shooting bans Archives -

Committee Hearings Today On HR 4089 – Sportsman’s Heritage Act Of 2012

The House Natural Resources Committee is holding hearings today on H.R. 4089, the Sportman’s Heritage Act. Included in the bill are significant protections for access to Federally-owned public land for the purposes of recreational shooting.

The NSSF is asking people to contact the committee and urge the passage of this bill out of committee.

The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources is expected to vote later TODAY on the “Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012″ (H.R. 4089).

The bill combines four legislative priorities that will expand recreational hunting, shooting and fishing opportunities while also protecting the firearms and ammunition industries from detrimental regulations under the Environmental Protection Agency.

NSSF urges that you call the House Natural Resources Committee IMMEDIATELY and urge members of the committee to support H.R. 4089. Call the Republican Committee Staff at 202-225-2761. Call the Democrat Committee Staff at 202-225-6065. Readers can also help by sharing this blog post on Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets.

Included in H.R. 4089 is the Hunting, Fishing, and Recreational Shooting Protection Act, which is the firearms industry’s top legislative priority. The bill amends the Toxic Substances Control Act to clarify the original intent of Congress to exclude traditional ammunition with lead components from regulation by the EPA, and also excludes fishing tackle from the EPA’s jurisdiction. The bill is a response to anti-hunting and fishing organizations, as well as extreme environmental groups, that are actively seeking to ban these products even though wildlife populations have not been negatively impacted by their use. Banning traditional ammunition will drive the cost of ammunition up by as much as 190 percent and curtail wildlife conservation funding supported by the sale of ammunition. For more information about the critical importance of this bill, click here.

H.R. 4089 includes other key legislative priorities of the sportsmen’s community:

The Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage Opportunities Act, which requires federal land managers to support and facilitate use and access for hunting, fishing and recreational shooting.
The Recreational Shooting Protection Act, which requires National Monument land to be open to access and use for recreational shooting.
The Polar Bear Conservation and Fairness Act, which will allow the importation of polar bear parts taken in a sport hunt in Canada, if legally harvested before certain dates.

In addition to calling the staff on both sides of the House Natural Resources Committee, it is important that you also call your Congressman/woman (202-224-3121) to urge them to support H.R. 4089.

My congressman, Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC-11), is one of the co-sponsors of the bill. While there are a number of things I disagree with Heath about, he has always stood solid on Second Amendment issues as well as hunting and fishing. He is not going to seek reelection and I just hope the Republican contenders will be as solid on the Second Amendment as he has been.

Possible Closure Of 480,000 Or More Acres To Shooting In Arizona

The Arizona Citizens Defense League sent out the following alert last night. I didn’t have time to blog it then but anytime there is a government proposal that could declare 486,000 acres of desert land off-limits to shooting, it is important.

While I live clear across the country from Arizona, what the Federal government does there impacts me just as much as if I lived in Phoenix or Tucson. I am surrounded by Federally-owned land in western North Carolina. Haywood County is approximately 50% Federal land and there are counties west of me where that proportion is even greater. Federal land managers talk to other Federal land managers at conference while eating their $16 muffins.

Here is the alert from AZCDL:

President 0bama promised that he was going to implement efforts to erase your right to bear arms “under the radar.” Now, he’s brought the fight to Arizona.

Using the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the 0bama administration has proposed banning recreational shooting in the half-million acres of Sonoran Desert National Monument.

BLM has released proposed plans for the future management of nearly 1.4 million acres located southwest of Phoenix, in parts of Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, Gila and Yuma Counties. Of that total, over 486,000 acres are within the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The proposals can be found at: http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/son_des.html .

Two of the possible alternatives (“D” and “E”) propose closing the area to recreational shooters. Presently, some 63 sites in the national monument are used by recreational shooters. The proposed plans also address other issues of importance to shooters and hunters, including the designation of roads and trails for motorized vehicles and areas that could be managed as wilderness.

If you ride, hike, hunt or shoot in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, you need to get involved in this planning process!

The public comment period is open through November 25.
Instructions for making comments can be found at: http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/son_des.html .
Comments can be faxed or mailed to BLM, Phoenix District Office.

At the BLM website (http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/son_des.html) you will also find a series of public BLM meetings, being held in October, to discuss the proposal to ban recreational shooting in the Sonoran Desert National Monument. Meetings will be held in Phoenix, Mesa, Casa Grande, Buckeye, Gila Bend and Ajo. We urge you to attend as many of these meetings as possible.

This is not the first time that the BLM has attempted to close an entire national monument to shooters, making no attempt to provide places for and access to shooting sites. The Ironwood National Monument shooting ban was defeated because of the outcry from concerned citizens (you!).

Together, we can defeat the 0bama administration’s proposed Sonoran Desert National Monument shooting ban!

These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization: http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html .

AzCDL – Protecting Your Freedom
http://www.azcdl.org/html/accomplishments.html .

Copyright © 2011 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved.

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