Conservation Funding Could Become Casualty of Gun-Control Battle

[Ben Lamb]

Thought you guys might like this.

http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/su...ding-could-become-casualty-gun-control-battle

Ten bills were introduced on the first day of the 113th Congressional session that deal with firearms. Most of those seek to ban certain modern sporting rifles and restrict magazine capacity. In the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings it shouldn’t be a surprise to see gun bans and other anti-gun legislation being brought forward. It’s also no surprise that Second Amendment advocacy groups are fighting hard to stop this new legislation.

But there’s another facet to this story we all must consider: how all of these severely restrictive guns laws, if passed, would influence our public land access and conservation funding. Most folks don’t seem to realize that banning AR-15s would severely erode funding for popular access programs paid for by Pittman-Robertson funds.

 

[1_pointer]

It might be interesting to see who voices opinions on gun control considering the variety of oxes that might be gored...

 

[NChunter]

The gun market is going strong, even in this bad economy. So of course they want to kill it. Our politicians make no sense to me.

 

[shoots-straight]

Thanks for the insight Ben. I'll pass that along.

 

[shoots-straight]

Ben, do you have any stats on how many AR were sold in the US last year. Just for a figure to see what really is at stake.

 

[stillkickin]

Ben

Thanks for pointing this out, too many times folks do not look at the complete picture!

 

[Ben Lamb]

Ben, do you have any stats on how many AR were sold in the US last year. Just for a figure to see what really is at stake.

Not offhand. One thing that I really didn't cover was ammunition sales and handguns. To get a better picture of what that means, I'd look at the PR funding from 2007 and compare it to 2008. There was a significant increase in funding during that time frame, IIRC.

 

[sreekers]

If the funding increase was big then, imagine what it will be with the run we have going now.

 

[smarandr]

Just spent $275 on a soon-to-be-assault-rifle Ruger 10/22. By my bar napkin math that's more than $25 towards Pittman-Robertson funding. Coincidentally $25 is a yearly membership to the NRA; I'll leave it to the Hunt Talk jury to decide where the money is better spent.