Free Hunters –The National Hunting Club of America

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quelle: Free Hunters – The National Hunting Club of America

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If you care about hunting now, and especially in the future there's an alarm bell going off. Maybe you've been too busy to notice, too deep in your own backwoods retreat, too focused on other concerns. But that alarm is sounding ever louder, and NRA has gone on alert.

"A massive war is being waged against hunters by anti-gun outfits acting in concert with abusive bureaucrats and suffocating regulations," exclaimed NRA President Kayne Robinson in his address to the Annual Meeting of Members in Pittsburgh on April 17. "The result? Hunters are giving up. They're being driven out of hunting. The noble legacy of hunting, its rich traditions, the lessons for the young it's all being erased from our country's culture. If we allow this assault to continue, we will lose 10 million hunters in America . . . . We would have no political clout."

Got your attention now? If you care about hunting, the news could hardly be more disturbing. Even so, this message from NRA is in fact more Paul Revere than doom and gloom. A call to muster, not a cry of woe. The end of hunting as we know it may be in sight, but we don't ever have to get there.

The cultural war against hunting is a trend NRA is determined to stop. We know firsthand that the values and resourcefulness taught by hunting have been vital to shaping our national character, that our nation will suffer if we allow hunting to be taken from us. We know that hunters comprise a huge segment of American gun owners, and thus are a key part of NRA's family. So in the face of serious and mounting threats to our way of life, the NRA Board of Directors, acting on the recommendation of its Hunting and Wildlife Conservaion Committee, has taken a decisive step to save the future of hunting in America. This unprecedented action will transform our fraternity into a powerful force by uniting millions of hunters in a way never before envisioned. "Make no mistake," says Robinson, "this is not a battle to protect some hobby or sport. It is a fight for freedom that's what "free hunter" means and it's a fight NRA intends to win."

To win, every American who calls himself or herself a hunter must get involved. Will you join the fight to save hunting?

Then you need to know about a new initiative from NRA, the boldest commitment to American hunters in our association's 133-year history. Forming now is Free Hunters – The National Hunting Club of America, whose sole mission is to be the nation's watchdog for hunters.

Free Hunters' Rick Burley points out, "There are lots of hunters organizations out there and they do lots of good promoting certain types of game or hunting. But Free Hunters – The National Hunting Club is the only one fighting to save your right to hunt all over our country, fighting at the federal, state, and local level. That makes us different, the one club all hunters need to join."

In step with the concerns that led to this landmark initiative, Burley identified three immediate goals:

1) Push for more public hunting lands. At a time when public lands play an ever-increasing role in providing places for Americans to hunt, Free Hunters will bring its political savvy to bear whenever our interests are jeopardized. No more wholesale lockouts, as was the case when the Clinton Administration banned maintenance and construction on 59 million acres of national forest, effectively closing off access to million of shooters and hunters. States will be held accountable for how they spend Pittman-Robertson funds–raised through taxes on firearms and hunting gear for the express purpose of providing places to hunt and shoot.

2) Reduce red tape. Bureaucratic piling on from federal and state agencies is driving many hunters out of the sport, most notably hard-working men and women with precious little time to wade through a regulatory maze that grows more complex with each passing season. Examples cited by NRA President Kayne Robinson include: 1) states with shotgun-only deer seasons where you can be arrested just for having a rifle in any area open to deer hunting; or 2) failure to write your Harvest Information Program (H.I.P.) number on your license in some states makes your license invalid, subjecting you to arrest as a poacher.

3) Pass right-to-hunt amendments. Free Hunters will team with NRA-ILA to ensure that all 50 states have constitutional right-to-hunt amendments that preempt anti-hunting laws and bureaucratic roadblocks. Such amendments can help us block backdoor legislative attempts to restrict hunting or emotion-based ballot initiatives that hamstring science-based wildlife management.

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