Sportsmen protest Bush admin roadless policy

[montana500]

More public land stories like this updated daily at www.wilderness-sportsman.com


http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?aid=/20060305/news01/603050313&searchid=73237585062105

"
HELENA — About 50 people from around Montana walked nearly seven miles Saturday, starting on country roads and ending up on city streets, to let Gov. Brian Schweitzer know how important it is to them to keep more roads from being built within the state's national forests.

"I do not want to leave our new grandson with a legacy of a Montana indistinguishable from Detroit, Newark or Los Angeles," Kathy Hadley of the Montana Wildlife Federation told the group of blaze-orange-vested and camouflage-jacketed walkers after they arrived at the Capitol.



The group was protesting President George W. Bush's repeal of the Clinton Administration's 2001 ban on roads and development in roadless areas of national forests. Bush gave the states until November to submit requests on how they'd like the government to deal with those areas. '

[Hubert Flottz]

1. Too bad the hunters voted for this.

They have nobody to blame but the NRA and their own ignorance! Their rush to judgment, cost us our entire country. Al Gore said he didn't want to take the hunter's guns, but they believed Moses and the Bungling Bush.

Chop it ALL down and let GAWD sort it out!

[montana500]

6. You are right.

There is no doubt about that.

[benEzra]

11. "The hunter's guns" weren't the problem and never have been...

it's the people who want to take the guns of the 80% of gun owners who DON'T HUNT that are the problem.

It's positions like, for example, banning civilian rifles and shotguns with protruding handgrips, or banning all civilian firearms that hold more than 10 rounds, that hurt the party among gun owners--not imaginary concerns about somebody confiscating Grandpa's old .30-30.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. The NRA came here telling people the democrats wanted to ...

take all the guns! I know democrats who voted for Bush in 2000, because of the gun issue! The NRA was here in WV several times preaching that shit and the fools bought it. They believed Moses instead of Al Gore.

[benEzra]

13. My point was that HUNTING guns are not the issue...

which is why Gore's support for hunting, though loud and clear, did little or nothing to ameliorate the criticism he received on the gun issue.

Few if any gun owners seriously believed that Gore, or Kerry, wanted to ban ALL guns. The problem was, both Gore and Kerry publicly supported banning many nonhunting guns (civilian rifles and shotguns with protruding handgrips; civilian pistols and rifles holding more than 10 rounds; etc.). Think about that in the context of the following statistic: 80% of gun owners do not hunt. EIGHTY PERCENT. Of that group, most own guns primarily for defensive purposes and recreational target shooting.

Of the 1 in 5 gun owners who does hunt, a substantial number--probably a majority--also own nonhunting guns. So the "talk-up-hunting-while-fighting-to-ban-nonhunting-guns" strategy dreamed up by the anti-gun lobby and pushed by the DLC in 2000 and 2004 was a guaranteed disaster from the start.

More thoughts on the issue (from this gun-owning nonhunter) in this DU thread: Democrats and the Gun Issue--Now What?

And from a rural Virginian who is also a member of DU: Alienated Rural Democrat

The problem is, many legislators understand neither guns, existing Federal and state gun law, or the demographics of gun owners (half of gun owners are NOT repubs, 80% are nonhunters, 1 in 4 Dems nationally is a gun owner and at least that many independents, and the percentage of gun-owning Dems and indies is much higher than the national average in most swing states). Ignorance of Federal gun law, gun technology, and gun owner demographics, due to bad campaign staff work or whatever, is a huge handcap for many urban legislators.

[Skidmore]

2. You know who wanted road into the forest, don't you?

Cheney, so he could drive to his hunt.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. What do they hunt in the kinds of forests Cheney wants?

Clear Cut Wasteland.



I hope the NRA is happy!

[formercia]

8. Shade

It gets very hot out in the open on a bright Summer day.

[Hubert Flottz]

10. Ain't that the truth!

The critters is cooked by the time you spot them!

[Hubert Flottz]

4. Logging the Virgin Forests of West Virginia

Here is what they did before the timber industry was regulated and they will do it again if they can.

http://www.patc.net/history/archive/virg_fst.html

you can "Trust Them" about as far as you can trust Bush. After the timber is gone, then comes the fires and the floods, but by then the big lumber companies that made all the money, are long gone and the taxpayers pay for the massive damage to property.

[formercia]

5. Porbably 95% of them are NRA Republicans

told you so. See you in November.

[blindpig]

7. Better late than never.

Here is a way of peeling away some of those red state votes that the "moderates" are so hot for without having to sell one's soul. Win-win, as they say.

[Coexist]

9. I have always been of the mind that hunters and environmentalists

should be natural allies.