and trap can be taken away easier than you realize.

In fact, they are generally treated as “privileges” in the eyes of the law (not much different from driving.)  Legislators and government officials have the ability to easily amend, restrict, or prohibit hunting, fishing, and trapping.

Threats to your rights pop up across the country constantly.  They come from legislators, government agencies, and at the ballot box and can come from all levels of government – the local, state, and national levels.

Exposed: Meet the Senators Responsible for California’s Hunting Ban Vote

The behind the scenes story about how the California Senate came to vote to prohibit bear and bobcat hunting with hounds is a real eye-opener to hunters about how state government actually functions in the Golden State.  And it should be a lesson to sportsmen nationwide as it would be naïve to believe this couldn’t happen elsewhere.

On May 21, the Senate passed Senate Bill 1221 by a vote of 22 – 15.  It takes 21 votes to pass a bill. When a vote is this close, it’s really important to know who sportsmen should hold accountable.

Here are the four Senators most responsible for the hunting ban:

Could You Lose Your Job Because You Went Hunting?

The answer is yes, of course.  Especially if you were supposed to be at work, your work was not completed prior to your hunting trip, or if you lacked time off to actually miss work.

But could you lose your job just because you went hunting?  It might surprise you to learn that Dan Richards, president of the California Fish and Game Commission, nearly lost his after going on a mountain lion hunt… in Idaho.

Mountain lion hunting has been prohibited in California since a 1990 ballot issue gave the species special protection.  However, it continues to be completely legal in neighboring Idaho, which uses hunting as a means to control cougar numbers.

Sportsmen – Don’t Fall for Politician Doubletalk

As you might imagine, we spend a good deal of time talking to lawmakers about legislation that could cause problems for sportsmen or asking for their support for pro-hunting proposals.

Sometimes you get a direct, to-the-point answer like “yes, I support your position” or “no I don’t.”  But many other times careful listening is required.

The language of the lawmaker can be a crafty and evasive dialect.  To my knowledge, no one has yet to create a good “politician to English/English to politician field guide” for translating and no university has it listed as a foreign language class.

Whether you’re making calls to defeat California Senate Bill 1221, which would ban hunting bears with hounds, or working to support legislation such as HR 4089, which protects hunting, fishing, and shooting on public land, here are a few responses you might hear from lawmakers and a few hints about what they are really saying.

7 Reasons the Left Should Be Pro-Hunting

The last 30 days have been chock full of key events that have a tremendous impact on the future of hunting, fishing and recreational shooting in America – events that are leading many sportsmen and women to draw conclusions about (or further cement their conclusions about) Democratic decision makers.

• In the nation’s capitol, Congress debated sportsmen’s access to public land, whether EPA could regulate ammunition and fishing tackle, whether recreational shooting should be permissible on national monument land where compatible, and last whether the United States should allow the importation of legally hunted trophies.
• In California, the Senate debated whether to ban hunting black bears and bobcats using hounds. 
• In Ohio, lawmakers protested colleagues holding clay bird shooting events as political fundraisers in the wake of a school shooting that occurred in February 250 miles away from the proposed event.

Truth is Collateral Damage to Anti-hunters and Legislators Who Vote Their Way

When it comes to asserting the rights of animals, the end truly justifies the means for the animal rights lobby, and their minions in Congress and state legislatures across the country.  This phenomenon has been on stark display in the United States House of Representatives and in the California Senate over the last 30 days:

Some of My Best Friends are Hunters

On April 17^th, the U.S. House passed the most significant piece of pro-sportsmen legislation in 15 years, as HR 4089 was approved 274-189.  Although the vote included 39 Democrats, a group of their left-leaning colleagues led the charge to gut the bill through a series of amendments.  The most disgusting part of this maneuver was to see several of them profess their love and admiration for hunting and fishing prior to proposing amendments that would neuter the very hunting, fishing and shooting protections that HR 4089 provides.

What should hunters look for in a politician at election time?

It’s election time again.  And all over America various interest groups are discovering that our local politicians do in fact still know we exist.  And more important, that they think just like us.  Now is the time of year when the congressman who normally wears the $1,000 Brooks Brothers suits gets the Starter jacket featuring the logo from the area’s prominent NFL team out of moth balls, and shows up at the local sports bar to make sure we all know that he is just like us.

As hunters we ought to be familiar with this song and dance.  Over the next six months we will see plenty of freshly creased flannel shirts and shotguns, that have not been used enough to open easily,  broken awkwardly over shoulders.  And while all of this conversation takes place with us “regular folk,” young Washington DC staffers who look 15, but are actually probably 25, will be snapping photos to be used in campaign brochures, emails and websites.