ThinkingAfield.org

By Glen Wunderlich

This season’s brassica food plot is in the ground and with a little cooperation from Mother Nature, the wildlife is in store for some fine eating well into next year.  The seed blend from Ed Spinazzola (www.deerattraction.com) contains a mix of purple top turnips, dwarf Essex rape, biologic maximum and canola and provides essential nutrients to ease stress when winter hits hard.  This annual blend supplements perennial stands of legumes which are available throughout the year.  Often overlooked, however, are natural-occurring plants that can be useful for six, four and two-legged critters alike. Read more

VIDEO: Beau the Wonder Dog

Texas Congressman and GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul continues to champion constitutional rights. His latest endeavor is a bill that would abolish “gun-free zones,” ultimately permitting teachers to carry firearms on school grounds. Predictably, anti-gun groups are calling the legislation “extremist.”

CNS News reports, “H.R. 2613, the Citizens Protection Act of 2011, would repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 and remove all federally created criminal safety zones.”  More here…

 Just as it looked like the growing, recovered population of Western Great Lakes (WGL) gray wolves was going to be taken off the federally endangered species list and returned to state management, a new roadblock threatens long delayed delisting.  This time the hurdle is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) latest proposed Endangered Species Act (ESA) delisting rule inexplicably finding that there are now two separate wolf species roaming Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.  U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Director of Federal Affairs Bill Horn, who is a former Assistant Secretary of the Interior in charge of the FWS and ESA,  joined Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources’ Secretary Cathy Stepp at a press conference last week to challenge the FWS’s two species proposal. Read more

A man legally carrying a concealed handgun thwarted an apparent assault early Saturday morning in Jackson by a woman armed with a tire iron.

The woman, 19, called 911 to report that a man pulled a gun on her, but she ended up going to jail instead, said Jackson police Sgt. Robert Jenks. Read more…

J&G Sales, Ltd. of Prescott, Arizona filed suit in Washington, DC federal court yesterday challenging the “demand letter” requirement placed on firearms dealers in Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). The letter requires the names and addresses and serial numbers of all purchases of more than one semi-automatic rifle, with a detachable magazine, over .22 caliber, within a five-day business period.

Set to go into effect on effective with any purchase made on August 14, 2011 and “going forward” the regulation requires new ATF form (3310.12) be completed and returned to the ATF. The lawsuit challenges the regulation on the grounds that the ATF and the Justice Department have no authority to institute regulations without Congressional authorization. J&G Sales has been joined in the suit by the National Rifle Association.