Two Bills Harming Sporting Dog Breeders Stopped
As 2008 drew to a close, the USSA added to its victories with two wins in Ohio. Two bills that represented threats to sporting dog breeders were stopped cold due to an intense lobbying and grassroots effort by the USSA.
COLUMBUS, OH – Ohio deer hunters have donated more than 33,550 pounds of venison to local food banks so far this deer season, according to Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (FHFH) and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.
The 33,550 pounds equals approximately 134,000 meals for needy Ohioans. Last year FHFH collected 20,902 pounds of venison through the entire year. With 17 of the 27 FHFH chapters reporting, 671 deer have been donated so far with plenty of deer hunting opportunity left in the 2008-09 season.
“The confluence of economic events over the past year have stressed charities to keep up as more people in crisis turn to our network for help. This partnership means our food pantries will receive the nutritious meat they so desperately need to feed their needy neighbors,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
Hunters just completed a weekend of deer-gun hunting, and thre are still six weeks of archery hunting in Ohio. Archery season remains open until February 1. The statewide muzzleloader deer-hunting season will be held December 27-30.
COLUMBUS, OH – Hunters killed 16,382 deer on December 20-21, during the weekend of gun hunting, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.
The extra weekend of gun hunting was first offered in 2006 in response to hunters’ request for additional weekend days to pursue white-tailed deer, the state’s number one big game animal. In 2007, hunters took 17,710 deer during those two days, but icy conditions and an arctic wind was likely a deterrent factor for many hunters who still had tags to fill this year.
By Jeff Knox
Barack Obama’s nomination of Eric Holder to be the Attorney General demands an immediate and unequivocal response from gunowners and rights advocates and that response should be “Absolutely Not!”
Holder’s appointment to be AG must be approved by the Senate. While it is highly unlikely that opponents could muster the 51 votes needed to reject Holder’s appointment, a single Senator can place a “hold” on the confirmation and effectively lock up the system just as Democrats did with a number of President Bush’s judicial appointments and the appointment of John Bolton to be Ambassador to the UN. Once a “Hold” has been placed, a supermajority of 60 votes is required to break the hold. With enough vocal opposition to Holder’s confirmation, Obama could be forced to withdraw the nomination and select someone else to be his AG. Even if opponents cannot successfully block Holder’s appointment, a strong and concerted effort to do so will go far toward warning the Obama administration and the new Congress against trying to interfere with the rights of Americans to own guns.
Taken from the most recent “Page Nine” Alan Korwin’s “The Uninvited Ombudsman Report”
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OBAMA WANTS YOU
In an extraordinary outreach effort, the president-elect is actively soliciting input from special-interest groups with no holds barred. Shockingly, not a single firearms group has responded (there are 39 pages just listing groups that have filed reports). Have we become so set in our fears that we might fail to ask our president for those values and laws that more than half the country would want? Reach out to your local and national pro-rights groups and make your voice heard. The president-elect’s website is loaded with opportunities, but they mean nothing if we don’t use them. I’m working on a proposal, will release it soon. Go here to start yourself:
http://change.gov/open_government/yourseatatthetable
By Jeff Riley
A letter to the editor published by the Columbus Dispatch on Dec 19, 2008 by Dave Roden begins with this headline:
“No one should need gun in national park”
Tell that to Meredith Emerson…the 24 year-old woman whose body was found decapitated days after going missing on New Year’s Day 2008.
Buckeye Firearms Assocation volunteer Bob Harsanje and Vice Chairman Chad Baus were on hand recently as the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the development of the Mobility Impaired Hunting Access Area at Lake La Su An Wildlife Area near Montpelier in Williams County.
Remarks were given by ODNR Director Sean Logan, Rep. Peter Ujvagi (D), ODNR Federal Aide Coordinator Philip King, and ODNR, Division of Wildlife Chief David Graham. ODNR, Division of Wildlife District Manager John Daugherty served as Master of Ceremonies, and the Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation was offered by ODNR, Division of Wildlife Officer Thomas Kochert.
Skip Markland, Regional Director of the National Wildlife Turkey Federation, and representatives from Pheasants Forever, Williams County Chapter and were also among those in attendance.
This event came as a result of passage of Senate Bill 209, which addressed issues that Buckeye Firearms Association volunteer Bob Harsanje and Region Leader Larry S. Moore had been working on together for some time.
The Associated Press is reporting that after a year of accolades that followed her shooting of a gunman who killed two teenage sisters at her church, concealed handgun license-holder Jeanne Assam remains “low key” and says she thinks of the family of gunman Matthew Murray.
By Brian Darling A conservative senator would be a true American hero if he or she would put a hold on — i.e., threaten to filibuster — the nomination of Eric Holder…
Governor Ted Strickland, a former Buckeye Firearms Association endorsee, finished off his second year as governor by signing yet another pro-gun bill into law.
According to his website, the Governor signed Rep. Bruce Goodwin’s Am. Sub. House Bill 450 into law on January 6, 2009.
Rep. Goodwin was the primary sponsor of the legislation, which lifts a state law which banned members of the armed services or the Ohio National Guard who are under 21 and have received firearms training from purchasing or possessing a handgun. The bill also clarifies the residency criterion for the concealed handgun license (CHL), and also clarifies that any previously issued CHL that has not been revoked is prima-facie evidence that a licensee at one time had a competency certification.