The Good with the Bad: Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act

GW:  It’s a shame that our elected officials must stoop to borrowing from future generations as a get-along policy to get what they want.  This is the best we can do?  If any of them had a bit of intestinal fortitude to stand up and just defund the EPA, we wouldn’t have to go along with the rest of the nonsense.

 

The National Shooting Sports Foundation supports the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act for FY15 and strongly encourages a Yes vote.

Though no bill is perfect, the NSSF supports this legislation because it protects the rights of hunters and sportsmen, not Washington bureaucrats, to choose the ammunition they want for hunting and target shooting, by preventing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from banning traditional ammunition made with lead components (95% of all ammunition made and sold).

NSSF encourages you to contact your member of Congress at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vote YES on the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 83).

More on the subject can be found here…

Ammunition

CCRKBA Calls for Full Disclosure of ASLGVP Membership, Funding

When an organization consists of elected public officials, there must be complete transparency.

BELLEVUE, WA – In response to this week’s launch of a new gun control organization consisting of state legislators from all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today called on the American State Legislators for Gun Violence Prevention to immediately publish a roster of their members, and disclose their funding sources.

“Private lobbying organizations might expect to have some degree of privacy,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb, “but when an organization consists of elected public officials, there must be complete transparency. The public deserves to know who belongs to this organization, and who is providing financial support.”

He noted that the group’s mailing address is at a Post Office box in New York City’s Madison Square Station.

Reuters reported that the ASLGVP had not released information on its preliminary donors, acknowledging only that fundraising efforts are in progress. Another report said that the group had not yet published a list of members, said to number around 200 lawmakers, over concerns about “political backlash.” The group was launched by Democratic New York Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh.

“If these state lawmakers are worried about political backlash back home,” Gottlieb observed, “they must have good reason for that. Reports say Kavanagh founded this group because Congress has not adopted certain gun control measures. This has become the argument of the gun prohibition lobby. They failed to pressure Congress, so now the strategy is to attack gun rights at the state level, where presumably members of this new anti-gun lawmakers’ group will push their gun control agenda through the state legislatures. Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

Environmental Fugitive Arrested in Zambia

LIVINGSTONE-On December 2, authorities in Zambia arrested alleged ivory trafficker Ben Simasiku, a Zambian national and one of nine fugitives targeted by INTERPOL’s Operation Infra Terra, the first fugitive operation to specifically pursue individuals wanted for crimes against wildlife or the environment. Simasiku was wanted for unlawful possession of elephant tusks and for escaping arrest in Botswana. He was captured by the Zambia Wildlife Authority’s (ZAWA’s) Intelligence and Investigations Unit, which is supported by African Wildlife Foundation (AWF).

“The Zambian authorities are to be congratulated for acting quickly and capturing this criminal,” says Nathan Gichohi, African Wildlife Foundation’s senior program officer for species protection. “It’s important we focus on stopping the middlemen, traffickers and kingpins of the ivory and rhino horn trade as much as the poachers. This can effectively be achieved by supporting intelligence agencies at the various wildlife authorities in Africa.” Read more

Poachers

One for the Bucket List: ZEISS Announces Pronghorn Dream Hunt Contest

NORTH CHESTERFIELD, VA – Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium, high performance sports optics, is launching an online contest for serious hunters to win a chance for themselves and a hunting partner to scratch one off the bucket list — a three-day pronghorn antelope dream hunt in Wyoming.

ZEISS, in partnership with Rough Country Outfitters and Friends of NRA, are offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for two hunters, 21 years or older, who are legal residents of the United States or Canada, to experience an all-expenses paid, guided pronghorn antelope dream hunt in September 2015. Hunters can enter by visiting the Carl Zeiss Hunting US Facebook page (click here). The opportunity to enter begins December 10, 2014 and closes January 9, 2015. Read more

Hunting

Humminbird’s Family Values Fishing Video Contest

Simply share a favorite fishing video you’ve created that captures moments with kids… EUFAULA, AL W – We want to take the opportunity to recognize anglers across the U.S. who may never walk the stage of the Bassmaster Classic, but are champions in their own right for introducing the next generation of anglers to the sport of fishing.

Simply share a favorite fishing video you’ve created that captures moments with kids that will last a lifetime, and your family could win a trip to meet legendary anglers and participate in fishing’s biggest event!

To enter, visit our entry page and upload your video with a brief description, and your family could win four airline tickets, hotel stay, meals, and VIP All-Access passes to the 2015 Bassmaster Classic in Greenville, South Carolina! Read more

Fishing

Humane Society of the U.S. Racketeering Payment: $5.7 Million

GW:  This from www.humanewatch.org

We’ve solved a little mystery about the $15.75 million settlement in May of a federal racketeering and bribery lawsuit against the Humane Society of the United States and other activists. When the settlement was announced, HSUS declined to say how much it paid. Now we know: HSUS and its affiliate the Fund for Animals paid nearly $6 million, according to their consolidated financial statement.

On its tax return for 2013, HSUS declares $4.4 million in settlement expenses and the Fund for Animals declares $1.2 million—making up almost all of the $5.675 million settlement. Amusingly, the vast majority of the settlement is characterized as a “program” expense—but somehow we don’t think it will make it into HSUS’s next annual report.

This is donor money—HSUS’s insurance provider denied HSUS coverage for the litigation. That’s a fact HSUS danced around and omitted when it commented on the settlement, saying things like it expected insurance would cover most of all of the settlement and “in the end, that no donor dollars from the HSUS will go to Feld [Entertainment],” the plaintiff. Considering the settlement was paid in May, donor dollars already went to pay the racketeering settlement.

Fortunately, HSUS didn’t escape scrutiny from third parties. In fact, Charity Navigator yanked its rating of HSUS and replaced it with a “Donor Advisory” to the public. HSUS can pay a witness, but it can’t buy itself out of that jam.

Animal Rights

Why Do Some People Reload Their Own Ammo?

GW:  I’m into handloading (not reloading, thank you), because my home-brewed ammo cannot be found in stores.  For example, try to find a 300-grain tipped Barnes in a .45-70 round.  You won’t find it, because it would be dangerous to sell to someone who may put it in a conventional tube-fed long gun.  It could exploded in the magazine under recoil!  However, for a single-shot firearm, such as a Thompson/Center Contender, no problem. 

Plus, it can be loaded longer to, thus closer to the lands in the bore – again, something factory ammo cannot duplicate, because factory ammo must fit in everything, and therefore, must be shorter.  This factors into the accuracy equation, as well, because in my opinion, loading rounds closer to the firearm’s lands produces consistent accuracy.

  And, finally, making ammo that is less expensive, as in the above example is totally irrelevant, because it does not exist anywhere else on Earth.

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — While today’s gun store shelves are filled with all manner of ammunition for every caliber and every type of shooting, many shooters are not content to go with over-the-counter production ammo. Many, in fact, prefer to handload their own cartridges. But there are many reasons for reloading and ShooterSurvey.com recently polled recreational shooters and hunters to find out exactly what the top reasons are.

 

By far, the top response was to save on the expense of buying production ammunition, which can sometimes cost several dollars a round. In fact, 85 percent of those surveyed cited “to save money” as the main reason they handloaded.

 

Sixty-seven percent of those polled cited improving accuracy as a top reason, while 44 percent do it to obtain calibers or loads that are hard to find in stores. Lastly, 30 percent reload to reduce waste and 15 percent cited other, unspecified reasons for handloading. Respondents could chose more than one answer as many have multiple motivations for loading their own ammunition. Read more

Ammunition

Shorebird Listed as Threatened by USFWS

American Bird Conservancy (ABC), Defenders of Wildlife, and the Natural Resources Defense Council welcomed today’s decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to formally list as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) the highly imperiled rufa Red Knot, a shorebird that flies more than 9,300 miles from south to north every spring and repeats the trip in reverse every autumn-one of the longest migrations in the animal kingdom. Though the decision to list the Red Knot was hailed as an important victory by the three groups, they urge FWS to quickly designate critical habitat to better protect the bird. Read more

Wildlife
1 … 1,618 1,619 1,620 1,621 1,622 … 2,074