Florida Legalizes Hunting With Suppressors

KEY LARGO, FL – The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously to repeal the 57 year old prohibition on the use of firearm suppressors for taking deer, gray squirrels, rabbits, wild turkeys, quail, and crows. Following the passage of the new regulation, the Commission then voted unanimously to authorize an Executive Order to allow the measure to take effect immediately. Minutes later, Executive Order # EO 14-32 was signed, making hunting with suppressors for all animals in the state legal, effective immediately.

The new regulation amends 68A-12.002 General Methods of Taking Game; Prohibitions by striking “silencer equipped” from the language. With the enactment of the new regulation, Florida becomes the 33rd state to allow hunters to use legally possessed suppressors in the field for all game animals. suppressorMapEarlier this year, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana all enacted similar pro-suppressor hunting reform. Of the 34 states in which suppressor hunting is legal, Montana is now the only state which restricts their use to certain types of animals. Read more

Firearms, Hunting

Federal Investigations to Proceed on Operation Choke Point

This from the NRA

DOJ-Investigation-Large As we reported last month, a coalition of congressional representatives led by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer  (R-Mo.) had requested internal investigators at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to conduct formal inquiries into Operation Choke Point, as well as any officials and staff involved in the program.  Rep. Luetkemeyer is now reporting that those requests have been granted.  According to his press release announcing the decisions, “The correspondence I received from the FDIC and DOJ is a great first step in ensuring that those responsible for Operation Choke Point are held accountable and that Congress and the American people receive details and answers they deserve.” Over the past year, we have reported at length on the abuses of Operation Choke Point, an enforcement program involving DOJ and FDIC (among other agencies) that claims to target financial fraud, but in reality is being used to choke off banking services to legitimate, although politically-disfavored, businesses.  These businesses include retailers of firearms and ammunition, a number of which have found their banking relationships abruptly severed with little or no explanation and without reference to anything the individual businesses did or did not do.  Earlier this year, a congressional report based on examination of nearly 900 internal DOJ documents found that the operation’s adverse effect on legitimate businesses was not merely an unintended side-effect but the outcome of a deliberate attempt to target entire business sectors that, while legal, were deemed objectionable by regulators. Many questions about the program remain, including who decided which business sectors should be targeted, the extent of coordination between the agencies involved, and who within the Obama administration knew of or encouraged the activity.  The forthcoming investigations should hopefully shed light on these and other important issues.  What is clear is that DOJ and FDIC have a lot of explaining to do. Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

Terra-Firma Tactics – Hunting Whitetails from the Ground

It was prime-time for rattling so I proceeded to impersonate my best rendition of “two bucks fighting over a hot doe.” Glancing left, I noticed a wary doe and her fawn that I hadn’t seen and all I had done was alerted them to my position. Since she was only twenty yards away, I immediately stopped and became a “statue” of some goofy dude with a bow. She started doing that high-step walk in my direction (which I think in the whitetails’ world means, “I know something is awry but I’m going to play along anyhow) to gain the advantage of the wind. She came within inches (literally) of the blind and stood behind it. I could hear her breathing, but wanted to see.

I stretched one of the windows open a quarter inch to peak out and see whether I’d blown the whole deal or if she would calm down and go about her business. I was paying too much attention to the doe because when I turned around, thirty yards away stood possibly the largest whitetail I have ever seen (body size) standing in the tall grass with his head down. It was one of the moments when you say to yourself “Holy cow!” I slowly picked up my bow and the buck picked up his head. I was expecting to see huge “headgear” but this buck was strange. He had a weird, high 4×4 “crown” and the main beams almost touched in front. Obviously this was a mature buck so I was going to shoot despite the “antler air-shrinkage.” A double-lung hit toppled the buck within sight. Read more

Hunting

DNR reminder: Snowmobile use permissible now, but state trails on private property remain closed until Dec. 1

With heavy snow on the ground in the Upper Peninsula and parts of the northern Lower Peninsula, the Department of Natural Resources reminds snowmobilers that while state trails on private property remain closed to riding until Monday, Dec. 1, other areas are currently open for snowmobile use.

 

“We’re hearing from hunters and snowmobilers, wondering if they can legally use snowmobiles to reach their hunting camps or to just get out and ride earlier than normal,” said DNR District 1 law supervisor Lt. Peter Wright. “There are many areas where riding is allowed before Dec. 1, with additional exceptions in place for hunters trying to reach their camps.” Read more

General, Hunting

Unpacking the HSUS Gravy Train (2014 Edition)

The 2013 tax return of the deceptively named Humane Society of the United States, which was just filed this week, tells a familiar story: While dogs and cats fill up HSUS’s ads, the organization gives little money to pet shelters while wasting a pretty penny.

Only about 1%—one penny on the dollar—of HSUS’s $120 million budget is grants going to support pet sheltering. Local humane societies, despite having a similar name to HSUS, are not affiliated with HSUS, a common misconception among the public and HSUS donors.

Some good news is that HSUS’s contributions from the public were essentially stagnant. Based on HSUS’s annual report—which was released in May—it appears that general contributions to HSUS are down, but this is offset by an increase in bequests. Do your parents or grandparents have HSUS in their will by accident?

Here are some key points of what we’ve seen: Read more

Animal Rights

Understanding Your Right to Self-Defense – This Week on Gun Talk® Radio

Mandeville, LA – It’s a new book from famed trainer Massad Ayoob, building a customized AR, and more, this week on Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk® Radio, the original nationally-syndicated radio talk show about guns and the shooting sports.

Massad Ayoob has authored more than a dozen books on firearms and self-defense topics, including Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection. He visits Gun Talk on Sunday to discuss the very latest book, Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self Defense, which discusses the legal, ethical, social and psychological issues of using lethal force in self-defense. Purchase a copy at Amazon, http://amzn.to/1vtH27k, and find out more at http://massadayoobgroup.com/. Read more

Firearms, Self Defense

FMG Online Takes A First Look At The Taurus Curve

In a GUNS Magazine online-only article, Mark Kakkuri reviews Taurus’ new Curve, a pistol with a curved frame to enhance concealed carry.

“Taurus Manufacturing has officially released the Curve, a small, polymer .380 pistol with a distinct curved frame, meant to comfortably wrap around your hip or thigh when carrying inside the waistband or in a pocket, respectively,” writes Kakkuri. “We always talked of ‘dressing around your gun.’ Now we have a gun that’s wrapping around you.” The article can be found at www.gunsmagazine.com/exclusive-curve-ahead. Read more

Firearms
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