OK, so this whole idea that "we're giving fuel to the people who can take our rights away" just pisses me off no end! There are no "people who can take our rights away" EXCEPT US! This whole "push a pencil through the Constitution" and "the opposition can restrict our rights" and "we have to be careful not to get all up in the face of them" etc etc is WRONG...... It's un-American. And stupid.
On the world stage there are words for it, and these words are "appeasement" and "negotiation" and they are buzzwords of the "control freaks" referred to. We need to STAND UP!
("we don't negotiate with terrorists!" anyone??? Does ANYONE have a memory??)
I'm on thin ice here regarding the "No Politics!" policy but hear me out. This is a SHOOTING issue and has become a HUNTING issue here in my state.
So here's where this "negotiation" has placed me in my state.
I am a licensed and certified Hunter Education Instructor. An unpaid employee of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. I have spent 20yrs and ~ $50,000.00 setting up my property as a place where we can teach Hunter Ed. I've got a 1400sq ft of dedicated classroom in my shop. It's used for nothing else except that the kids sometimes set it up for LAN parties..... That's bigger than 4 of the homes I've raised my family in over the years! Bathroom facilities, fire escape, a legal classroom. I won't go so far as to say "I've dedicated my life to teaching Hunter Ed", but this is no casual commitment to our youth. Our class and another also hold Range Days in my yard. My property is set up as a range. It's not open to the public but it's a legal place upon which to hold WDFW and NRA shooting venues.
So, 2 years ago we voted in a law here in our state which makes it ILLEGAL for our WDFW-sponsored classes to be held! The State Attorney General then gave us "special dispensation" orders placing us "above the law"...... of course I balked. Big time. But we're still holding classes. I'm close, but I haven't quite yet decided to cave in and just say EFF it.
I haven't hunted for years..... but I still believe it to be integral to our heritage.
NOW..... we just did it AGAIN! Only worser..... I got a letter in the mail last week from WDFW. An email actually, sent out to all us (thousands of) volunteers.
I'm going to include a small snippet. It's a "private" email from a specific representative of WDFW to me/us.....but the WDFW is a public entity, I'm not violating any privacy clauses. This statement simply states as follows:
"I want to let you know that, as you might expect, WDFW does not believe the hunter education curriculum meets the initiative’s required training elements. In addition, we will not be actively seeking to modify our curriculum to meet the required training elements in the initiative. "
Now that there's a fine piece of verbiage.
I'm not going to try "explain it" nor to list the implications because anyone too bleeding stupid to figger out what's being said/implied/referenced is PART OF THE PROBLEM!
I want to thank Macropod our member from Oz for an outside view...... YES FOLKS, that's where we're headed as shooters if we don't pull our collective heads out of our figurative butts and STAND UP!
Sorry to all if this gets this thread wiped out, but this ain't "politics" to me, it's survival as a shooter dedicated to passing it on to my heirs.
It's For The Kids!
LOL
wrong crowd eh
BTW, for alla' you'se who don't know what "Pittman-Robertson Act" means, PLEASE go look it up. Our Goob'mint agency is the richest in the nation and they're starting to appropriate funds from it to be used against shooters.......funds generated by firearms sales.
11% of all sporting purchases is A LOT of money folkses!
Think I'ma' go blow something up...... just . . . . . cuz.....
On the world stage there are words for it, and these words are "appeasement" and "negotiation" and they are buzzwords of the "control freaks" referred to. We need to STAND UP!
("we don't negotiate with terrorists!" anyone??? Does ANYONE have a memory??)
I'm on thin ice here regarding the "No Politics!" policy but hear me out. This is a SHOOTING issue and has become a HUNTING issue here in my state.
So here's where this "negotiation" has placed me in my state.
I am a licensed and certified Hunter Education Instructor. An unpaid employee of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. I have spent 20yrs and ~ $50,000.00 setting up my property as a place where we can teach Hunter Ed. I've got a 1400sq ft of dedicated classroom in my shop. It's used for nothing else except that the kids sometimes set it up for LAN parties..... That's bigger than 4 of the homes I've raised my family in over the years! Bathroom facilities, fire escape, a legal classroom. I won't go so far as to say "I've dedicated my life to teaching Hunter Ed", but this is no casual commitment to our youth. Our class and another also hold Range Days in my yard. My property is set up as a range. It's not open to the public but it's a legal place upon which to hold WDFW and NRA shooting venues.
So, 2 years ago we voted in a law here in our state which makes it ILLEGAL for our WDFW-sponsored classes to be held! The State Attorney General then gave us "special dispensation" orders placing us "above the law"...... of course I balked. Big time. But we're still holding classes. I'm close, but I haven't quite yet decided to cave in and just say EFF it.
I haven't hunted for years..... but I still believe it to be integral to our heritage.
NOW..... we just did it AGAIN! Only worser..... I got a letter in the mail last week from WDFW. An email actually, sent out to all us (thousands of) volunteers.
I'm going to include a small snippet. It's a "private" email from a specific representative of WDFW to me/us.....but the WDFW is a public entity, I'm not violating any privacy clauses. This statement simply states as follows:
"I want to let you know that, as you might expect, WDFW does not believe the hunter education curriculum meets the initiative’s required training elements. In addition, we will not be actively seeking to modify our curriculum to meet the required training elements in the initiative. "
Now that there's a fine piece of verbiage.
I'm not going to try "explain it" nor to list the implications because anyone too bleeding stupid to figger out what's being said/implied/referenced is PART OF THE PROBLEM!
I want to thank Macropod our member from Oz for an outside view...... YES FOLKS, that's where we're headed as shooters if we don't pull our collective heads out of our figurative butts and STAND UP!
Sorry to all if this gets this thread wiped out, but this ain't "politics" to me, it's survival as a shooter dedicated to passing it on to my heirs.
It's For The Kids!
LOL
wrong crowd eh

BTW, for alla' you'se who don't know what "Pittman-Robertson Act" means, PLEASE go look it up. Our Goob'mint agency is the richest in the nation and they're starting to appropriate funds from it to be used against shooters.......funds generated by firearms sales.
11% of all sporting purchases is A LOT of money folkses!
Think I'ma' go blow something up...... just . . . . . cuz.....