Hunters Unite!

      Safari Club International’s mission is to protect the freedom to hunt and to promote wildlife conservation worldwide. The operative word about hunting in that mission is “freedom.” This includes the equipment needed to exercise that freedom.

      With that in mind, our battles against anti-hunters have been augmented tremendously by a misguided social reaction to the school shooting in Florida recently.

I have kids of the same age and as a parent I am horror-struck and cannot even imagine such a nightmare.  But my kids, all girls, are also involved in hunting and target shooting. Many of their friends are also interested in both hunting and target shooting.

I completely agree that we need to find a way to stop this disease that has infected our society, but it is not by telling one of my kids that she can’t own a gun and go into the field if that’s what she wants to do.  Hunters are taught gun safety and firearm responsibility by their parents, adults in leadership positions, by the state agencies that run hunter education courses, and yes, by the NRA.

As parents, we need to take responsibility to instill good judgment and responsibility that comes with the lawful use of firearms, automobiles or anything else that could be used for evil purposes. No hunter would ever dream of doing what that twisted person did in Parkland.  It is unthinkable. Evil exists. It must be confronted in the most powerful ways possible and must be defeated.

      But there is no need to further exacerbate the tragedy by punishing those who not only had nothing to do with it, but who would have stopped it before it happened or when it was in progress had they had the chance. This is a social problem, not a gun problem. And yes, Modern Sporting Rifles (the actual rifles that so often are misidentified as “assault weapons”) are used for hunting.

      We have seen this sort of behavior before and I have always been vocal about SCI stepping up to speak up for our members who are gun owners.

      SCI opposes any legislation that infringes upon the Second Amendment right of law abiding young adults between the age of 18 and 20 by banning their right to purchase any long gun from a federally licensed retailer, by use of the federally regulated process that includes instant background checks.  We have laws on the books to protect the public, and those laws should be enforced to keep our children and families safe at home, school, movie theatres or wherever they go.

      I call on all hunters and especially fellow members of SCI to take a stand right here, right now. This is no time to duck and hide, no time to think that this is someone else’s concern. We are all involved whether we want to be, or not. The only question is whether we stand and fight, or whether we duck and cover. War has been declared against us and no war was ever won from defense.

      SCI-PAC, SCI’s Political Action Committee, will no longer support elected representatives who support increasing the age of those eligible to purchase firearms legally. They are speaking out of both sides of their mouths to get themselves reelected. We have a strong PAC and we need to support the representatives who will stand with our membership in good times and bad!

      I encourage all hunters, and especially SCI members, to unite in this battle to put sanity back into the public discourse that has been overwhelmed with mass hysteria. Please use any avenues you have individually to get the word out, to organize and to engage in the discussion. The world needs to know that there are many of us out here who oppose what some of the enemies of freedom are proposing. We cannot allow them to take perverted advantage of a tragedy to deny the rest of us our rights and to obliterate our hunting culture that has withstood the test of time since the beginning of mankind.

      Rest assured that I will do all I can to right this wrong that is being foisted upon us by the enemies of freedom. I welcome all to join me. Together, we can help right what otherwise could turn into a terrible wrong. Thank you.

Paul Babaz

SCI President

A Teacher of the Year at a Florida middle school posted a Facebook message that has since gone viral saying parents need to “step up” when it comes to their kids’ behavior.

“Okay, I’ll be the bad guy and say what no one else is brave enough to say, but wants to say,” Kelly Guthrie Raley, who was named Eustis Middle School Teacher of the Year 2017-2018 last month, said in a now-viral Facebook post following the mass shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Raley said she’ll “take all the criticism and attacks” for her opinion because, as a teacher with two decades of experience, she has to worry about an active-shooter situation on a daily basis.

The middle school teacher said over her almost two decades as an educator that she’s seen an increase in violence and a lack of compassion among students.

“Until we, as a country, are willing to get serious and talk about mental health issues, lack of available care for the mental health issues, lack of discipline in the home, horrendous lack of parental support when the schools are trying to control horrible behavior at school (oh no! Not MY KID. What did YOU do to cause my kid to react that way?), lack of moral values, and yes, I’ll say it – violent video games that take away all sensitivity to ANY compassion for others’ lives – as well as reality TV that makes it commonplace for people to constantly scream up in each others’ faces and not value any other person but themselves, we will have a gun problem in school,” the sixth-grade language arts teacher wrote.

Video

Why so many missed warning signs in the Florida shooting?

Raley, who loves hunting and four-wheeling in her spare time, added that she grew up with guns in her home.

“But you know what? My parents NEVER supported any bad behavior from me,” Raley said.

She said when she began teaching 20 years ago, she never had to worry about calling a student’s parents and getting cussed out, told to go to hell, or threatened with a public shaming all because she was calling out their child’s behavior. Something, she said, has got to change.

“Parents, it’s time to step up!” Raley urges. “Be the parent that actually gives a crap! Be the annoying mom that pries and knows what your kid is doing. STOP being their friend. They have enough ‘friends’ at school. Be their parent. Being the ‘cool mom’ means not a damn thing when either your kid is dead or your kid kills other people because they were allowed to have their space and privacy in YOUR HOME.”

She doubles down that she had guns in her home.

“But you know what? I never dreamed of shooting anyone with his guns. I never dreamed of taking one! I was taught respect for human life, compassion, rules, common decency, and most of all, I was taught that until I moved out, my life and bedroom wasn’t mine…it was theirs. And they were going to know what was happening because they loved me and wanted the best for me.”

Raley concludes her post by adding that she never brought up gun control.

“This post wasn’t about gun control,” she said. “This was me, loving the crap out of people and wanting the best for them. This was about my school babies and knowing that God created each one for greatness, and just wanting them to reach their futures.”

Raley said the only thing she holds dearer than teaching students is her faith and family, and that her father, a military hero, and her mother, a retired school teacher, inspired her to be who she is today.

COLUMBUS, OH – The tragic mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida has once again stoked the fiery debate about gun control in the U.S. And once again many are calling for more gun laws and more restrictions on gun ownership. More extreme voices are even calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment.

One phrase often heard in these moments of national grief is “We need to DO something.” Activists lay blame on the NRA, Republicans, and the gun owning community, saying they are responsible for the deaths because they are preventing our society from DOING something.

“This is simply not true,” says Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association (BFA). “The fact is, gun owners ARE doing something. We’ve been doing something for years.”

Rieck touts BFA’s various activities to directly address violence in schools, reduce suicides, promote gun safety, and support enforcement of gun laws.

FASTER Saves Lives is one prominent example. FASTER provides educators with intensive violence response and trauma first aid training. Classes are provided at no cost to schools, funded through private donations. To date, more than 1,300 teachers and staff from 225 districts across 12 states have received this training, including educators in 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Up to 400 additional educators are set to go through training in 2018.

“Those calling for gun control have little interest in taking real steps to promote public safety and well-being. Instead, they use gun control as a political hammer to bash Republicans, bash Conservatives, and bash the NRA and organizations like ours. It’s a disingenuous tactic to do fundraising. But they are doing nothing at all to address real-world problems,” says Rieck.

“We stopped falling for this misleading tactic long ago. We’re addressing these problems and putting our money where our mouth is. What are gun control activists doing?

“We provide training to deter or stop mass murderers in schools. Do they? We work with the Ohio Department of Mental Health to promote suicide awareness and prevention. Do they? We support efforts to teach gun safety to kids and adults. Do they? We support the hiring of more police, strictly enforcing current laws, and keeping violent criminals locked up. Do they?”

Rieck says gun owners get angry too when they see innocent kids killed in schools or church members gunned down. But he says it’s not gun owners who are preventing action.

“For goodness sake, stop demagoguing about guns and violence. Stop raising money for political campaigns with the blood of innocent victims. Stop blaming millions of law-abiding gun owners for the actions of a tiny handful of criminals and mentally ill people.

“It’s infuriating that the people who know the least about guns and violence are so quick to lecture those of us who know the most. We have practical, proven solutions. Why don’t you start listening to us?” Read more