Buckeye Firearms: Gun Community Addresses Violence

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

Gun Control

FBI Statement on the Florida School Shooting

On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.

Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life. The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami Field Office, where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken.

We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said:

“We are still investigating the facts. I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. It’s up to all Americans to be vigilant, and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly.

“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.”

Washington, D.C.

FBI National Press Office

(202) 324-3691


https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-statement-on-the-shooting-in-parkland-florida?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=email&utm_source=national-press-releases&utm_content=652517

Firearms

Interior Announces Largest Ever Gulf of Mexico Oil Lease Sale

WASHINGTON – In support of President Donald J. Trump’s ‘America-First Offshore Energy Strategy,’ Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced that the Department will offer 77.3 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development. The region-wide lease sale, which is the largest in U.S. history, is scheduled for March 21, 2018, and will include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. In 2017, offshore leases helped the Department raise a billion dollars more in revenue for the year than was made off energy revenues in 2016.
General

MCRGO on YouTube

Last month, MCRGO launched its YouTube channel as an expansion of its social media outreach to gun owners and the general public.  The MCRGO YouTube channel is focused on firearms safety and training topics, particularly for concealed pistol license holders and those interested in carrying a firearm outside the home.
Six videos have now been uploaded including MCRGO’s Five Rules of Safe Gun Handling. Thanks to MCRGO Master Instructors Audree Danielson, Joe Rand, and Bob Rudowski for their contributions!

New videos are uploaded twice a month. Please check out the channel, subscribe to it, and like the videos. Doing so will drive additional traffic to the channel to help it grow.  You can find the channel HERE.

Firearms

BAN STERILIZATION OF GAME SPECIES

CALL YOUR MICHIGAN REPRESENTATIVE NOW TO SUPPORT HB 5321

Nearly a month ago, we asked you to call legislators to express your support for House Bill 5321, which would prevent another atrocity like Ann Arbor’s deer sterilization program from being authorized. Since the bill has been referred to a subcommittee led by Representatives Curt VanderWall, Joseph Bellino, and Sara Cambensy, with no action to date, we need to light up the phones once again!

Introduced by Representative Triston Cole (R-Mancelona) at the beginning of December, HB 5321 would prohibit the Department from issuing permits that authorize the sterilization of game.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has been pushing communities and state agencies around the country to adopt sterilization as a way to prevent urban bow hunting or future culling to manage deer. The DNR approved this permit under the guise of “research” with no input from the public and it actually runs counter to the DNR’s own approved urban deer management policy.

It is not a great leap to see how HSUS might push this to other species, such as bears or even wolves in order to prevent hunting.

On Thursday, February 22, MUCC will be testifying again on this bill before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee, as will Ann Arbor’s contractor, White Buffalo, who is conducting this so-called “research project”. This meeting is open to the public.

Call your State Representative today and ask them what is taking so long?  Find your representative’s contact information here.  We want them to approve HB 5321 and prevent other cities from attempting more costly and ineffective “research” on the public’s deer.

Please call today and ask them to vote YES!

Wildlife

Whitetail Status by the Numbers

By Glen Wunderlich

With another deer season behind us, wildlife professionals across the country will be compiling data relative to numbers and health of respective deer herds.  However, the Quality Deer Management Association has published its 2018 Whitetail Report, which compares data from the three most recent seasons available 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17.  This summary will provide details of Michigan’s whitetail management practices and how we stack up with the rest of the Midwest segment.

Nationally speaking and on a positive note, yearling buck harvest rates (deer 1.5 years of age) remain at record low numbers, and the percentage of 3½-year-old and older bucks remains at a third of the total antlered buck harvest.   Conversely, the biggest issues and trends include the continued spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD), which has made major headlines in Arkansas, Michigan and Montana in 2017.

From 2015 to 2016, a total of nine free-ranging deer tested positive for CWD in Michigan in two counties, Clinton and Ingham. In 2017, at least 47 new cases had been identified, including 36 confirmed positives in Montcalm County and 10 in Kent County.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicates hunter numbers have declined by over two million from 2011 to 2016.  With regard to expenditures, hunters’ spending dropped nearly $11 billion dollars or 30 percent. Adding insult to injury, the number of hunters is expected to continue declining as baby boomers exit the hunting scene.  Michigan is no exception with hunter participation tumbling 14 percent in the same period.

The top-5 states for harvest of antlered bucks 1 ½ years and older in order are Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, with Texas coming in at a whopping 399,487 bucks and Michigan with 196,233.   Although steadily increasing over the past three seasons, Michigan’s buck harvest totals are still down 3 percent compared to the 5-year average. Michigan tops the country with an average of 3.5 antlered bucks taken per square mile.

Allowing deer to mature is a worthy goal of all states and Arkansas leads the way with a mere 5 percent of its buck harvest being yearlings.  Michigan continues to rank near the top (or, bottom, if you will) of states with the highest percentage of yearling bucks taken at 47 percent with Wisconsin hunters killing yearlings at the rate of 65 percent of all bucks taken.

The top-5 states with the highest percentage of 3½-plus-year-old bucks taken last season are Mississippi (78), Arkansas (77), Louisiana (72), Oklahoma (59), and Texas (59).  Michigan is holding steady at 27 percent of its total buck kill being 3 ½ years old or more.          

Michigan’s antlerless take of 145,054 is up 6 percent compared to the previous season but down 15 percent compared to the 5-year average.

Monitoring the percentage of fawns in the antlerless harvest is one method for estimating the fawn recruitment rate (those surviving from spring births), and this statistic is one of the most important pieces of data a deer manager needs when assessing a herd’s growth potential and applying a prescribed antlerless harvest.  Accordingly, Michigan hunters are killing fawns at the rate of 26 percent of the total antlerless harvest – a sign that indicates hunters need a better understanding of distinguishing fawns from adult does.  On the plus side, however, Michigan hunters took adult does of 3 ½ years of age or older at the rate of 38 percent of the total antlerless numbers.   

Archery hunters in Michigan took some 37 percent of the total deer harvest ranking near the top nationally.   Our rifle/shotgun kills are down to 48 percent compared to 60 percent the previous year.  Muzzleloaders, on the other hand, took 15 percent of all whitetails – up dramatically from 6 percent the year prior.

The takeaway continues to be the decline in hunter numbers and the resulting wildlife conservation funding from license fees, as a disturbing trend.  To stabilize, or even increase hunter participation, our best bet is to continue to mentor youngsters and there are lots of programs to do just that.  This strategy is not up to someone else, however; if each of us can introduce a youngster to the outdoors, we will have done our part to further the cause of wildlife conservation.

Hunting, Wildlife

Savage 110 Engage Hunter XP

WESTFIELD, Massachusetts – – Savage is pleased to offer hunters and other serious shooters a new field-ready rifle-and-optics package that combines the company’s proven Model 110 platform with a factory-mounted, bore-sighted Bushnell Engage scope. Shipments of these firearms are currently being delivered to dealers.

Length-of-pull on the 110 Engage Hunter XP is easily customized to fit any shooter for comfort and consistency, and the user-adjustable AccuTrigger provides a light, crisp pull. The rifle’s improved ergonomics get even more accuracy from its legendary 110 action, floating bolt head, and thread-in, zero-tolerance headspace system, while the optic’s drop-compensating reticle makes it easier to place precise shots at longer ranges. Read more

Firearms

2018 Winter Range Begins February 19

PHOENIX — For those who harken back to the days of jingling spurs, the smell of authentic chuck-wagon cooking, and cowboys vying to see who’s the quickest on the trigger, then circle Feb. 19-25 on your calendar.

That’s when Winter Range rides into town, transforming the Ben Avery Shooting Facility into a festive scene from the Old West where more than 1,000 competitors from around the world will take part in the 27th annual Single Action Shooting Society’s national championship of Cowboy Action Shooting.

Cowboy Action Shooting is one of the nation’s fastest-growing shooting sports and requires competitors to take their best shots with single-action revolvers, lever-action rifles and period shotguns. Competitors also must adopt a shooting alias suitable to a character or profession of the late 19th century, a Western movie star or an appropriate character from fiction — names like “Babe Ruthless,” “Chihuahua Charlie” and “Laurie L’Amour” — and then dress in costume accordingly. Read more

Firearms

Mississippi discovers first case of chronic wasting disease

VICKSBURG – A tissue sample collected Jan. 25 from a free-ranging white-tailed deer in extreme southern Issaquena County, Mississippi, returned the first known positive test of chronic wasting disease in the state.

The 4½-year-old buck died about 8 miles north of Vicksburg and was reported to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. The buck was found about 45 miles south-southeast of the southeastern corner of Arkansas. Read more

Wildlife

Steyr Arms Kicks Off Its New Training Academy

Steyr Arms has announced the first 2018 dates for the new Steyr Arms Training Academy at the company’s headquarters in Bessemer, Ala. Led by Academy Director Eduardo Abril de Fontcuberta, the first two courses, SPR-I (Steyr Precision Rifle) and SPA (Steyr Precision Armorer), will be conducted March 9 through 11and March 30 through April 1, respectively, with more courses slated for May.

Fontcuberta, a native of Spain, is a world champion long-range competitor with more than 25 years of experience as a military and law enforcement sniper trainer and armorer. His name is probably most recognizable from his frequent writing in national firearm magazines and his book, 100+ Sniper Exercises. In order to provide more personal-trainer-like sessions with ample individual instruction, Fontcuberta is limiting each of the three-day courses to a maximum seven students. Each of the courses will provide students with a total of more than 24 hours of intensive instruction. Read more

Firearms
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