NRAHuntersRights.org – Defending Your Freedom To Hunt
Stay informed about the escalating threats to hunters’ rights, and learn what NRA is doing to defend your freedom to hunt.
Fairfax, Virginia – -(AmmoLand.com)- AmmoLand.com’s featured Gun Blog of the Month of February 2010, is NRAHuntersRights.org.
The right to keep and bear arms if closely linked to the right to hunt. Yet many hunters fail to appreciate the danger of losing their rights to hunt because of a pending gun law.
The reverse is true of many gun owners that are quick to leap to the defense of their RTKABA but take a wait and see posture when hunters rights come into question.
To take it one steps further the ability to manage and conserve our natural wildlife is ultimately dependent on the ability of hunters to remove game and keep animal populations in balance. Simply put without Hunters we have no conservation only the flawed science of preservation.
One blog at the fore front of this fight to protect hunters rights is NRAHuntersRights.org . Take a moment and get to know the folks fighting for your rights.
NRAHuntersRights.org Blog Interview:
Q: What is your Blog’s Official Name?
A: The name is “Hunter’s Blog” and it appears as part of the website: www.nrahuntersrights.org. We also have a “Discussion Forum” where we introduce a topic, stand back and let hunters weigh in on it.Q: How many people work on the NRA Hunters Rights Blog or what is the organizational structure?
A: There are two main bloggers, and occasionally we allow a “guest blog.”Q: What are the names of the writers or contributors to the NRA Hunters Rights Blog?
A: I (J.R. Robbins) am Managing Editor and I am helped by Assistant Editor Justin McDaniel. I have been with NRA for 26 years, including stints on American Hunter Magazine, InSights (NRA’s junior magazine) and as Manager of Communications for NRA Programs. After years of writing how-tos and where-tos, I realized how much threats to hunting are escalating in this country and devoted myself to speaking out against these threats, and promoting what NRA does for hunters. I mostly hunt deer, antelope, black bears, ducks, geese, pheasants, grouse, quail and woodcock.Justin has been with NRA for four years, the last two of which have been spent working on www.nrahuntersrights.org. Before joining my staff, Justin also spent two years in our Communications Department helping to promote NRA Programs. He is a lifelong hunter and NRA Member and returns to his home state of Pennsylvania as often as possible to hunt deer, turkeys, and a variety of small game.
Q: Does each person have a specialty or area of interest that they focus on?
A: We blog about anything that affects hunters’ rights. This could include ridiculous media statements about hunting or smacking down false information communicated by anti-hunting groups. We expose the bureaucracy that inhibits hunters’ access to public lands and makes hunting too expensive and too burdened with paperwork and blizzards of red tape. The number of hunters in this country is declining. We need to make hunting more accessible and less complicated, especially for newcomers, to reverse that trend.Q: Where is the NRA Hunters Rights Blog located? A: The exact url is: https://www.nrahuntersrights.org/blog/Default.aspx. To find the Discussion Forum, go to www.nrahuntersrights.org, and scroll down about halfway. The forum is on the left side.
Q: What is the point of view or purpose of your blog?
A: Through the Hunters’ Blog and the Discussion Forum we make hunters aware of escalating threats to hunting, what NRA is doing about them, and we stimulate discussion from hunters on these topics. It is imperative that hunters become more informed and vocal about these issues. We need more hunters showing up at public hearings and taking part in public comment periods on issues that affect hunting. You can bet the anti-hunters are showing up at these meetings and sending in comments on many hunting issues.Q: How long has your Blog been active?
A: Both the Hunters Blog and the Discussion Forum have been up since November 2008.Q: Do you have a specific agenda or goal of the NRA Hunters Rights Blog?
A: While defending the Second Amendment will always be NRA’s first priority, 80 percent of our members hunt, and every issue that’s important to hunters is important to us-especially access to hunting lands and retention/expansion of hunters’ gun rights.One goal of the blog is to make people more aware of what NRA does for hunters-we have nationally known youth and women’s hunting programs and we are involved in legislation that affects hunters at every level of government. NRA-backed Open Fields and No-Net-Loss legislation work to get hunters access to private and public hunting lands.
We work with several federal agencies to expand access to federal lands and to keep public shooting ranges open. We’ve helped pass “Right to Hunt” Constitutional amendments in 10 states. We’ve supported youth-mentored hunting laws and fought attempts to ban hunting for doves, bears, wolves, prairie dogs and other species. There’s a lot more, but you get the idea.
Q: Do you have any other digital sites?
A: The Hunters’ Blog is part of www.nrahuntersrights.org. We launched this site late in 2007. This site offers links to outside headlines, gear write-ups, a monthly Gift Giveaway, links to other hunting resources, and several ways to find state/federal public hunting lands and even a state list of guides and outfitters.There is also a Trophy Gallery where we post photos of hunters and their downed game.
Q: What is the biggest issue facing hunters today that most concerns you?
A: It has become too difficult for the average guy to find a place to hunt, or even to find a range where he can sight-in, practice marksmanship, or teach his kids to shoot. Fighting to keep ranges open, and to protect and expand hunter access to private and public lands is our most important-and most difficult-challenge. Access to hunting land is directly connected to the number of hunters. If the number of hunters continues to spiral downward, it threatens the very existence of the tradition of hunting.Plus, it means even more revenue lost for wildlife conservation. It’s hunters who pay for wildlife management in this country.
Q: What is one thing that you want AmmoLand Shooting Sports News readers to know about the NRA Hunters Rights Blog?
A: The Hunters’ Blog and the Discussion Forum are two very visible places where your opinion can be heard! We want your voice on this site!Q: What was the best thing done on the NRA Hunters Rights Blog that got the most reaction from your readers?
A: In November, a California high school student was expelled for having two unloaded shotguns locked in his off-campus truck. He had the guns because he had gone bird hunting before school. People were outraged.Q: What was the worst thing you did on your blog that go the most reaction from your readers?
A: No one thing comes to mind, but it is true that some hunting issues can be divisive. Even so, we want to hear from all hunters and make sure we understand their point of view.Q: What do you think the outlook is for the future of gun rights or in you case hunter rights in America?
A: We have battles ahead and hunters must be informed and active in those battles. Restrictions on traditional [lead] ammunition are being pushed hard by anti-hunting groups. As America continues to become more urbanized, more hunting lands are lost, and more restrictions on guns are called for by new residents of areas previously open to shooting and hunting. And it’s not just fringe anti-hunting groups we face today, either.It’s well-funded, radical environmental groups that would block hunters’ access to public lands, and sympathetic media who trumpet their cause.
Q: Of the topics you cover what do you enjoy writing about the most?
A: Hunting is in my blood, and to have slowly evolved from writing “Ten Hot Spots for a Tree Stand” to “Abysmal Harvest Angers Wisconsin Hunters” has been an enjoyable, and meaningful, process.Q: What things would you like to do or expand on in the NRA Hunters Rights Blog in the future?
A: I would like to open up the Hunters’ Blog to more typical hunters who have an informed opinion on a hunting issue they would like to share.Q: What would you like to say to those that are anti hunting or maybe just unsure of the purpose of hunting and guns in our society today?
A: Hunting is an essential wildlife management tool. Decisions about hunting should be based on solid science researched by qualified wildlife biologists.Hunting decisions cannot be made based on emotion, politics or personal agendas. Hunters are the original conservationists, and without us, many species would never have come back from near-extinction at the beginning of this century.
Q: What parting remarks or comments you would like to make or promote?
A: Hunters tend not to get riled up and active until hunting is threatened in their own favorite spot. At that point, it’s often too late. Stay informed about issues anywhere that could affect a hunter’s rights, and get active in opposing them.
Visit: NRAHuntersRights.org